There may be drought in other parts of Kenya, but in the Daraja area there have been record rains. On Friday morning, the river that flows near the Daraja campus overflowed its banks for the first time since 1997 after the water level raised about 16 feet higher than usual. The bridge that connects the Daraja campus and several other communities with the nearest large town was flooded. Traffic was stopped in both directions for several hours on an especially busy day; Dol-Dol, one of the villages past Daraja, holds its market on Fridays. We also heard about a car that was washed off a bridge near Dol Dol. Everyone on board was rescued.

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The water level was about 16 feet higher than usual, trucks headed to a local market were held up for several hours

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Unfortunately, the smaller footbridge built this summer to connect the community with the nearest village was washed away. Small family farms were destroyed by the flood, and Daraja’s water pump isn’t working because of the amount of silt stirred up in the river and the pump’s motor is partially covered in water. Since the girls are home for the holidays, the campus water usage is quite low – head of maintenance Peter Rutere says we just have to wait for the water levels to go down before we can start pumping from the river again.

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Teacher Joseph, Coach Dorcas, Andy Harley, Mr. Charles, Peter Rutere and Chef Symon check out the situation at the water pump