Mtito Andei, Kenya. Before I go with friend Alex to visit his family (who live in a small village surrounded by fields of still-growing maize) we stop and buy some food to supplement their fast disappearing supplies - maize, beans, oil, salt and sugar. It's not much, but it is a help, until the corn is ready to be picked. If and when the rain comes, that is....
After a 25km ride over a bumpy dirt road, passing and investigating a small local primary school, we arrive at the mud-hut compound. Everyone has a mud hut for sleeping and there's one for cooking and another used as a granary. Then it's time for gift-giving. I bring gifts for his mother, Mama Kivuva, his brothers and the grandchildren (three boys aged 1 to 3 and another, Samuel, born just a month ago). Kayvan, my own little 7-year-old "grandson" here in Australia, has donated some of his toys and one of his T-shirts. His mother Lida also donated lots of kids' T-shirts. The language you hear is kikamba, used extensively in this part of Kenya.

We bring a mini DVD player so the family can see and listen to kikamba music, downloaded from KZread. Kayvan has sung Twinkle on KZread for years now, but here he sings again, so the kids can see him.
The visit - and later, a visit to the local river that supplies the family with water -is a magical experience. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...