Coming Full Circle - Kenya 2026, Blog post #13

Today marks exactly one year since we held the memorial for Val. I thought it was time to share what that meant to our friends in Kenya and wrap up this series about our trip. 

One afternoon when we were out at Anyoraa, our friend Izzo’s safari camp, he took us on a tour of the grounds and explained some of the projects he’d like to build in the future. Beehives, a tree house, a restaurant around the pizza oven he’s already built, upgrading the chicken coop we built seven years ago, a car wash, a day care center for the women working at the water bottling plant, and a vertical vegetable garden.

 The wastewater from the bottling plant next door would continually water the plants in the vertical garden. Currently, much of the precious water is just running off on the ground. It’s good water, but because it has been used in the bottling process, it is not good enough to bottle.

Weeks before our trip, I had told Izzo that we had money left from Val’s memorials which we wanted to donate to one of his projects. When we finally had the chance to sit down and talk to Izzo about the money, he offered to build the vertical garden in her memory and call it Val’s Garden. Of all his projects, he thought this one could be completed in a timely manner.

A few weeks after we got home, on the one-year anniversary of learning of my daughter’s death, Izzo sent me pictures of the completed garden. Life always manages to come full circle. This garden belongs to all of you who gave money during that impossible time in our lives last year. Thank you so much.

The last very special thing our friends in Kenya did in Val’s memory was to have this portrait painted. It will hang in the volunteer house where she spent so many hours working to help the people of her adopted country.