Recently, I was sitting in a small compound in the heart of southern Kenya. A short distance to my left was this hut. Mama Kakuta was serving hot, sweet milky tea and I started wondering why the hut had fallen into disrepair – and what they did when the time came to build a new one. Everyday life in Merrueshi is full. Mama Kakuta gets up at 6.00 with the dawn and starts the daily routine by reuniting the baby goats (which are kept separately overnight) with the correct mothers. There is then milking, cooking and getting the children ready for school. After they’ve gone, the day is spent taking the goats and cattle to pasture, collecting water and checking on other members of the community as well as seeing to her duties as a community midwife. Later in the day, the livestock have to be gathered once more, checked over and returned to the safety of the compound for the night before food is cooked for the children when they get
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