A Job Well Done Is Done How (Silver Jubilee)

Dear Fish Members

I must take this opportunity to congratulate you for the job well done, this is a very big achievement given that we have done it without help from anybody else. Every since that was used in the jubilee was donated by the Fish members and we did not have to rely on a foreign donor somewhere to give the money. I have been following the contributions the members have been making both in the chain e-mail and the blog and I must say that am proud to be linked to this great group.

Now we have done this and we can look back and see our achievements and failures. The challenge now is where do we go from here? should we lie dormant only to wake up again in time to do a golden jubilee or do keep active and revive some of the projects and activities that have stalled. I must say that despite the little activities that have been going on there are a lot that the current active young Fish members have been doing for example seeing that the less privileged children are helped to go to school and make something of their lives. Thanks to Richard Obudho and co for the good work and for the many success stories that can be narrated with happy endings.

I was very happy to read that Mzee Adoyo is still very active in the Fish. He is one old man who stood by us no matter what happened. In 1985 we approached Mzee Adoyo to be our Fish guardian in Magadi Boys Fish group he agreed and worked tirelessly with us. We got into a few problems but he always stood by us and give 101% in effort and support. We needed to raise some money to buy costumes for the Traditional Dance so we brainstormed and come up with ideas that we could use to raise to money. One idea that was popular with the youth but unpopular with the elderly was to organise a disco overnight in Magadi Centre Hall we approached Mzee Adoyo being the chairman of the Magadi Small Christian Community and he gave us the authority to use the Hall for a disco. This got us all into trouble and Father Tony was summoned to the Bishop's office to explain why his youth did such a 'sucrelegius' act in the house of God where christians meet everyday to speak to their Creator. When Mzee Adoyo was approached the answer was simply "We uru nyithindo omiel hesco onge gimagitimo marach miel bende en ranyisi mar pako ruoth". Am glad he is still with us and still gives his all to the Fish.

Now guys where do we go from here? what next? from the correspondence of last year majority said that he whole year was being dedicated to the silver jubilee with activities running all year. I hope we are thinking of organising sports day in August or end of July as was suggested. If so I may be able to take part in athlete tics with my sons God willing. Also are we thinking of reviving the Fish meetings and the group actions? I know the times have evolved and also given that majority of the fish members are themselves parents and bread winners in their families it might not be possible to have weekly meetings as we use to have in the 80s and 90s but may be have them two weekly.

We need to think also of how we can have some finances for the group to be able to run the group activities, most of us will be happy to make donations every now and again to keep the group going as long as we do not turn into the Kenyan Government where few individuals view the public property as their own and misuse it.

Let us heed the Archbishop's challenge and show everyone that the Fish is alive and swimming. Let us make difference to the community the way we did all those years ago. Most of owe our success to the Fish group. We learnt a lot from the group and we made a big difference to the young peoples life. Martin Opondo and I went round the Colleges and Secondary schools within the City talking to students about HIV and AIDS, many members went round the community talking to the youth about their health and also to the mothers about nutrition and child care.

Finally let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked tirelessly to organise the Silver Jubilee I know that many were involved but let me just mention a few, Jubilee Chairman Cosmas Kinda, Tressurer Brenda Anne Amimo, Committee members, Charles Lwanga, Chris Akun, Gumbe Alaka, Jacob Okal, Peter Mittow Okal, Martin Opondo and everyone involved as I cannot remember everyone by name. You made us all proud Long Live Fish.