Ngaio Mary is 27 years old and has four children, each from different fathers. They range in age from the baby, who is 2 and a half, to the eldest of 11. She now has a new husband, and a girl who helps with the children, all living with her. Mary's personality is infectious. She laughs a lot when she is speaking in her high voice, and she gestures constantly. She is pretty; her hair and clothes are always perfect, and she's quick to hug in a society where hugging isn't the norm. Mary is so wild with enthusiasm that it is hard to believe she was living on the street, begging for food, in 2002. She offered to wash clothes, but no one would hire her because she was so dirty. "I was not eating, I was not dressing well," she says. She was HIV+ but could not take ARVs; the treatment made her sick because she wasn't eating. Now she receives treatment and is eating and happy.

When Mary heard that she was on the list for a house, she screamed so long and loudly that the BeadforLife staffer on the other end of the phone said she almost went deaf! Mary calls the village "my village" and her words stumble over each other as she describes the new life it will give her. "The village will be good and I will be the happiest there. I will have a small garden, and will start a tailor shop. No one will knock on the door for rent, and everyone will work together."

She chose Design F for her house because is a "growing house" that can be added onto with time. As for the future in the village, the ideas tumble out of her. She sees running water, electricity, "a drumming group … ." Mary has a cow, and wants to bring it to her new house, and she also has plans to sell matoke, bananas and charcoal to others in the village.