Just finished dinner – so stuffed. I am eating WAY more here than at home – everything is meat and ugale, or meat and rice. Maybe some sakuma and sometimes beans instead of meat. But seriously, half the time I feel like I just finished one meal and we’re starting another. The morning starts with tea and bread, maybe some hard-boiled eggs. Then tea again at 10:30, then lunch at 1, then tea at 5 and dinner at 7! Oy.

Sunday is a market day in Kisumu – home of the largest open market in East Africa. Marisa and I went with Kevin, one of the boys who grew up here and has been working for YGC. The market was like any outside market – loud, crazy, people yelling at you, people stepping on you – you get the picture. We had a great time looking at the stalls, people-watching and we even bought a few things. That evening, I went out with the kids to the field to play football and that is where the real fun started. Salene sent someone to tell me we were going to her cousin’s house for dinner and we were leaving in fifteen minutes. I was wondering how we were getting there, as Salene had said several times she was feeling “stuck” because the van that she usually drives was in Mbita. She NEVER (or I should say rarely) takes public and so instead, I find out, she had gotten a mechanic there, Ben, to fix this beat-up old Nissan that had been sitting at YGC since we got to Kenya. Ben “fixed” it – only two doors open (one in front, one in back, thank goodness – no one is having to climb over seats) and the trunk doesn’t latch. The whole inside was completely stripped and the trunk doesn’t latch, so every time you hit a bump, everything, including your body, goes “cathunk!”. Pretty great. So we’re driving there, Salene telling him directions every five seconds, telling him to slow down, turn here, wait here, etc… We almost got stuck – had to do a little reverse-forward, reverse-forward action, because of course it has been raining (we are now full-on into rainy season) and there are deep puddles all over. We made it without too much incident and had a great dinner. Then Salene sent Ben to get the car. It is pouring, lightening – the whole works. So, we get outside and first, have to walk about 30 yards to the car, which is sitting completely dead and stuck in the middle of a HUGE puddle (more like a pond). So we trudge back, but by this time, the cousin has locked the door and turned out the lights (weird), so we stand on their covered porch waiting for the driver to come and get us. He does, but they had to push the car to get it started, so it is much further to walk – no matter, we were already soaked. :o) We drove maybe 5 minutes and the car stalled again and wouldn’t re-start. So Ben hails a tuc-tuc and Salene calls someone to help Ben with the car. The three of us get in the tuc-tuc and drive off to YGC, where we again almost get stuck, but made it out (and of course, the car got there at the same time as we did).

Monday it stormed again – so much that all the walkways flooded and we all had to get buckets to get the water away from the doors. I haven’t seen it rain like that in forever! It was flooded in less than five minutes. The kids were having a blast, playing in the rain. As I am writing this, I am sitting in our room at YGC and mouse just ran across the room – I definitely screamed. We got Emma, the cat, who is supposed to kill the mice, but I think she is just as scared of them as they are of her. I’m hoping that it ran out – I get a little freaked out that it will jump on me in the night. Which is kind’ve impossible, since I have a mosquito net around my bed all the time, but no matter. The fear is still there. J Speaking of killing animals, I was changing my clothes last night and as I’m pulling my shirt over my head, this GIANT moth (I mean mammoth) flies in my face. I swear, its body alone was the size of a mouse. Like a mouse with wings. After the screaming subsided, Marisa took two books and smashed them together, catching the moth in the middle. Screaming, again. Now, there were moth guts on the books and here was this half-dead moth, laying on my bedspread. Gross. So I scooped it up with an empty Pringles can while half closing my eyes – all better. I still cringe thinking about it.

I’m having a great time with the kids – they are seriously so sweet and so much fun! Marisa got out a coloring book today and there were all of them (well, everyone up to class 4. everyone else was still in school) coloring away – so focused. I forget they really don’t do things like that very often. Last night, I was trying to teach a few of them a card game, which wasn’t going so well. So they said, “let’s play A, K, 47”. Which, it turns out, is just this game where everyone has four cards and you try and be the first to collect an ace, a king, a four and a seven. Much easier. And there are definitely no turns – it’s pretty funny. They can play that one forever. Anyway, I will be very sad to leave them.