Continuing the trend of uneventful Sundays

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Today was pretty uneventful. We slept the first night in our new room, with surprisingly little fly disturbance considering the absurdity of the size of their population in this residence. Apparently, someone decided the slaughtering and preparation of a goat directly outside this apartment was a fantastic idea (not to be graphic). Unfortunately, this opened the door to an extended family of flies and their never ending offspring. The boys (Jeff and Steve) have made it a point to kill the flies, leaving them as trophies/examples for the others plastered against the wall. Needless to say, the walls have a unique design nowadays.

After making our favorite breakfast of spit in the eye and Kenyan tea, Andi and I caught up on our journaling/blogging and just hung out for a while. We went down to spend some time with the kids and meet the new group of Penn State students who are all really nice and seem excited to be here. It felt good to be able to pass on some insight into the centre, how to get around, etc. I realized how much I have learned since I’ve been here! I can’t believe I have been here for over three weeks and only have a week left. However, at the same time, it feels like I have been here far longer. It is hard to explain, but it is a very strange feeling.

Andi and I hitched a ride with the group who was heading into town for the first time to get some supplies, locate an internet café, etc. We continued our Sunday routine (we repeated last Sunday) of having a vegetable burger lunch at Ray Bells in town. It was as delicious as it was last Sunday. Afterward, we met up with the group at a coffee shop we didn’t know existed. We have only had instant coffee here, and only one time. Naturally, we had to try a cup. It was good!! We had a cup of coffee and waited for Mwangila to come pick up the group so we could grab a ride back to the centre. It was one of those times where you continue to wait as your patience dwindles, but you know that the second you get up to find some other form of transportation to reach your destination, you know the initial one would arrive. Andi and I continuously contemplated paying the 20 shillings to take a matatu back to the centre, but the longer we waited, the more we anticipated Mwangila’s arrival. Just as predicted, not two minutes after we began walking in search of a matatu, we spotted Mwangila driving down the road. After running back to hitch a ride, we finally made it back to the CYEC.

We went on a much needed run, racing against the clock as we needed to make it back before sunset (avoiding those machetes…). Upon our return, we were welcomed by a power outage, which was actually quite nice. I have come to enjoy when the power goes out here. It only lasted a short while, and we were cooking dinner with power again before we knew it. I helped with dinner, while Andi went down to spend some time with the kids before they headed off to sleep. They don’t have school tomorrow due to “teacher meetings,” so we will get to spend some more time with them tomorrow, which will be nice since we are leaving so soon for Nairobi (we are leaving the centre on Thursday so we can spend two full days in Nairobi before we head out).

We ended up just enjoying having nothing to do tonight and caught up on some reading and relaxing. I apologize for a lack of an exciting report as today was a pretty quiet Sunday. I’m sure more will come tomorrow with Lesson 6 (Appreciating Other People: Understanding our Uniqueness). Sweet dreams.