What can I say??? This is Ian jumping on to our (Anne’s) blog while she’s learning to make Ugali in the kitchen. Ugali is that staple food here and it is a thick corn meal past that’s eaten with everything. This internet connection is so intermittent and slow here that I can’t really post photos now, which is unfortunate because the visuals here are indescribable. We’ve been in Thika for 2 days now and I swear it feels like Thika is as far from Nairobi as Nairobi is from Cedar Hills. Yes, Nairobi is a third world city but living in Mexico City prepared me well for that. Thika is like Nairobi meets little house on the Prarie. I have chickens oin my house, and what creature comforts we had in Nairobi seem like a distant memory. I think all the bugs that are not in Nairobi left and came here. We have all kinds and in biblical proportions. This morning after sweeping up close to a paper lunch bag FULL of bugs off the floor (not exagerating here and this is where a picture is needed to do justice to the topic we’re talking about live bugs too) I was thinking how bad the biblical plagues must have been to actually drive people away. Our bugs were pretty close to the threshold for me, but the locals aren’t even phazed. In fact Esther (a woman helping us learn to wash our own clothes and cook local food) told me that she would sweep up the bugs and give them to the cooks to fry up. Side note, a chicken is walking past me in the “living room”….now walked out the front door.
Eli was standing by the back door this afternoon when a group of about 30 school aged kids spotted him from road at the front fence. they started yelling Ku ja hapa! Ku ja mzungu! Come here, get over here whitey. Well, we decided to go visit so we Eli and I went to the fence and they acted like he was a rockstar. Kids were yelling and straining to touch and rub him. He was a little freaked out at first, seriously they acted like beatles fans trying to touch John Lennon. But after a minute he was comfortable and started doing tricks and climbing the fence. The kids stayed around for an hour or so until they were convinced we would not be coming back for more. Dirty, skinny, beautiful children…they are why we came.
Our fridge came standard with a locking door….which I’ve actually considered using to keep busy hands lucy out of it. Our light bulbs are bare. Our shoes are all red…in two days. Our underwear is hanging inside out on a line in the front yard. Our stomachs are full, our hearts are hopeful, and our new life is never dull or easy.
try to post some pics soon. Ian