Back in Action!!!

So, after some intense haggling for internet airtime cards and "bundle packages" I'm back in action.  So much to tell...where to begin?  How about a short recap?

From Cairo to Egypt

Since our flight from Egypt to Nairobi, Kenya didn't leave until 6pm, our Egyptian friend, Mohamed convinced us that it would be a good idea to go to his family's athletic club in the morning.  It sounded like fun, and we all got excited by the idea, so we figured "Why not!"  "Why not" indeed!  When we arrived, it was about 700 degrees Fahrenheit outside...okay maybe like 78...and the first activity we decided to play was basketball.  I'm thinking indoor courts...air conditioned facilities...access to purified water...great!  In actuality, it was outdoor courts, the water was somewhat of a hike away from everything else, and air conditioning was nowhere to be found.  We played basketball for all of 20 minutes before we decided to call it quits.  I want to note that I DID NOT want to stop playing, but my classmates Ryan and David were about to die.  David was guzzling down water faster than he was breathing, and Ryan was literally on the verge of having an asthma attack.  

So, what would be the next logical thing to do after playing B-ball?  Maybe extensive rest, or perhaps a refreshing swim?...of course not!  We played soccer!  Correction, we played "futbol," the term the rest of the world uses for what we Americans call "soccer."  There were 4 of us (Mohamed, Ryan, David, and myself) and we needed some competition.  What we found were four innocent-looking children (none above the age of 12) who wanted to play a game.  We thought to ourselves, "This should be fun!"  Well, it was fun, but not for us.  These kids ran up and down the field at speeds that would make NASCAR racers say "wow."  I felt like I had a set of smoker's lungs!  But thanks to the futbol skills of Ryan and Mohamed, we won the game.  Afterwords we traveled back to our hotel to get ready for our flight to Kenya.

Onward to Kenya!
The flight to Kenya was long and exhausting.  I did get to see "The Blingside" finally, which I really enjoyed, but I couldn't get much sleep and we were met with many disappointments along the way.  The first was saying goodbye to our classmate Ryan when we arrived in Nairobi.  The second was finding out that our flight to Kisumu, Kenya was canceled, and having to wait to be rescheduled on another flight.  The last was traveling in a small vehicle (made in the 1980's) over a very bumpy road (imagine pot holes that are about a foot deep) for half an hour to get to our final destination.  






But after a long trip, we made it to the Essaba Village!  Here is a picture of the home that we are living in:

  
Here is our gracious host, Wilemina:

And here are some of the awesome things that have happened so far:



Wilemina's house is surrounded by all sorts of animals.  Here are two house cats that we see every morning when we wake up.  When I asked Wilemina what their names were, she told me that she didn't even bother trying to name the pets anymore because she has so many.  So I took that responsibility off of her hands.  I named the white cat "Munkey" because when it meows it sounds like a baby chimpanzee.  I call the gray cat "Lucky," because she reminds me so much of the cat I used to have growing up.

Immediately outside you can find an assortment of birds that Wilemina raises.  Included are ducks, geese, chickens, and turkeys.  I'll share a "Highnote" at the end of this blog about one of these birds!

Lastly, we met a large group of children who love to congregate around Wilemina's home.  In Kenya, people are extremely courteous.  So if you happen to show up around dinner time or for breakfast, people will invite you into their homes.  These children, Musa, Boba, and Peter (from left to right) come to play with us everyday.  David and I have taught them how to play frisbee, and they have been teaching us some Swahili and how to properly play soccer (their footwork is amazing).  I don't know if they are orphans or not, but I'm always impressed with how kind and energetic they are.  And while all of the children are wonderful to me, I have a special place in my heart for this one:

 






















His name is Vincent, and he lives in a small room behind Wilemina's house.  His mother and sister work for Wilemina cleaning dishes and doing other odd jobs around the house while she is away.  Vincent is probably the most handsome baby boy that I have ever seen, and he is very observant of everything that is going on around him.  I love to see him each day when I wake up, and my favorite part of the evening is getting to hold him and play with him.  My favorite thing about Vincent is how easy it is to make him laugh.  His smiles can make my worst days feel like a bad dream.  I look forward to seeing him develop.


Finally...Highnote:
I wish I had a video of this to make this story better, but alas, my words will have to do.  While playing frisbee with Peter and Musa one day, I noticed David Watterson standing on a tree stump in the front yard calling out for the disc.  All of a sudden I notice that one of the turkeys is beginning to get flustered by David's presence.  David would yell for the disc, and the turkey would flap its wings.  David would jump up and down on the stump and the turkey would gobble loudly.  And finally, David jumped off the the stump...and when he landed on the ground, I guess the turkey decided that it had had enough.  To everyone's surprise, the turkey began to chase David all over the front yard.  The children scattered  because they didn't want to get bitten or scratched, and I followed their lead jumping on a nearby bench.  But for the next 45 seconds or so this enraged turkey chased David over the yard as my classmate ran faster than I've ever seen him move.  When all was said and done, David was light years away from the house, and the turkey was retreating back to its original area near to stump to graze for insects in peace.  I was laughing well into the next day.