Vignettes

Closing School

You could argue all day about which is ultimately better – the American schedule for school, which allows for a 3 month break between grades in the summer, or the Kenyan plan which has 1 month breaks every 3 months. However, there’s no question that it’s mentally and emotionally easier to do it Kenyan style. Saying goodbye for 30 days – suj me (not bad). So T.S.S. closed on the 30^th of July with a lot of cleaning but not a lot of fanfare. The students are all home now, visiting family, watching animals out in the bush, and working on the holiday assignments I handed out.

Blasted Batteries

One doesn’t really think about electricity when you live in the West. Pay your bill, press a switch when you want light, press it again for darkness. Nothing is that simple here. Our solar batteries have gone out, so that means that as soon as the sun goes down there’s an awful beeping noise that begins warning us that the power is caput – as if we wouldn’t notice the lights dimming 3 levels and the outlets going dead. What does one do at night when there’s no internet, barely any light, and no way to plug in the tv to watch movies? Read An Anthology of Christian History to each other of course.

Scorpion Queen

Success! I’ve survived my first scorpion sting!

I was just about to drift off to sleep while staying in the hut of my student Emily at her home in Loglogo. I had shifted my hand across my stomach when all of a sudden I felt a sharp prick, as if my pinky finger had gotten caught on my zipper. However, something inside told me my finger had not scratched my zipper. I yelled, “emily, Emily, EMily, EMILY!!!!!” progressively getting louder as immediate action was not taken on her part in waking up and as I visualized the nasty thing running down my naked shin for another go. Kulamo, who was sleeping on the bed with me got an accidental kick and finally the flashlight was on me and my sweater was coming off for fear of the creature still lurking there. Kulamo tied a head scarf around my wrist to keep the poison from creeping through my veins to my armpit (where the poison seems to collect when one is stung anywhere on the arm.) We searched that whole hut for at least 10 minutes but didn’t find a thing, so I never got a look at the scorpion. However, either it wasn’t very big or it didn’t have good aim because after those 10 minutes the pain wasn’t unbearable like it should have been. Only partly as a joke, Kulamo got a cup of water, took a sip, swished it around a bit, then spit on my stung finger. Clearly, as her mother is of the clan Uruwen, she has the power to help heal scorpion stings by spitting on the stung area. Clearly.

Anyways, I reluctantly laid back down on the bed with the scarf still tied around my wrist, a throbbing finger, and a slightly sore armpit. In the morning, though, I was as right as rain, and pretty proud of myself for checking that one off my list of life experiences.

Catherine

You may remember that we had to send one of our students home for getting pregnant. There’s no such thing as high schools for pregnant teens in Kenya, so this was really the only acceptable action to take culturally and as a form of Christian discipline. We hope very much to see her back in Form One next year, but until then, she’s living with her mom and sister in Loglogo. She was the reason I went there to visit – not necessarily to check up on her, but because I missed her company.

The boy who got her pregnant isn’t marrying her, but rumor has it that he says he’ll give Catherine some money. She’s been given her own hut by a friend, she looks healthy, and even happy.Catherine still participates in youth group activities in church and has even planned a youth choir evangelism trip to the Borana tribe.

I saw her playing with the babies around town, and it’s clear she’ll be a very loving mother. There’s a new stillness about her as you’re apt to find in anyone who’s been hit hard with the reality of life. She’s not young anymore, but there’s a wealth of vitality left in her spirit, praise the Lord.

(From left to right: Emily, me, Naiseku, and Catherine. On my trip to Loglogo.)

What I Eat

These days, there’s no one to cook for at home, so I’ve found myself eating canned fruit straight from the tin and beans the same way. The most inspired meals I have is breakfast with oatmeal with hot water and honey.

Hiking

A few days ago Nambori, Larau, and I hiked out to what we called “Lake Korr.” It’s actually a marsh formed by the torrential rains of April, but all these months it’s still standing about a 2 hour walk from town, down into the valley of Ur (no, I don’t think it’s the same one Abraham lived in.) It lays across some pretty barren sandy desert land as well as a particularly treacherous ancient lava field. Few know of all the evidence here of the centuries old volcanic activity in Northern Kenya. There are large tracts of volcanoes’ black, porous rock and there are dozens of extinct cinder cones randomly jutting out of the generally flat land.

(The guys on the lava rocks.)

I haven’t realized how much I’ve missed large bodies of water while in the desert, but coming upon Lake Korr caused a sensational uplifting of spirits for everyone. Nambori promptly rolled up his trousers and waded into the shallow water, and I just sat down on a rock a foot from shore and let my hem drag in the water while I squished my toes into the mud. There was even a sort of sea breeze blowing cool air off the water and tiny waves that made no splash, but caused the whole lake to glitter. In a rare moment of transparency, Larau told me that he loved it here, that Madame Alicia would too, and that when he was married he would bring his wife here and they would build a home on the shore – I guess that would be if the water is still standing in 7 to 10 years. We all just sat and listened to the Whistling Trees by the banks, watched birds diving for little water buggies, and drank in the luxury of water, some quite literally.

(Splashing around in the water.)

Summer Reading Material

Mom brought a bunch of children’s classics to add to our library at school, and I’ve been pleasurably making my way through all my old favorites. Check out The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Giver, and the highly entertaining, A Long Way from Chicago and its sequel A Year Down Yonder.

Goat Milk

You must always boil goat and sheep milk to kill nasty pathogens like brucellosis, so just this evening, I did that. However, I must have boiled it too long or too hot because it started clumping and I had to skim a significant portion out that turned out looking like cheese, which I thought would be OK for salad, but Abaya said it was bad for you. Now it’s sitting in the cats’ food bowl.

English Spelling

I teach a curriculum heavily based off the British, so we use their spelling here in Kenya too. I’m having to get used to sentences like the following:

My favourite colour is red. (So then I bet their favorite letter is “U.”)

The lady was wearing pretty jewellery.

Honour your father and your mother.

Capitalise the first letter of a sentence. (And start using “S”s for the “Z” sound.)

The Amiyo Family

Remember John Baicha Amiyo? The one whose mother, father, and cousin all died within days of each other and whose brother recently married in order to begin helping the family settle their life again. Well, I took a TON of pictures of John’s brother and friends at the wedding, and printed them out for him. Both John and his brother showed up at my house last night just to say “hi,” but I pulled out the photos and they FREAKED OUT!! John was very nearly shaking with excitement, and all his brother kept saying was, “Asante mamen,” which I believe was his pronunciation of “Madame.” John said, “Madame, why did you not just print one?” I replied, “Well because I took a lot of photos and I want them to be a wedding gift. Are you guys happy?” and then he said, “Yes, Madame. Yes.” His brother just kept saying “Asante sana!”

But the best part was when I invited them both to stay with the other boys for a movie night, and John replied, “No Madame, my brother’s wife is waiting for us to come home.” I’m pretty sure he said it just like that.