Day 7: 6-23-09

I had nightmares last night. It’s never fun to have some of your worst fears play out in any form of realistic manner while you’re asleep. Unfortunately, mixing Brad’s story and malaria pills made this my reality. I felt better when I got to wake up to Coffee and Toast, and the news that today’s a shower day! I took the luxury of listening to my IPod a little bit this morning, and my wonderful playlist helped me sort through some things.
We went to Kisumu (I think…) today. WE got to visit the orphanage (a great treat!) and webb’s mom’s house. Let me tell you, it’s clear to see that Webb has his mom’s personality and dancing skills, and his dad’s looks! His mom was the most joyful lady! Her happiness made me happy!
Pastor Fred owns the orphanage that we visited. Besides seeing his orphanage, we got to see Fred’s house as well, because most of the kids in the orphanage live in his house. Fred’s wife’s name is Ruth, she was a wonderful lady! She was very strict, though. You see, it took a few hours to get to the orphanage, so we stopped at some restaurant on the way and ate there. We had eaten less than an hour before getting to Fred and Ruth’s, but they cooked and served us a buffet of food! The team only took a little bit of food because we really weren’t that hungry, and Jan and I fed some of our food to the baby we were playing with. When the time came to take everyone’s plates, Ruth told the girls who were clearing everything to leave my plate because I “need to finish my food”. I tried telling her that we ate before hand, and instead I was stuck with even MORE food on my plate (I didn’t know rice could be served so fast…) and was told that my plate wasn’t going to be taken until I finished my food. It really wasn’t fair, they took Jan’s plate and she left more on it than I did! I ended up feeding even more of my food to the baby, forced down many more bites myself, and moved the rest of the food around (in a toddler style fashion) to look like I ate more than I did. The taking of the plate was a defining moment in the Fred/Ruth household that I’m sure I will never forget!
Visiting at Fred’s was really a fun time, though. There is such a community there! The ladies of the house taught me the traditional way of cooking chapatti. They say I catch on fast, and I’m wondering if they weren’t just being nice! Brad came in and started filming me, which was a little awkward. I’ve decided that I much prefer cooking at home, but at least now I have a new recipe! (side note: they separated the chapatti that I made and the chapatti that they made. I would like to say for the record that Brad, who joke about how bad my chapatti was going to be, liked my chapatti quite a bit. It just proves that I do have a little bit of cooking skills!) Also on the menu today was chicken, rice, beef, and potatoes. I didn’t write it all down but I’m pretty sure that’s all there was. (our OTHER lunch? Chicken with Ugali, which is an “wet bread” like thing made with maize and boiling water.)


When we finally reached home (camp), we had PB&J, and I was VOLUN-TOLD to make omelettes in the morning. Apparently since I can cook chapatti, I can cook anything. We’ll see how the morning goes. I’m pretty sure omelettes isn’t going to happen. On a last note, I was introduced to everyone as the youngest member of the team. Jim used my youth as an example. God, I don’t like it, but if you’re going to use it then I guess I don’t have much choice but to follow your will, do I? I’m glad today was a good day, but I really hope I get better sleep tonight!