Tuesday 7 June 2011

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Got a late start today by sleeping in until 0700 this morning then over to the dining hall for breakfast and a cup of hot tea. It is always nice to get there early and have some silent time just to think and prepare for the day.  Jennifer was cooking so I talked with her and had time to check my email before the breakfast was served and the other guest came in to eat.  Today will be the last day to really go out and get things that we want to purchase to carry home for friends and family so we will go and hitch a ride on a matatu or walk to the market that is 2-3 kilometers from the guest house.  I have not ridden the public matatu since I have been here but there will not be any problem.  The matatu is usually a 14 passenger van that will pick up passengers anytime and drop you off anywhere.  The problem is that you are packed in like sardines into this van and you have to hold anything you have in your lap or attach it to the roof luggage rack.  We will look for a less full matatu today as there will be 4 of us and whatever we purchase.

The Spanish omelets were good and the peanut butter and red plum jelly was really good.  They have some of the best breads that you have ever had.  The bread can be seen being delivered on the back of bicycles as they go through neighborhoods selling bread to individuals and small stores.

Today also is the day we identify what we will be getting rid of before we start packing for the trip home.  There are always items that we bring that we leave here by giving it to the local children or families.  I had purchased a grass slasher that will just fit into my larger luggage and with the operating notebooks from Living Waters the weight will be increasing rapidly.  We will be allowed 50 pounds per bag when we get to the airport and we have not purchased the Dorman’s coffee yet.

I just completed a Thank You card to give to John Keen for allowing us to visit his lodge in Namanga for the weekend and hope that I can get it printed somewhere.  I have it on the thumb drive and surely there is some place I can get it printed at the Galleria Shopping Center where we will shop and have lunch.

The students here at the mission station are rehearsing for their play and their singing is just wonderful.  I do not understand it because it is in their Norway language but it really sounds great anyway.

Got to finish breakfast and get ready for the day ahead.

Went to the Nakumatt and got the items that we wanted and had a great lunch at our favorite chicken place in Kenya.  The chicken was grilled and served with really good chips.  The ketchup was not what we are use to but with a little doctoring it was okay.

We got a ride to the store with a cab for 200 Ksh for the four of us in a real nice Toyota car with plenty of room but will be lucky enough to find him when we are ready to return to the guest house.  We shopped and caught a matatu back to the guest house drive for 30 Ksh each and even though it was crowed it was not a bad ride.

Had a chance to wall the grounds of the station and talked with several of the people including Hans who is one of the teachers and he is from Faroe Islands and a citizen of Denmark.  It was very interesting to talk with him and to find out what he does.  The walk around the station also gave me an opportunity to shoot some pictures of some plants that I had never seen before.  I am always amazed at the vast number of different plants that are at the station that I must have overlooked in the past years.

We had pizza and Coke light for dinner and sat outside with the Prices and had good conversation and went over plans for Wednesday.  Chris walked down from his house to check on us and shared pizza with us for dinner.  He returned to his house where he had been painting all day to sleep and be ready to keep the workers busy on Wednesday.  The house is finally coming together and it will be rather nice when he completes it.

It is time for bed and I am not going to delay getting in bed tonight.

More later