This morning we are happy to report that we made it to breakfast! We collected our pieces of white bread, came back to our room, and finished the movie we watched on a laptop last night; judge if you want, but everyone needs a piece of home once in a while. Afterward, we set out on time at 8:30 to find Florence. In true Kenyan fashion, we found her at 9:00 and began working at 9:30. Guess what we did? Fed the rabbits and worked on composting some more. This time we had a fellow worker, Katherine, who is on “attachment” from another agriculture program in Kenya. Their attachments are the equivalent of American internships. During our work today, we were given more responsibility. We were able to take wheelbarrows and pitch forks to fetch hay, which is called “material” here. We also chopped “greens” or the leafy party of bushes to be added as a layer to the compost. Keep in mind, we were very excited about this because it not only gave us a break from shoveling manure, but we got to do it alone! We took our “tea” break at 10:30, and once again found everyone shocked that we don’t in fact drink the tea. But, we happily bought chipati for 9 cents from the canteen, the on-campus general store the size of a handicapped toilet. Someone made a funny comment to us today about us always carrying water. We tried to explain that it’s hot here and we need to stay hydrated, and he replied with, “you carry your water bottles like mobile phones.” So hilarious because it’s true!
We decided that after our morning of composting, we wanted to learn more about what goes on here at the farm. This was a particular struggle for Katie because she felt a desire to do other things here on the farm besides composting. So…what did we do? We took matters into our own hands. One of our Kenyan friends, Charity, invited us to go observe the classes she would be in for the afternoon. We’re still not sure what the first class was. A teacher walked into the room, wrote 2 assignment questions on the board about animal diseases, and then walked out the door- leaving the class to their own work. The second class, however, was Linda’s class on entrepreneurship. We’re not sure if Linda actually knew anything about this subject as she struggled to define the difference between credit/debit and assets/liabilities on a balance sheet. She, once, even looked to us The Americans to help her. But luckily, a student stepped in and asked if they could “help themselves.” He actually did a fine job explaining it! We left feeling a bit enlightened, but more perplexed about the teacher and teaching method. We came back to our room and realized the power was out, so we couldn’t access the internet like we were planning. Oh Kenya…..this a saying we’ve come to use when we find ourselves missing the luxuries of home. With technology out of the question, we decide to do our laundry, because in Kenya that requires no power source. Just a good ol’ pair of hands and some elbow grease. Finishing that, we took a walk before dinner. On the way, we met some nice girls from Uganda who are here on an exchange. They were full of energy and loved our names; thinking they were really original. We thought hat was hilarious. Our walk was short because the sun was setting and we had to get to our dinner of the standby beans, rice, and cabbage. Luckily we had dessert waiting for us in the room thanks to our trip into town yesterday. It’s the only thing that gets us through meals, really. Even though the food isn’t terrible, it sure is repetitive. We find ourselves dreaming of the first meal we’ll eat on July 28th. Given the list we’ve got going so far, it’s gonna be a huge meal!
We miss and love you all.
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