I really was miserably tired last night and had a hard time staying awake until 10:00 p.m. Still, I keep waking up during the night--maybe 4 or 5 times--and wanting to stay up. Perhaps by this weekend, I'll have the whole time difference readjusted internally.
To finish Monday, I should say that once Ray and I got back to Kundayo, he helped me carry all the heavy water bottles and bags of groceries to our apartment. Much later, John and most of the students returned on a daladala, but Megan and four others walked all the way back, which really was quite an excursion on a hot afternoon. I so wish I could walk with the group as well. I love traveling with Ray, as he always points things out and explains life along the road, but it would feel wonderful to walk slowly and look in the little shops and street stands.
Waiting for me at Kundayo was Moses Pulei, a former Whitworth student and professor, who returned to Kenya to work with WorldVision five or so years ago. He also helped John with the program logistics and teaching when we were here in 2012. Since then, he has parted ways with WorldVision (and if this weren't an open blog, I'd go into his reasons) and is now teaching courses for several American universities with program in Tanzania and beginning work on a new locally operated business. He mentioned a recent article in "Barron's"which may give one some insight into his recent decisions. (http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111903747504579185800700741812.html#articleTabs_article%3D1) He had just returned from spending a week in a village up near the Kenyan border, where his major task was to help the villagers deal with the death of five women who had been killed in a horrific collision with a tanker truck. Convincing some that these deaths were not caused by witchcraft was difficult, especially since the bodies were so mangled there were not whole corpses to bury. I love seeing the man I first met when I was his faculty adviser. He is truly remarkable in who he is and what he can give to East Africa.
We all had another bountiful Kundayo dinner of pumpkin soup, two types of cabbage salad, rice, chipsies, spaghetti, meatballs and sauce, vegetable stew, and green beans. I am feeling incredibly spoiled, but soon I'll be cooking on an gas cooker atop a propane bomb--which seems a bit too aptly named.
John, Megan, Donna Pierce (a Whitworth math professor who is tagging along with us for this month), and I met to decide how to pair students for their placements with host families. I now can identify all the students by name and have perceived unique personality traits in some of them, but at least half remain largely unknown to me. Obviously the two males will be placed together, but the ten females, with the exception of two, still seem very generic to me. So, figuring out how best to pair them was like throwing darts in the dark.
If there was anything else that occurred on Monday, I have no recollection at all of what it was. My mind is completely fogged in.
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