I'm Doing Well ... but miss you all!!!!

Hi Again from Kenya:

We took a matatu (van taxi) into Kitale so we could go to the internet cafe. It just is so good to hear from 'home.' Yesterday Candice took a Boda Boda into town, which is a normal bike with a little pillow on the back with a bar to hang on to and you ride side saddle. Then she took a Piki Piki (motorcycle) home. She loved it. I'll stick with the matatu. in which they cram up to 20 people! Believe me, you're squished - but it really is a hilarious ride!

I must tell the students at Gibsons Elementary School not to complain about how long you go to school each day. The students here go from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and half a day on Saturdays. Education is a huge priority to the students and they know that and they work so hard to pass all their exams. They also have chores to do. After lunch each day they sweep the floors with a little hand brush, wash the tables and then wash the floors. I am enjoying these children so much.

We are all frustrated that we cannot yet get a photo out of Kenya to you, but we are still working on it and one day I will send you a photo of the children jumping rope with the jump ropes you children at GES gave, wearing the clothes you also gave, and working in their class with all the supplies that came in for me to take to them.

I have a nightly ritual I do before bedtime. There are always little crickets in my bedroom and I have perfected a way to do away with them, because they are way too fast to smash with my shoe. I squirt them with my mosquito repellent which stuns them and then ... wham! Got them! I'm good at doing away with the roaches the first try.

I am doing well, and thankful for that. It has been very interesting to read/watch news as Kofi Annan from the United Nations is in Kenya now to help put in place some reforms - police reform, constitutional reform are a couple. The Kenyan people are hoping his presence will help.

Oh, one more thing - the children love to look at the veins in my hands which stick out (as you get older this happens - yes, it will to you!!!). They poke at them all the time. Then they said, "Open your mouth" which I did. "Pull your teeth out." I thought, what are they talking about? I told them that they are stuck in my mouth. "No, dentures - take them our - show us!" I don't know where they got that, but I refused to take out my partial!!!

I'll leave you now and will be back again soon, I hope. We are hoping to come into town to the internet cafe once a week at least.

To all the people on sd46.bc.ca e-mail, it will not send from here - comes back. Sorry.

Love and miss you,
Nancy