The Falls
Sunday, July 29, 2007

This morning I went to church again in Kathenjuri and this time they had the Eucharist! I felt bad though since I had not gone last week. I think God will forgive me. Afterwards I saw Kash from the workcamp. She helped me get a Kenya SIM card for my phone. Its very good now. I set 3 text messages (Dad, Thogo, and the Dutch twins). Lawrence also called his sister and left a message so I know it works properly. I also found out the the volunteers are going to the waterfall today. I was hoping to go this weekend with some kids I met at one of the churches but now we could all go together.

It was a bit of a walk, (about an hour) and of course lots of hills, but it was well worth it! The scenery was gorgeous and I took a lot of photos. I also stepped in the mud with my newly polished boots and freshly scrubbed khaki pants. That will teach me to go hiking in church clothes.

Behind the waterfall was a cave. There was a man reading the bible way in the back. It was really serene, I felt bad about disturbing his solitutde. We saw another cave, rather a very deep hole in the wall of rock. It was cold to the touch and inside was what looked like ice but it must have been some sort of mineral deposite. It was all crystalized. It definately wasn't cold enough to be ice. Very interesting though.

On the walk back I saw my first chamelion...it was dead on the side of the road. Maybe they blend in to their surroundings too well for me to see them unless their dead. That reminds me, yesterday a big cockroach scurried into the house. It moved so fast in the dim light I didn't know what it was, thought it was a small animal. Lawrence grabbed it and threw it outside. It was a good 2 or 3 inches long. I'm glad he got it out of the house but its still alittle unnerving.

Yesterday was a bit of a dissaster actually. I did laundry again, or rather Mama did most of it. I don't mind doing it myself but I'm very slow and not so good at it yet so she just takes the clothes and starts scrubbing. I rince them and hang them on the line. But I need to do the washing for myself or I will never get it right. I have so many clothes too! Next time I will insist I do it myself. But yeah, so I'm hanging all these wet clothes on the line. And I notice the rope is beginning to sag but I thought it was just stretching out. After I put the last pair of pants on, I turn to walk down the hill when the whole things drops. First I thought the rope had broken, no...the tree it was attached to had fallen down. I lifted up the line but it was too late. All the clothes Mama had just spent hours scrubbing vigourously were now lying in the dark dusty dirt.

Lawrence held the tree while Mama and I took them all down to rinse again. She was not happy and I felt HORRIBLE! So I put them in a basin to wait for Lawrence to put up a new pole and line. I retreated in shame to my room to wash my socks and underwear. When I went back outside there was a ling from the corner of the bathroom to a new tree pounded into the ground. As it turns out the old one was not really a tree at all. It was a dead tree trunk that had been staked into the ground. The base had rotted away and it just kind of bent over. I had this horrible feeling in my gut. I had so many damn clothes that it broke their perfectly good clothes line. Their humble lives could not support all of my american materialism. I felt like a selfish pig, bloated with ego, power, and money. I couldn't saw anything to Mama.

Later that afternoon I helped peel potatoes with the new knife which I had gotten for Mama in Meru. and also helped with the maize. It felt alittle better to contribute, but I realize now how much they have done for me. I don't know what I can do for them. I've decided that I will leave some clothes and things here for them when I leave during August for the workcamp. Obviously I have more than enough. Not really an even exchange.

I feel bad about Mama paying me back for her tooth extraction. It was about 5 dollars. Why didn't I just tell them I would pay for it? Because, I was skeptical, KVDA warned me not to hand out money like it was nothing. 200ksh is alot to them and my throwing it out there without a thought creates a gap between us. They asked me if I would be able to pay for my own lunch at school. That cost was supposed to be provided to them by KVDA but they had not received the money yet and they did not have enough to spare. It is 500ksh per month, which is more than I expected, but still only amounts to less than 10 dollars a month. I could tell they didn't want to ask me to pay. But why shouldn't I. Yes I paid for the trip and some of that money was supposed to go to my family to provide meals. But I have the money and the food is for ME. 10 bucks a month. Not to mention I can relieve some of the strain on them to pay the bills.

It has been very sunny and hot the past few days – good for drying clothes but not for hiking the steep slopes. I think "winter is over". I'm glad I'm going to get my other luggage next week. It has most of my hot weather clothes in it. I would still like to get some more skirts because pants and capris are not going to work in september, summertime! It is nice to have the sun though. The sky is really beautiful. And at night the moon is soooo bright now! It's like dusk all night. In the middle of the night I don't even need a torch to go to the toilet!