Coffee, Internet and the West...

Yesterday we took a game drive at Sweetwater, and this is a blow up of a lion who was just hanging around...  Sweet, eh?  I've been UTTERLY out of touch with NO internet, no cell, NADA, and what liberation it is to live solely and completely in the moment.  We have moved from a farm near Meru (check a map) to a farm an hour outside of Nayuki at the edge of Mt. Kenya where ALL sorts of white western hikers congregate for trips, and where the British are buying up local shambas (farms) in the area; I don't really know why because this is arid country while Meru was lush and green, but there are no white people there.  In fact, I went to a public school where students had never SEEN a white person, and each child rushed at me in a mass of little black, smiling faces so that he or she could touch, stroke or hold my hand.   They were positively gleeful, and even though it was a little overwhelming, it was lovely to feel like a rock star for a minute.

This is "Lucy" who is really known as Mama Susan - a woman is named as mother of her first born child, so I would be Mama Oona.  Lucy does ALL the washing from dinner and breakfast, and then she goes and works in the shamba, digging and planting and weeding.  

Today is visiting day at Slopesview Academy, and all have gone up for that while I sit in Nanyuki to write my blog and organize photos and take a breather; it's 24-7 with people, specifically Kenyans (no problem) and teenagers (gigglers).  I AM an introvert.  Here is a photo of one of the Maasai women who came to stay last night as she was given her foot bath which I prepared for everyone.  It is simply what's done in this part of the world.  Below is a photograph of some of the group, Mrs. Mugo sitting to the far right (out of the photo) in front of her hibachi, which comes right into the room where we cook, eat, chat, drink coffee/tea and pray.  I won't go into the endless praying that seems to be a part of this mission, but it certainly has become evident to me that this is more than a Christian driven mission, a little heavy handed if you ask me.

The other day Mrs. Mugo (she and Mr. Mugo own the house and farm and keep several of the sponsored children at their house because they live far from their schools, especially Grace who is from the Mara, easily a 10-12 hour trip) killed a chicken for dinner, which we never seem to eat until 9:30 or 10:00 PM.  For those of you who know me well, supper for me is during the "children's hour," as a friend calls it, 5:00.  This eating during sleep time is unsettling to an early riser!  So, this chicken screamed in fright as she took a very dull knife ( I know as I've been using it for vegetable chopping, peeling, etc...) to his neck.  It was so clear to me that the rooster was frightened that I was horrified but also riveted.  After she cut off the head, the chicken did, indeed, keep moving in her hands, but the really horrid part is that the head itself was pulsing and almost bouncing. I write this for all chicken eaters, well, really for all animal eaters...

 This is Mrs. Mugo who is indomitable!  She is up at 4:30 or 5:00, fetches about 5 gigantic bottles of water before she begins heating pots of it on the wood stove that serves as her oven.  Once some has been heated, a small amount goes in a plastic tub, along with some cold water to make the temperature ambient, and this is how we bathe.  I even washed my hair with this method this morning, but my trousers I have NOT washed, and they are stiff with the dust and dirt.  We have not stayed in a hotel or had a bathroom of our own since leaving Nairobi.

Ah, this is my exquisite Maasai friend who has come for visiting day.  Her daughter is resisting the talk about NOT being circumcised.  It is SO ingrained in the culture that she says if the school does not permit her to do it, she will run away.  Last night the other women were trying to convince this lovely lady to talk her daughter out of what amounts to genital mutilation.   She, too, resists a critique of their cultural methods...

Below is a photo of David Pesi, the teacher who got Grace a sponsor (me) and who taught at her school for years with no pay.  He recently got a real, paying teaching job three hours from the Mara.  I gave him my old computer, and he was so thrilled that he has become a very, very good friend.  We watched the World Cup last night and were THRILLED at Costa Rica's win!

Finally, this fellow we fed sugar cane to yesterday, but he is behind an electric fence; they are smart enough to steer clear of the fence, but WE are not a savvy as these chimps and two of us accidentally bumped against it with our cameras, getting the shock of our lives.  It felt like a heart attack and hindered my breathing for about 15 minutes - very scary.