Day 8

Hey, Jared here! We’re just about halfway through the trip now and today was pretty simple. Tristen went with Tom and Heather this morning to Lunga Polytechnic for 2DR surveying. Sriram, Ajay, Julia and I slept in a bit before going to Miranga to check on the contractor’s work. While we waited around we took some pictures of each other and got a lesson in Swahili from Henry. We learned that “Naomba maji” is “I want water.” After that Henry allowed Ajay to teach the students some more about physics. This time the lesson went a little better. We were also able to teach the class a bit about water safety. The students knew about WaterGuard to clean their water and said that they use their water mainly for drinking, cleaning, cooking, and bathing.

The lesson seemed like it was going great, up until Julia was summoned out of the room.  She came back inside quickly, and told us to look outside. Upon opening the door we quickly regretted it because what we saw was the entire school, having brought chairs outside, sitting in a large semi-circle. Our tiny lesson became a lesson to the entire school. I recorded it as Ajay, Sriram and Julia went over the water safety lesson again. We still don’t understand why whenever we speak the children just laugh at us half the time. For example, after showing petri dishes of some of the water samples we took around, we all introduced ourselves. Once again, everyone loved Julia, but upon saying his name, students burst into laughter over Sriram. And when I introduced myself there was another bout of laughter, presumably because I didn’t do anything besides record the entire time.

After that we went to check on the rest of the team over in Lunga. Since they still had tests to run and there were kids playing in the field in front the school, Sriram, Julia, and I saw it as an opportunity for some exercise. We played soccer with the kids and even our driver, John, joined in. Julia and Sriram had some difficulty, kicking it into the street a few times, but we all had fun nonetheless. When the test was over we said bye to the kids so we could wrap up the cables and head back to the guest house.

Dinner once again introduced new food experiences for many on the team. Christine cooked up the normal meals once again, this time including whole stewed tilapia. Tristen and I each took a head. Having eaten fish heads multiple times, I felt pretty comfortable dismantling the head and cleaning out all the meat. Tristen, however, had some difficulty.  Christine applauded him for his efforts, but said his fish head should look more like mine. Meanwhile, this only furthered Julia’s vegetarianism. As dinner ended some more of James' family arrived from Nairobi - his eldest daughter and her daughter, Julie, as well as his 2nd youngest son, Moses, and his family. They too are very warm and welcoming. 

That pretty much sums up our day. Goodnight, Kenya.