Steph Lives My Life

Caesar drove us to my town, Kabarnet, and now Steph gets to rough it with me for four days.

The view across the mountains is amazing!

And then we walk into my 'compound' down the rocky area, dodging cow pies and chickens.

And arrive at my front door. I'm pleased to see Eric has kept my lettuce and parsley alive.  We drop our bags and Steph needs a bathroom break.

Twas a really rough initiation!  Steph actually stepped out and dry heaved for about five minutes.  She finally made it with a bandanna tied around her nose and mouth. After a couple of days she had mastered holding her breath and didn't even pee on her shoes!  Good job girlie girl!

Being away for a couple of weeks, we needed to head out for food and of course everyone wanted to meet her.

We headed to the market for fresh fruit and veggies and to meet my market 'Mama's.'

Mama Essie has fresh kale and began chopping it for us while we chatted. She has since rented her space to someone else because she got an office job she has been waiting for three years to land.

Mama Kelvin (you are addressed by the name of your first born child) sells dried beans.  Sometimes I buy them from her and then give them away.  My tummy can't take beans any more.  Mama Kelvin calls me 'Mama Sukari' because she can never remember Stephanie.  Quite a few Mamas do this.  Works for me just fine.

Mama Mary didn't want to be in the picture but I buy most of my needs from her.  She always throws extra into each bag.

After we lug our purchases home, we head to Pastor's house to collect Sukari.His family is very excited to meet Steph and invites us for Sunday supper after attending his church service, of course.  Steph is winded from hiking up the rocky terrain to their house and of course being called muzungu by about 50 kids running from all directions.

We taxi back to my place, unpack a bit and I whip up some dinner before it gets too dark and the power goes out.

Sukari takes up her position in the 'queen's' chair to  check out this new person that has invaded her space.  She and Steph are soon fast friends and she love, love, loves all the belly rubs and head scratches.  She even starts talking to Steph in her doggie lingo.

Saturday we are up early meet our taxi driver and head to Eldoret for some supermarket shopping.  I didn't want to subject Steph to local market meat because I didn't want to hear her gag at every meal.  We stopped and viewed the Keriyo Gorge along the way, even saw hang gliders from Iten floating among the mountain tops and returned before dark.

Sunday was to be a big day as we were going to Pastor's church for service.  I had never gone before and he was all excited to have us visit.  Services usually begin at 10am and go until 2pm.  I knew we would never last that long so we hiked over to arrive around noon.

Pastor has the largest church and congregation in town and he is the only full time pastor, meaning he has no other job outside his church.  It is an AIC church (African Inland Church) which isn't the bible thumping, rocking and screaming type--hallelujah!  And it was packed!!!!  There were easily 1000 people there with kids running around on the lawn out front.  Of course we were escorted right up to the front pew to sit with Pastor and his family.  It was a lovely, entertaining service which he conducted both in English and Kiswahili for our benefit.  Lots of youth groups took to the altar to sing their ensembles and one young lad of about 10 really rocked it!  All newcomers have to stand in front, introduce themselves and say a few words.  I forgot to tell Steph about this part but she did just fine.

The service ended around 2ish and after a 30 minute break, it was back inside for me to lead a meeting about a local program I am starting here and to introduce another local organization that educates about HIV/AIDS.  Jeepers!  It took forever.  I don't know why I thought it would be any different that any other meeting.  We had about 300 people that stayed to hear our program and once again Steph and I were asked to speak, this time in more depth.  It was very touching when Steph was asked to talk about what it meant for her to visit her Mom in Kenya.

We finally finished up around 4:30 and Pastor said to come to his house around 6 for supper with the family.

Pastor has four children of his own and has taken in two more that are relatives.

This is baby Joy.  She was born Christmas Day and is doted on by everyone.

They had prepared a quite tasty chicken dish with vegetables and we talked and laughed until around 10pm.  They really thought we would stay the night!!  It took quite some doing to get a taxi to come for us as most don't work on Sunday and when we returned home we were wiped out.

The next day I took Steph to see the demonstration garden that is one of my projects.  I had not seen it since it was planted just before Christmas.

Wow!! We were impressed.  It was now abloom and ready for harvesting.  This is the spinach, kale and spring onions.  It has since become quite a controversy.  The so called 'volunteers' that were tending it in exchange for free food demanded to be paid for their work too. So Madame Roseline paid them and chased them away--no free food here.  We now have to rethink how we do this project.

After lunch in town and back at my place, Steph wanted to milk one of the cows.

Eric showed her the basics and then she stepped right up.  I only knew about this later or I certainly would have snapped that shot.  She said the udders were greasy--duh.  If you had someone yanking on you several times a day, you would want a lubricant too.  Okay all you sickos--get your mind out of the gutter.

Steph had been helping me out with heating water, hauling water, cleaning house etc.  Now it was time to purify some water.

Time to roll up your sleeves and get to it.  This is the same bandana that she had previously used as a toilet face mask.

After you fill this 20 liter container, you add several packets of purifying powder, stir for five minutes, wait 20 minutes for it to settle and then strain.  And this is the gunk.  Can you imagine drinking it without this process??  It took us most of the day to do 40 liters that will last me for about 10 days.  I use the clean water for drinking and cooking but the nasty stuff to bathe and clean the floors.  Though recently I began using the clean water to wash my face since it seems to constantly look like an everything pizza.  My face that is.

When we finished all the chores, Steph remarked "Mom this is a hard life. I don't know if I could do this."

So we decided to play another game of Bananagrams.  It is the standard entertainment.

The next morning is ta-ta to Kabarnet and back to Nairobi to head to Zanzibar.

Steph wasn't as ruffled catching a matatu this time since everyone here knows me and doesn't cause such a furor.  Mama Gladys was there to sell us our tickets and see us off.

Ohhhhhhh to head to the ocean, have hot showers and good food.  Zanzibar here we come!