Moved into our house yesterday. It’s a large house with the equivalent of 4
bedrooms, a large living room, kitchen, and dining area. Nate, a resident at Roger’s family practice
program, is living with us. He’s been a
delight to travel with- eager, curious, friendly, and comfortable with other
cultures. I imagine this could be a much
more difficult experience without the right personality make-up, but we seem to
click well, and tease Nate that he’s our “4th child” (though he’s a
father of two with one on the way).
Our house is more than adequate, though today we went to
town to fill in some gaps - large pot, dish rags, soap, lots of food, etc… Still need to find a shower curtain and
toilet seat!
Started our morning going to the local Presbyterian Church
of East Africa, in our village. Lots of
singing, mostly in Kiswahili, but a little in English. A local school teacher sat next to me and
translated much of the service. About
half-way through the 3-hour service, we were invited to introduce
ourselves. We stood from the back and
said hello to the very full church, but we were told that was inadequate, and
we had to go to the front of the church and introduce ourselves. Roger uncomfortably took the microphone, and
represented us well. Just after tithing,
when we thought the service was over, the leaders started auctioning off goods
that people had donated to raise money for the church. We bid on a necklace and some bananas (though
I was more interested in the live chickens!).
Upon seeing our interest in the bananas, several people in the church
bought more for us. We now have about 40
bananas in our kitchen. Talia has looked
up a recipe for banana bread- we’ll see about that…
Tomorrow, Roger and Nate go to the hospital, to feign their
expertise in tropical medicine. I will
take Zoe to the high school, and see about enrolling her. I believe Lena’s school is still un-open due
to a teacher’s strike across the country.
Not sure what we’ll do with her for the month. Talia and I will check out Village Hopecore-
an NGO working in Public Health.
Signing off from our back porch in Chogoria, Marjie
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