Surprise!! There is a new post!!

Hope all is well. I have been reminded recently that I have not been updating the blog too often. So here goes. I am in Mbakalo, the first town I originally came to after leaving Nairobi, and have been here for one week, since last Tuesday. The last week in Ugenya I visited a school on Monday and Tuesday to complete evaluations, and spent a lot of time generally doing nothing, since my entire reason for staying the extra week was so that I’d be able to watch the superbowl. I spent some time in the town almost everyday; it was only about a kilometer down the road from the hotel. I would pass the time walking through the market, and one day I decided I would count how many storefronts I could find advertising ready-made coffins. I counted three workshops in 200 meters on the main road. Then I got bored or something. The superbowl was ok… some other mizungus came to the hotel to watch, and we partook in several bottles of cheap Kenyan liquor. Somehow during this time I figured out how to make my cellphone call America, so for those of you on the receiving end I apologize for the ridiculousness, but feel special, because it means you are one of the few whose numbers I remembered. On Tuesday I made the return trip to Mbakalo, and this time it only took 2.5 hours. I told you that the way we came 2 weeks earlier seemed rather indirect…I knew it! 2 points of interest on this trip….the first, I was sitting in the front seat of a bus type thing…its like the home city ice truck that deeps flipped, but the back is converted into seating…anyway, I got to sit up front due to my large muscular build, and got a front row seat to the standoff between our 7000 pound truck…and a guy with 10 feet of sugarcane strapped across his bicycle. For about 5 minutes they argued who should back up and use the other 20 feet of this particular road’s width. For some reason this side of the dirt road we both were using seemed better than the other. The whole time I was thinking back to sixth grade history class when they told us how the flatboats on the canals would have the captains fight to see which boat would have to back up to the lock so they could pass. I was absolutely ready to put 100 bucks on the guy with the bike. Going face to face with a 25 passenger bus takes a real pair when all you have is a huffy. The only other interesting part of the trip was the sign I saw painted in large, crisp letters over the office door of the apparent second in charge of the city…. “ASS CHIEF’S OFFICE” I’m not exactly sure what the hell that guy does, but it sounds like a pretty good job.
Ive been here in Mbakalo for a week now. Most days start with a biscuit, a shower from the pan of water on the floor of the outhouse, and a leisurely stroll to the medical clinic. Ive been meeting with the womens groups that received microfinance loans this year, splicing extension cords, visiting some of the water/well/latrine infrastructure projects that were put in through a grant from the lake Victoria water protection board or( something like that), and writing a plan with the head leadership to make the programs they have here sustainable, since right now programming is inconsistent due to variations in grant funding and funding from donors to the headquarters back in the states.

Most nights we head back around 5 or so, and play football with the neighborhood kids until it gets dark at 630 or so. After that its pitch black outside, and inside, except for the one lightbulb in the dining room that runs off of a solar panel. We get a dinner around 8, then its bedtime, since there is nothing else to do in the dark. There is another intern here now, who arrived here the same day I did, and we have been going back and forth on the idea of going down to hike Kilimanjaro before I leave. By the way, is this the most amount of snow ever in the states? The only time I see the news I see everyone getting dumped on. That sucks. It actually rained again today. That’s the second time in a month and a half. Stay warm my friends.