Siaya

Siaya is a new study site. There was a big kick off celebration last weekend. Here is a little video with some of the music.

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Formats available: MPEG1 Video (.mpg)

Kadogo

Hurrah! Big brother has come to his senses and we have unblocked (to most things) Internet access again, for how long nobody knows...

It’s pronounced Kadogo, accent on last syllable. It’s Swahili for ‘little one’. The runt of Sandy’s litter, we decided to keep her. All the other eight are gone now. The yard at night is a very different place; so quiet. Sandy is happier too with only one around instead of nine, she is back to her old self again and she has a playmate during the day.

There is some things I haven’t written about in a while.:
Dickens
For those who don’t remember him you can start here.
So he’s been around all this year, believe it or not. Through the year he has bounced in and out of a couple of schools and missions The latest is that a couple months ago I made a deal with him that I would not give him anymore ‘free money’ but I would support his schooling by paying him to stay in school. The days he does not go to class, for whatever reason, are days he does not get paid. This may sound harsh but it seems to work… so far. And on days he does not go to class, like the weekends, he is here working in the compound doing yard work or whatever.

A couple of months ago the embassy sent an entire house full of brand new traditional Americana furniture so now our house is full… more than full, really. 4 sofas, several chairs, another bedroom sweet.

We are trying to batten down the hatches here as we prepare to be away for awhile. This week has been a little hard as all of us have been sick here, except Kayla (of course) so we are recovering from flu.

This weekend we all went out to were a new CDC study is beginning, there was a big celebration in the community, speeches (Kayla gave a speech), music, dance. I'll have photos/video to upload soon....

test post

this is an attempt to send a photo by email to blogger

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post from email

hi all, i am posting from email since cdc atlanta is trying to install new restriction on our internet service...big brother at it again! they have blocked my access to www.blogger.com so i might have to start going to an internet cafe to upload things, yuk! apparently blogger.com is a no no, as well as the webmail services like yahoo, but hopefully they won't block those as well.

 

this is a test post... if it works i'll send a real update soon.

 

we are all very excited about coming home!!!!! i can't wait to see everyone.

 

 

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There's no place like home...

It’s official now. Almost a year and half into this move to Africa we are coming home for our first visit back. I have only one word for it: halleluiah, I can hardly wait. I’ve been feeling rather dark lately. I need a first world fix. Home. Don’t get me wrong, I am really enjoying our adventure here, really I am, but I need a break. I…am…tired…of…talking…slowly…and…deliberately…in…order…to…be…understood…and then I am misunderstood anyway. The roads, driving, food; I hardly ate it when we lived in American but now I am craving (of all things) a Big Mac! I want to just stand and stare at the deli section at the Decatur Farmers Market in Atlanta. I am afraid of Target…I might hyperventilate if I step inside one of those stores. We do get to ship another 2500 lbs of 'consumables' back to Kenya so I'm thinking another marathon shopping spree at Costco will happen.

We leave here June 2, arrive Atlanta June 3 for about a week then to Chicago, then to New York, then back to Atlanta for almost a week and back to Kisumu. This is not going to be a ‘vacation’ in the relaxing sense. Living out of suitcases for three weeks with toddlers. More like a marathon; time to get into shape! We are promising to travel light; even going to try to rent/borrow car seats for the kids, we’ll see if it really happens that way.

See you soon!

Random Events This Week

Drove to Molo with my friend Shwan to drop his daughter at boarding school. The road takes us through some of the most beautiful countryside, lots of tea pantations.












FINALLY bottled my first batch of beer. Hard work this beer making. Now the bottles sit of another week before I can try one, hope they are drinkable....













The orphanage has completed building their new school. The official grand opening is this coming Saturday. Now for teachers salaries.........














'Luke I am your father!' shhhhh haaaaa, shhhhhh haaaaaaa.....



















Hiked with our friends Danny and Mary and their kids Bennie and Yala thru some of the most amazing rainforest in Kakamega. Its classic jungle, you'd think Tarzan would be swinging by at any moment. Max is quite the trekker now, even Esther did some actual walking on the trail.














Here a cool image of the CDC Field Station from space: LINK