This morning, I worked on a photo project for the orphanage office, making sure I have all the children's names right on their pictures. (I want to print and frame all the pictures for a photo wall in the office, making it easier for visitors to check on kids' names.)
Samuel (our director) asked me to stop by the market in the afternoon to buy groceries for a dinner to welcome home Don and Amy Rogers' family. A colleague went to the market with me since it was my first time to go to the "real" market in town. In fact, I was rather surprised to see what a large market was hiding in the backstreets of Eldoret!
And so I met Peter, a vendor whom I'm told is reliable. He won't charge me wazungu prices (higher prices for white people...) but will charge me what Kenyans pay. And if he doesn't have something on my list, one of his guys will get it elsewhere in the market for me (at a price, of course).
Anyway, on the list, among various vegetables, was 2 chickens.
"Alive or dead?" Peter asked. "If you want them dead, you'll have to go to a supermarket."
"Alive," I said. The only chicken I've seen at the supermarket was frozen rock solid, and we don't have things like microwave ovens out here...
And so the kukus (Swahili for chicken) came home with me.
I didn't want to carry them! It's hard enough to see dinner alive, let alone bond with it by carrying it...
I tried not to think of the live chickens when I had dinner. I have to get used to the idea, because I'm not always too sure how fresh/safe the chicken from the supermarket is!
Wireless Hut
I am no longer sitting in my cold, windowless living room at night in order to access the Internet. Today, I managed to configure my "Airport Express." That means I now have wireless Internet! The reason I wanted to make this area wireless is when your home is your office is where you'll be spending most of every day, it's nice to at least be able to move around a little. Can't do that when everything's tied to a single wire in the living room...
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first hut in Kenya with wireless Internet access!
We're getting a computer for the orphanage office this week, and starting next week, I'll be conducting training for our staff on basic computer skills. They keep telling me, "We would have never dreamed that we could have Internet right here!" Till now, in order to access the Internet, they'd either hitch a ride to the main road and take a matatu from there to town, but more often than not, they'd simply walk the 3km dirt road to the main road and then catch a matatu. The journey to and from town easily takes half a day, if not longer. But now, they can access it right here!
I'm excited for them for the wealth of information that will now be available for the pastors. I am, of course, also concerned for what they might run into on the Internet, but we'll talk about that.
I'm especially excited that we can now receive e-mail right here for the children from their sponsors! The kids don't understand yet what the Internet is. They have asked me many times about the satellite dish. I have explained to them that now, our friends in America can write to us and within seconds, the letter is right here!
What fun to introduce technology to them.
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