It's hot tonight

As quickly as the rains had started a few weeks ago, so abruptly they stopped. But there are heavy clouds every day, and the air feels like it should just break out in a big storm soon. Yet there is no rain, which does not only make the farmers desperate, but it makes for sweaty people...

I know. Not something you'd want to read about. So I'll stop there. It's just plain hot.

This morning, after spending some time in the office, I picked up the headmaster (Rop) at the school and headed to town. I just needed to buy a few things at the hardware store, then come back. By the time we got to town, it was almost lunch, and the store closes between 1 and 2. (Lots of businesses here do that.) So I went to Eldo Grill (a good restaurant in town), and worked while I had lunch. Headed back to Eagle Hardware and was there for 2 hours getting only a few tins of paint, nails, ceiling boards, replacement window panes. Stuff that you'd get at Lowe's in half an hour. Went to pick up Rop again, then some other guests who are visiting my neighbors from somewhere else in Kenya. It was after 6 by the time we got home. Yikes.

Obviously, I'm not driving home to Ilula at night, so I'm spending the night in Kipkaren. Oh, part of my early morning tasks (after spending an hour on the mountain with God, appreciating the sunrise) was to move ALL my stuff out of my house into the neighboring hut. While I was in town, Tobias (our contractor fundi dude) gutted the house. He removed all the ceiling boards, and Raymond (the electrician fundi dude) chipped termite-like holes in the walls to install electric outlets. They tell me it'll all be done in a week. It's possible, since not that much is being done.

I was explaining to one Kenyan friend who commented that "you women like everything so nice" that it's our "nesting instinct." It's just part of the way God wired us.

I'm heading to dinner with the Davis family and their friends from Pokot. I cooked dinner for them last night, and much of the chicken was left, so Jen cooked a chicken soup for this evening with the rest. Fun. I picked up ice cream in town yesterday, and I can't wait to have that tonight! I am not sure if the friends from Pokot have ever had ice cream, so it might be quite a cultural experience.

Like yesterday, when some guys helped unload the tiles from my car. I gave them all maji baridi, ice water. They hadn't ever had ice before. A long discussion followed, and they were especially amazed to hear that in Iowa (and other places) the rivers ice in the winter.

Ah, the fun of living in another culture, eh?

Off to hot chicken soup and ice cream dinner... Odd combination, but I'm looking forward, nevertheless.