Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Tuesday Night in Kipkaren

It's been a full and successful two days. Yesterday was full of culturally frustrating moments surrounding the renovation of my house in Kipkaren - workers showing up at 11, breaking for a 2-hour lunch, leaving mid afternoon. The renovations were supposed to take a week. I explained to Tobias (the contractor) that I have to move out of the hut where I'm staying by this weekend due to visitors coming early next week, so today, there were 6 guys and they worked from 8 till 6. Ceiling boards are in. A window's been knocked out and a bigger window put in (the place was very dark). Electric wiring's redone. (Previously, the place had been temporarily wired for solar power.) A gutter was added by my front door so the water from the ceiling doesn't poor onto me when I try and get the padlock unlocked in the rain. Holes were filled where electric wiring had been put in.

Tomorrow, they'll start painting. Once painting's been done, they'll do the floor tiles. I think they'll paint the bathroom ceiling first since there's more tiling to be done than elsewhere. Oh, and while they're painting, someone will replace the windows that were about to fall out because of the putty being painted before it was dry. That means I'll have to make an early-morning trip to town to buy putty. And pay a deposit at the Post Office for a leadership retreat at Rondo.

That's something I'm really excited about! Next weekend, I'm taking the management team from Kipkaren plus their wives to a retreat center in the nearby forest. None of them have ever been to Rondo. Or to the forest, for that matter. The purpose will be to do some team building & get to know each other. I invited their wives so they can enjoy the breakaway as couples, but the wives will mostly just have time to relax and have chai while the 4 men, Phoebe and I have meetings. We'll all of course go for a hike in the forest Saturday morning!

BTW, another kitten adopted me today. She belongs to a neighbor and is even smaller than Duchess. She's fast asleep on my lap as I'm typing.

I am off to take a bucket shower now, a luxury here in the evening. Cosmas got me some hot water since I got really dirty today when I helped the guys sweep my house. Construction dust is yucky. Feels like my hair is covered in dust.

Oh, among the many other things I got done today from my work to-do list, is a redesign of the ELI blog. My goal is to make all the ELI blogs look similar, but the connection was too slow today to get them all done. Next, I want to design cool banners distinctive to each. But that's on the list of things to be done in the next month. Not all tomorrow.

The frogs are croaking. The crickets are chirping. The river is flowing peacefully. My shower water is ready and calling.

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