Day 13

"Self", I says, "it's time to get up"  As you know by now, or should, it was almost sunrise time....6:30 of course.  "Stay in bed", says my 63 year old body.  As the battle raged, I found myself a slave to my 'morning person' self and was up and shaving before my body caught up.


It rained again last night reminding me again how good it is to be here in the 'dry season'. But it was drying out by 7:30, so after fending off the tempestuous herd, I headed for my hideout.....only known by me and 82 kids.....whom, by the way, being Saturday, had chores to do before they could turn their attention to tormenting me. So, I had a couple of hours to actually get something done before resuming my defensive posture. Since Carla has surrendered much of her personal space to storage, I began to build a lockable storage cabinet to placed in the 'Powerhouse' storeroom. Much to my surprise, and to many others too, I got the whole cabinet roughed out by 9:30 and was confounded by actually producing something. Jeff caught me looking totally confused, and said what I needed was to have my kidneys beat to a pulp..."come on" says he, "lets see if our bodies can stand the "roads" and go to town". He likes to tempt fate like that. So off we go headed down what he said was a road to Kitale. On the way, we dodged many a crater, while testing Toyota's ability to survive climbing in and out huge potholes....all the while Jeffs saying how good the roads are this year. (it's harder to talk with the wind knocked out of you, so it took awhile). Somewhere along the line, the front end of the truck fell off, or so it seemed, as the steering wheel began to breakdance in Jeffs hands....."c-c-omp-p-pleeet-t-ty n-n-normallll," he says, gasping for air. Turns out a wheel balancing weight must have mysteriously fallen off, causing one of the front tires do the hoochie goochie. I'm sure that one day, spelunkers exploring the potholes here will find a plethora of wheel weights. Anyway, hopalong Toyota came to Kitale.  Jeff said that he didn't have any feelings left in his hands, ( I had plenty in my butt) and that maybe we could get the front end put back on the truck....we went to...and I swear....and actual Toyota shop.  Now you are imagining a big dealership with a huge bright red lighted sign....and you'd be WRONG!  After herding Toyota down what looked like a dry creek bed, we came to "the shop".  Now to get in, we had to go through a gate...a manned gate with a guy with a night stick, that gave me the idea to behave myself...not easy, by the way.  Just as an aside, most of the shops(stores, to you and me) have guards at the door to keep out the riffraff.  Fortunately they didn't notice my riffraff tendencies and have let me in without a whack.  Anyhoo, "got a spin type wheel balancer?" Jeff inquires.  "Yes" an attendent confidently and, I might add proudly says.  "well then, could we get the front wheels balanced?" Jeff says, with a hint of doubt.  "we have no wheel balancing weights" was the reply.  Hmmmm, I thinks to myself, there might be some money in spelunking in these parts.  So, off down the creekbed we went on our quest for the 21st century.  Now we had other chores to do, so we stopped at sattelite tv shop and Jeff took his receiver in to get it activated, while I milled around doing my best not to look like riffraff.  After about 20 minutes were informed that we could now rot our brains out in front of the tv with the best of them....some 21st century stuff. 

Then we went to a hardware shop, looking for hinges and hasps and stuff.  As I intently looked for Ace Hardware, or Home Depot, Jeff stealthily drove back to the 18th century and place us in front of "a shop".....with a guard.....Stepping back in time, we found ourselves in an approximately 16' x 30' dark hole in the wall that had all kinds of stuff stacked and leaning against the wall.  It was run by an east indian who was born in Kenya, and spoke swahili and indian and what I think was english...at least I think he thought so.  Turns out, Jeff speaks 'swa-indi-lish' and we got what we needed.

So we headed to a tire shop and not only did they have a spin balancer, but evidently had their own team of spelunkers, as they had weights too.  Now, this place was no Les Swab, because no-one came running to help.....but they did let us help, by taking off our own wheels and replacing them after they were balanced......they were nice that way!!  By then, the feeling was returning to Jeffs hands and he was able to tell that the tire shop had done well, and we headed back toward home...and just in time too, as the blood in my urine had just about cleared up.

Arriving back at the compound just in time to be swept downstream into the house by the latest "rain".  All in all, a good day, and I am so thankful that I learned to swim at a young age, as it might be useful if this "dry season" continues.

Most of the kids remain healthy with the exception of a few, that will be fine in awhile.  J & C keep close tabs on them.  I'll try to have Sandy write something of value tomorrow....I know, that would be refreshing after me.  Thanks for the prayers....this is an amazing place with truely the hand of God upon it.