Yesterday I gave you a look into the “glamorous” life of a missionary….it continues today. But today I have photos!
Woke up this morning to no cat poo…yeah! But woke up feeling extremely tired. Not sure why but as the morning went along I felt nauseous and had a headache. I laid down for a bit and the nausea faded and once I got up and moved around the headache left too. So I decided to head up to C4KK with Chuck. Just before leaving he got a phone call from Bosco saying the water pump wasn’t working. One more thing to add to the list of to-do’s today.
We made it to C4KK and I began setting up my computer and ready to start the day when I heard a cricket. A few days ago Bosco had to rescue my desk from being overrun with crickets but they weren’t by the desk today. I kicked a shoe box that was on the floor and this is what greeted me:
Sorry the photo is a bit blurry but I wasn’t in the mood to stick around and have one of these yucky critters jump at me or on me!
Once the plague of crickets was handled Chuck went outside to check on the pump situation. They had to pull up the pump to check it and found out the pump was not working for some reason.
Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Wrong! Finding someone to fix it is another issue altogether. A few calls later and we found someone in a nearby village (Ruai) who can work on the pump, but he’s in Nairobi today. He agreed to come back to Ruai after hearing the pump was for a children’s home, but the question is when exactly. He’ll call a friend, that friend will call us and then Chuck and Bosco can go to Ruai with the pump and see if he can actually fix it. So I have no idea when we’ll be leaving today. Luckily the crickets have moved along and I don’t have to fight them…so far today.
As I came back into the office I found a group of kids in Ann’s room. They were discussing who needed their hair cut. Good time to talk with the primary girl students about their hair. I had mentioned to one girl she needed her hair cut. She shook her head and said she didn’t want it shaved. I let it go but figured she didn’t want it shaved because she wants to get braids or a weave or straightened during school break. Ann and I agreed the primary girls are too young to have any of that stuff done with their hair. Let’s see who gets shaved or who stays “shaggy” as they call it!
Then Chuck took the boys over to the neighbors to hand draw water…no pump repair yet. Today was supposed to be cleaning day but with no water it will have to be put off until the pump can be repaired. They’ll draw enough for drinking and cooking, it’s definitely not an easy job. Here’s a photo of the kids coming back from drawing water….they love riding in the truck!
It is now 5pm, electricity has been going on and off throughout the afternoon, sun is beating in on my computer (needed to shut a curtain but that stops the wind flow), the pump repair guy hasn’t even called yet and the kids have hauled in all the water jugs…enough water to last the evening and into tomorrow (no bathing tonight). Found out the repair guy is still in Nairobi. Trying to work out a time he can come tomorrow, meaning we’ll be here tomorrow. Someone asked us once about a Sabbath….we normally get more “sabbath-like” moments rather than full days! This isn’t a 9-5 job but kids’ lives and each and every day things need to be attended to, fixed, purchased, etc. Yes we are working on “self-sufficiency” but there still needs to be hands on help.
Ah yes, another glamorous day in Kenya!