While Lara still manages the fort - and quite a management effort it requires - I have returned to South America, most of my luggage intact, mosquito bites to spare.
Day 740: Africa Still Produces Cute Children
Currently in Kenya, the old pictures are true: the kids are still adorable. A few inches taller than when Claire last saw them two months ago, but still adorably petite.
Day 740: Back in Kenya with a vengeance
Well, the internet is out at the orphanage, so we hvae been doing all our emailing from town (with a bad keyboard, so pardon typos). This is fine, as we have claire's blackberry (lara's blackberry continues to be quite hte issue but we don't speak of this) to at least read emails and send back two line responses. This is how claire emails from computers anyway, so people haven't really noticed a change.
it is AMAZING to be back--the kids are all jsut teh same, but bigger. Except the ones who haven't actually gotten any bigger, which is alternately because they're grown or because we should be concerned abotu them. But Tumaini putters along as usual--the elders are eldering, the runners are running, the kids are yelling--it's all as we left it, happily if anything better for the wear.
The highlights of our return have included:
The First Annual Inernational kono kono Marathon: (kono kono is a slug)which included 13 slugs gathered from the garden, and about 45 screaming kids, and two squealing lara and claire's. We had lots of prizes for the winning slug (named Douglas after one of the running coaches) as well as some speeches from myself. Unfortunately, the slug named Claire because it was so white kept taking off in the wrong direction, and the slug named Lara just went to sleep. Oh well. At least time the kids did not trick Claire into giving the slug salt as its prize. Sad Claire has fallen for that trick before.
2. A great arrival lunch--I really missed kenyan food and tea. The lunch also included an in-depth disucssion of obama and hillary and their recent antics--everyone here is surprisingly pro Hillary considering Obama is a Kenyan--however, then we found out that Obama is a Luo (rival tribe) so he is less liked around here than one might expect.
3. WE hve spent 6 hours in the BArclay's Bank--Nyeri Branch. We discovered when we got here that there was some complex college tuition fee stuff happening, and we've been trying to negotiate the issue (thanks mom and dad!). All will be fine in the end, but lordy. These Kenyans are killing me. In order to take otu money this time, I required a letter of introduction from a Kenyan "of good standing." So we went to take the truck to find Cucu, the elder at Tumaini, but ended up running into an elder from the church instead. He climbed in with us (there were 13 of us in the car at this point), and he came down to both provide his signature, and a public shaming at the bank for giving us "who were helping the church" a hard time. After this "good fathering" as Eunice explained it, the bank was much more amenable to our issue.
But things are good--we have had story hour, lots of tea, and while I have yet to partake of any githeri, I'm sure it's coming soon enough. The reunion five K run is tomorrow--everyone hope it goes well, and that no one notices that Claire and I can no longer run well.
it is AMAZING to be back--the kids are all jsut teh same, but bigger. Except the ones who haven't actually gotten any bigger, which is alternately because they're grown or because we should be concerned abotu them. But Tumaini putters along as usual--the elders are eldering, the runners are running, the kids are yelling--it's all as we left it, happily if anything better for the wear.
The highlights of our return have included:
The First Annual Inernational kono kono Marathon: (kono kono is a slug)which included 13 slugs gathered from the garden, and about 45 screaming kids, and two squealing lara and claire's. We had lots of prizes for the winning slug (named Douglas after one of the running coaches) as well as some speeches from myself. Unfortunately, the slug named Claire because it was so white kept taking off in the wrong direction, and the slug named Lara just went to sleep. Oh well. At least time the kids did not trick Claire into giving the slug salt as its prize. Sad Claire has fallen for that trick before.
2. A great arrival lunch--I really missed kenyan food and tea. The lunch also included an in-depth disucssion of obama and hillary and their recent antics--everyone here is surprisingly pro Hillary considering Obama is a Kenyan--however, then we found out that Obama is a Luo (rival tribe) so he is less liked around here than one might expect.
3. WE hve spent 6 hours in the BArclay's Bank--Nyeri Branch. We discovered when we got here that there was some complex college tuition fee stuff happening, and we've been trying to negotiate the issue (thanks mom and dad!). All will be fine in the end, but lordy. These Kenyans are killing me. In order to take otu money this time, I required a letter of introduction from a Kenyan "of good standing." So we went to take the truck to find Cucu, the elder at Tumaini, but ended up running into an elder from the church instead. He climbed in with us (there were 13 of us in the car at this point), and he came down to both provide his signature, and a public shaming at the bank for giving us "who were helping the church" a hard time. After this "good fathering" as Eunice explained it, the bank was much more amenable to our issue.
But things are good--we have had story hour, lots of tea, and while I have yet to partake of any githeri, I'm sure it's coming soon enough. The reunion five K run is tomorrow--everyone hope it goes well, and that no one notices that Claire and I can no longer run well.
Day 739 addendum
good thing I was up at 3 AM--email crises regarding office depot and claire's computer...
cancelled ! Again! Sent back to warehouse!
No worries--emily is on it! Go emily go!
Sigh. Then sob a little bit.
cancelled ! Again! Sent back to warehouse!
No worries--emily is on it! Go emily go!
Sigh. Then sob a little bit.
Day 739: Hooray Kenya!
I'm here again hurray! It was absolute hell getting out the door of the US because At&T/IBM conspired to ruin my life (Claire wasn't kidding--AT&T abjectly lied to me. it was shocking. They even acknowledged that they had lied many times, but that they couldn't fix it. ARRRGGGH.) and because i'm an idiot and had no time to do everything that needed to be done; but the flights were delightfully smooth and I even made it to them thanks to a multi-person effort to get me out the door (thanks mom and dad! And Will and Gabs and Bobo and Gracie! And Silvana! The George Clooney-obsessed flight attendant for BA! i'll forgive you for the Matthew McConaughey pictures...) One very short layover in London, lots of sleep and a bit of movie watching. Then more sleep.
I was dreadfully hungover from a month of relative sleeplessness between finals and a round of serious MCAT cramming and taking. BUT it's all OVER!!! And though I return from Africa to a nice round up of summer school, I now have a blissful whole month of doing much more fun things like hanging with the urphins.
So far Kenya has been uneventful. There was a small bit of bribery of customs officials when I got in, but even that was really quite painless in the end--when I invoked the fact that it was donations for kids, they didn't care, but when I explained that I was giving them to a church and anything they charged me, the reverend would be paying so REALLY they were charging the Kenyan church for US donations, the numbers went down real quick. happily--as their first numbers started at over 400 USD, which got me all red in the face and sweaty with outrage. but in the end, it was more like 15 USD. Claire says this has nothing to do with my bargaining skills and everything to do wit hthe fact that they were being ridiculous, I beg to differ.
Other than that, it's been quiet, like I said. Highlights have included:
1) getting yelled at by the airport officials beyond the customs people because I kept scampering across the security lines without getting checked or even showing a passport to talk to my driver (the wonderful Francis) about how best to bribe people and to get money from the bank. They eased up for some reason when I told them "asanti sana" or thank you very much in Kiswahili. At first, I thought this was because they were impressed with my (totally nonexistent) language skills. Then I realized they were probably laughing at me.
2) realizing that despite my massive massive amounts of crap, I did manage to forget important things
3) READING A NOVEL for the first time in a long time. I've read two in fact. And it was great.
4) Offering Splenda to the woman that cleans my hotel room. They hadn't given me sugar for my coffee that morning, so I rummaged through all my stuff and found a couple of stray bags of splenda (no I really had not packed them). When I explained to the woman that I would need sugar in the morning, she seemed to doubt my need for sugar since I was drinking their coffee as we spoke in the supposedly sugar-free room. By way of explanation, I showed her the Splenda. She wanted some. so I handed it over, and she promptly poured it over her hand and licked it off.
She liked it.
5) Grocery shopping, showering after my airplane ride with a pretty gecko, sleeping through the night for about 11 hours when I got here, and reuniting with our driver Francis were other highlights.
Now it's almost 3 AM here, I'm awake again, and need to go back to sleep. But part worry about how the next few months will go, and mostly excitement to be back and seeing hte kids tomorrow are keeping me up--
SO good to be back. And far away from Science Lecture Hall C and my MCAT books.
Sigh.
I was dreadfully hungover from a month of relative sleeplessness between finals and a round of serious MCAT cramming and taking. BUT it's all OVER!!! And though I return from Africa to a nice round up of summer school, I now have a blissful whole month of doing much more fun things like hanging with the urphins.
So far Kenya has been uneventful. There was a small bit of bribery of customs officials when I got in, but even that was really quite painless in the end--when I invoked the fact that it was donations for kids, they didn't care, but when I explained that I was giving them to a church and anything they charged me, the reverend would be paying so REALLY they were charging the Kenyan church for US donations, the numbers went down real quick. happily--as their first numbers started at over 400 USD, which got me all red in the face and sweaty with outrage. but in the end, it was more like 15 USD. Claire says this has nothing to do with my bargaining skills and everything to do wit hthe fact that they were being ridiculous, I beg to differ.
Other than that, it's been quiet, like I said. Highlights have included:
1) getting yelled at by the airport officials beyond the customs people because I kept scampering across the security lines without getting checked or even showing a passport to talk to my driver (the wonderful Francis) about how best to bribe people and to get money from the bank. They eased up for some reason when I told them "asanti sana" or thank you very much in Kiswahili. At first, I thought this was because they were impressed with my (totally nonexistent) language skills. Then I realized they were probably laughing at me.
2) realizing that despite my massive massive amounts of crap, I did manage to forget important things
3) READING A NOVEL for the first time in a long time. I've read two in fact. And it was great.
4) Offering Splenda to the woman that cleans my hotel room. They hadn't given me sugar for my coffee that morning, so I rummaged through all my stuff and found a couple of stray bags of splenda (no I really had not packed them). When I explained to the woman that I would need sugar in the morning, she seemed to doubt my need for sugar since I was drinking their coffee as we spoke in the supposedly sugar-free room. By way of explanation, I showed her the Splenda. She wanted some. so I handed it over, and she promptly poured it over her hand and licked it off.
She liked it.
5) Grocery shopping, showering after my airplane ride with a pretty gecko, sleeping through the night for about 11 hours when I got here, and reuniting with our driver Francis were other highlights.
Now it's almost 3 AM here, I'm awake again, and need to go back to sleep. But part worry about how the next few months will go, and mostly excitement to be back and seeing hte kids tomorrow are keeping me up--
SO good to be back. And far away from Science Lecture Hall C and my MCAT books.
Sigh.
Day 738: Lara and Claire in Africa, All Electronic Equipment Broken. Tears.
It's our energy.
The amount of bad technology karma we carry is unbelievable. The latest is that Lara's computer ALSO broke two days before arriving in Africa. Needless to say, the new one she ordered did not come in time.
Let's review the companies who have tried to ruin our lives this week, and the products affiliated with them:
Apple, Claire's Mac (broken, 10 months old)
Dell, Claire's new computer (wrong item shipped, returned)
Office Depot #1, Claire's new computer (shipped and billed to wrong addresses; canceled)
Office Depot #2, Claire's new computer (shipped and billed AGAIN to wrong addresses; canceled)
Office Depot #3, Claire's new computer (after 15 hours on the phone, it just may arrive, but is already 5 days late, so, you know...)
IBM, Lara's Computer (broken)
IBM, Lara's new computer (shipped express, not delivered in time)
Verizon, Lara's Blackberry (after 7 years reception ended; service canceled)
AT&T, Lara's Blackberry (signed on to get Africa service; they tell lies and now there is no Africa service)
Verizon (again), Claire's Blackberry (only working half the time in Africa due to inexplicable Verizon wireless problems that have to do with the fact that Claire has not been in the USA to update some "critical" software)
The amount of bad technology karma we carry is unbelievable. The latest is that Lara's computer ALSO broke two days before arriving in Africa. Needless to say, the new one she ordered did not come in time.
Let's review the companies who have tried to ruin our lives this week, and the products affiliated with them:
Apple, Claire's Mac (broken, 10 months old)
Dell, Claire's new computer (wrong item shipped, returned)
Office Depot #1, Claire's new computer (shipped and billed to wrong addresses; canceled)
Office Depot #2, Claire's new computer (shipped and billed AGAIN to wrong addresses; canceled)
Office Depot #3, Claire's new computer (after 15 hours on the phone, it just may arrive, but is already 5 days late, so, you know...)
IBM, Lara's Computer (broken)
IBM, Lara's new computer (shipped express, not delivered in time)
Verizon, Lara's Blackberry (after 7 years reception ended; service canceled)
AT&T, Lara's Blackberry (signed on to get Africa service; they tell lies and now there is no Africa service)
Verizon (again), Claire's Blackberry (only working half the time in Africa due to inexplicable Verizon wireless problems that have to do with the fact that Claire has not been in the USA to update some "critical" software)
Day 736: Claire, To Africa with broken computers
Claire heads to Africa today, after an obvious layover in Sao Paolo, Brazil and then Amsterdam.
On hand, she also has her broken mac (you have heard the story of this) and hopes of receiving a new computer from Emily Baker, Hope Runs Fundraising Director in Seattle who is meeting us in Africa later in the week.
Emily's ability to bring said new computer is severely hampered by the nightmarish companies that are both Dell and Office Depot.
After ordering (and having it be canceled for inexplicable reasons) FOUR computers, it looks unlikely that Emily will receive even one measly computer to bring to Claire in Africa.
It seems that as soon as companies become large, they lose all interest in their customers.
Sob.
On hand, she also has her broken mac (you have heard the story of this) and hopes of receiving a new computer from Emily Baker, Hope Runs Fundraising Director in Seattle who is meeting us in Africa later in the week.
Emily's ability to bring said new computer is severely hampered by the nightmarish companies that are both Dell and Office Depot.
After ordering (and having it be canceled for inexplicable reasons) FOUR computers, it looks unlikely that Emily will receive even one measly computer to bring to Claire in Africa.
It seems that as soon as companies become large, they lose all interest in their customers.
Sob.
Day 734: To Africa, Lara with broken blackberry in hand
Lara heads to Africa today. Useless non-working blackberry in hand. This story, which is boring, has to do with the disastrous companies and customer service nightmares that are both Verizon and AT&T.
Verizon: After XXX years failed to give Lara reception in her own home. She had to get rid of them. Lots of yelling ensued.
AT&T: Convinced her to sign up using lies, assuring her that she could work her berry within the week in Africa. NOT SO BOSTON! (a palindrome)
Customer service people of the world are ruining our lives.
Verizon: After XXX years failed to give Lara reception in her own home. She had to get rid of them. Lots of yelling ensued.
AT&T: Convinced her to sign up using lies, assuring her that she could work her berry within the week in Africa. NOT SO BOSTON! (a palindrome)
Customer service people of the world are ruining our lives.
What's Important
Awesome picture of a chalkboard at one our Tanzania sites. No matter your religion hopefully this remains a powerful image...
Day 726: Get Your Blog Linked and Be Confused
How did we get traffic from an old blog post going on some blog section of the Chicago Sun-Times Online?
Can anyone use simple language to explain this article link to us?
Can anyone use simple language to explain this article link to us?
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