Kimani

Today turned out to be an awesome day. I woke up at 6 feeling pretty good. Yesterday I drank about 3 liters off water from 3pm till I went to bed at 9. I think dehydration was definitely the issue.

Today at school I graded papers and hung out with the kids during the morning session. They had just finished 2 straight days of testing so today was pretty relaxed. While grading papers the main lady Hellen talked to me for literally an hour straight. She is a really nice women but she tells me nothing I do not already know. Thankfully, there is Kimani.

During the first tea break I sat around with Kimani and had more talks about Kenya and the US. Kimani is by far the smartest teacher at this school and he also understands the most English. He always teaches me alot and similarly I teach him a lot. The comparisons and contrasts we make between the US and Kenya are fascinating because you can see how each ones weaknesses could be solved or helped with ideas from the other countries strengths. I always enjoy these conversations.

After tea, since not much was going on we decided to take the rest of our break and go for a walk through the village. This turned out to be amazing.

We ended up walking to Kimani's house. He lives a 10 minute walk from the school in the most beautiful part of Kenya I have seen yet. His house lies on a slight hill with nature and animals all around. His house was clearly hand built with whatever materials could be found and the fences and gates for his farm animals were made with sticks and branches. There was an amazing amount of beauty and relaxation sitting in his land. Everything there was his and besides little things like sugar, he needed no one to live.

Kimani has 8 chickens that wander around, two cows along with a calf that was just born a month ago, 8 rabbits, 2 goats as well as two baby goats and 2 dogs. the structures he has made to hold all these animals was awesome. He kept opening doors that led to more homes for more animals.

The baby goats were the coolest things he had. When he let them out they just jumped all around. They run too, but seemed to take any and every opportunity to jump from one place to another. They were so small and cute.

The calf was also cute. It was lying down in its cage when I first saw it and I believe that is the first time I have seen a cow that is not standing. Although the calf was less than a month old, it was pretty big. Not nearly as big as an adult cow but to think that these things are born like they are... well it just blows my mind.

We had a snack consisting of an avocado that came right from one of his 15 or so avocado trees as well as a small pineapple (possibly the best pineapple I have ever had).

After gathering up some of the animals we left his house for a trek through his "shamba" (basically a farm). We walked through a cornfield which had random avocado trees growing all over.

After a bit we came across his wife and another relative doing some laundry in a little stream that went through their land. His son, Jonathon was also there. After greeting them we continued on to my favorite part of this excursion...

We came across a lady and a man, both probably 75 years old tending to their farm. They owned beautiful looking crops and were working hard to keep it that way. The man grew sugar canes and in Swahili Kimani asked if we could have some. The man, Kimani told me, is basically his father and they have a very close relationship, so the man happily said yes. He walked over to what looked like to me was just some kind of bush and pulled out a long cane looking stick. He then took his machete and hacked off the ends of cane and then cut it into 3 pieces. One piece would be used to regrow the crop, one was for us to eat, and one is sitting in my lap to eat later.

The man then took the piece we would eat and cut off the skin/bark whatever it would be. He cut little strips up and handed them to me. I have never eaten anything right out of the ground that was so delicious. Sugar cane is clearly what is used to make sugar, but when you eat it straight it is even more delicious. You simply chew on what otherwise looks like a piece of stick. It tastes sweet and is very juicy. After the flavor dies out you spit the piece out and get another. I must have eaten like 4 pounds of sugar cane on our walk back to the school.

When we got back to the school Kimani, Hellen and I discussed tomorrow's plan. Tommy will be coming to teach with me tomorrow. We will do an English lesson, an American geography lesson, and whatever other lessons we feel like doing. We will teach from 7:30 until the 10:30 tea break. From there we will leave with Kimani to his house. I am bringing 300 shillings because Kimani offered to slaughter one of his rabbits for lunch tomorrow. Yes, I am super excited to be eating fresh rabbit meat for lunch. Sorry all you animal lovers out there. We will also have fresh avocado from his trees and traditional Kenyan food, as Kimani put it. I have become friends with Kimani and am very grateful that he has showed me his house and is offering to give us lunch tomorrow. The 300 shillings is all he asked from me as his animals are important for his food and income. After eating lunch Kimani, Tommy and I will go on a little walk through the town to Kiambu. It should be awesome and I am sure Tommy will enjoy a change of pace from his hospital.

Today after lunch all the teachers and I talked about getting married and all that jazz. Here in Kenya they get married pretty quickly after meeting someone. Therefore, because they are not with a partner for very long before marriage, they said that many people's true colors come out after marriage, causing problems. Also, although it is not legal, many men have many women as "wives." Kimani was funny because he said it was a good thing because one of them may not be able to fulfill one's desires. I told them about how marriage works here and they seemed pretty surprised that people could be together for many many years before actually getting married.

Another thing that always shocks Kenyans is how open America is to homosexuality. When I tell them that homosexuals come out to the public they look at me and are so surprised.

The biggest problem, by far facing Kenya is the corruption. The government is an utter joke. If you saw how Tommy's hospital was run you would laugh and the fact that my school, which is not very good, is way better than public schools is equally as sad. All the government officials are very selfish and are willing to accept money in almost any circumstance, never with the countries well-being in mind. I have yet to meet a single Kenya that does not have disgust towards their leaders. It really is sad because as Kimani told me today, "almost all the problems Kenya faces are self inflicted wounds."

Well I cannot wait to get home and cut open this sugar cane. So yummy. Tomorrow will be a great day and then that brings me to Friday.

Keep checking this as only a few blogs will be remaining.

Asante!
Kevin