Quieter Days

We woke up this morning with no plans for the day. Terry went for a run and I stayed behind to do some laundry. It feels odd to be doing mundane household chores away from home. I'm not feeling that inspired today. We are at the cyber cafe, not on my favourite computer, so my keyboard is sticky and there's no privacy. I'm feeling a bit whiney, perhaps I shouldn't be blogging... but we've got another 2 hours to kill because we locked our keys in the house today and the Director won't be back until 5:00pm. This is my first hint of a bad mood, not bad after two weeks.

We went for lunch today at the Snacks Stop, a Lonely Planet favourite. I chose only to have a drink today, Cody went for the ever reliable chips and fanta with simosas and Terry ordered spagetti. It had *** on the menu with a note to allow extra time for preparation. He confirmed with the waiter that the sauce had no meat in it. Everyone here is most agreeable. Lots of smiling and nodding, so we are never quite sure if we are being understood. Cody's chips arrived first. We've noticed that whatever is ready is what gets served. So if we are all out together, two of us could be finished before the other has been served. Terry's spaggetti followed. Plain noodles with coleslaw and fried spinachy stuff on the side. There was some talk about a sauce in a little medal dish, but when Terry said, "Sure, I'll try it," the waiter took it away. So a little chili sauce and tomato sauce (Kenyans substitute for ketchup) was used to try and dress it up a bit.

On the walk from lunch to the post office (posta), we passed be several little boys in the street along the way. I see them differently when they are not in their pack. I have driven through the east side of Vancouver countless times and never have a seen a little kid, homeless, begging or sleeping in the street. One of the Rotarians knows a woman who has a project for street children. I hope to meet her before we go.

Earlier today we stopped in at a friend's office (think tin shack). Matano works for KASFOOC, Kakamega Supporting Families of Orphaned Children Self Help Group. They have 13 members that support 10 families, all widows, 30 children in all. At the start of the project, they interviewed 700 families. The 10 were chosen with the following qualifications: 1) they must own land--not be tennants so they will stay in the area 2) no illicit behaviour; making 'moonshine' is a huge problem in this area as is having children run for cigarettes and other unspeakable favours 3) they must agree to keep their children in schools.

KASFOOC aims to address the issue of orphans and orphaned families by educating and supporting the families to become self sufficient. The focus for now is on planting bananas and local vegetables. Sunday we are going to visit some of the benifiting families.

More later... internet is being finicky as usual.