"Who Needs Hot Water??"
Shortly after our arrival at the Delinger Cottages, we [or shall I say "I"] quickly discovered that the ENTIRE facility [not to mention the whole community] did not have hot water. The tragic news shrieked in my ears like nails down a chalkboard. It literally brought tears to my eyes. I immediately saw the next fourteen days flash before my very eyes. I envisioned the loooooooong days that would be ridden with mosquito repellent, dirt, and humidity. What's a hydenic American girl to do???? The most ironic part of this trilogy is that when I inquired with the headmaster about the hot water, he chuckled and said that he's never been asked that question before because people don't usually want hot water because of the site's close proximity to the beach. "SAY WHAT???" I totally had an Arnold Drummond moment: "Whatchu talkin about Willis????? 3X!!" Whoa! I am happy to report that Dana suggested a lovely alternative for her friend that stood frozen in the 69 degree water. We went into the city and bought basins and pots to boil our water,...I've been showering in a warm temperatures ever since! Praise the Lord!
Written by:
Adaire Brown
"Rats are Good..."
One night after dinner, Ben and I headed back to the room. I opened the door and saw a grayish looking rodent, similar to a lizard, scurry away. I screamed, which sent Ben into a tailspin because he didn't see what it was or where it went. We summoned for the groundsman to come up to our room. He came up with our cook who checked under our bed multiple times to find nothing. Because of the language barrier, instead of looking for a lizard, they thought we called them in to find a burglar. Not sure when or where we got lost in translation, but I told them the intruder had four legs and a tail. Go figure! So, once they figured out we were asking them to check for rodents, the looked at each other and laughed a hearty laugh. I, on the other hand, could not indulge in the comic relief because their was a rodent on the prowl. Before their departure, they told us that it could be a rat. "A RAT????" That's even worse than I thought. They said, "No, no problem! Rats are good...we eat them." Then they proceeded to tell us that it was good that it wasn't a snake because snakes are "very, very dangerous." [This is when it became clear that I was under attack by the devil.] A few moments later, they left, and we got over the drama and went to bed. Ben laid down first and discovered that the rodent I saw was above our bed...INSIDE of our mosquito net. So, the 2011 episode of the Kenya version of "Tom & Jerry" resumed for the next twenty to thirty minutes. This story ends with us exasperated from The Hunt for a Gray Gecko. In honor of any animal rights activists that may be reading this blog, we [sadly] never captured the gecko, and he is still cruising the mean streets of Delinger Cottages.
Written by:
Adaire Brown
"Cockroaches Need Love Too"
Two days ago, our chef packed lunches for us to take to one of the remote villages because our hosts would not be providing lunch. The time comes for our lunch, we head out to the van to get the bag that packed with all of our lunch boxes, and out pops a cockroach...or two, or three. Yikes!! We quickly found that the van had more roaches to share. When our drivers came back to pick us up [there were two drivers, and they would leave one van and take the other to the beach while we worked], Dana and Ron informed them of the roaches. One of the drivers seemed puzzled and asked what we had against cockroaches. He said that most cars/vans have roaches. [Btw, my skin is crawling as I type this]. Dana jammed him up and let him know that roaches are unsanitary and "not ok!" The two drivers just laughed at us and gave that "You-silly-Americans" look. Here we are...all this time...thinking roaches are bad. Boy were we wrong! NOT!!!!!!!
[This is when it became clear that I was under attack by the devil.] LOLOL
ReplyDeleteDana jammed him up and let him know that roaches are unsanitary and "not ok!" HILARIOUS!
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