Girls Day

Saturday… was fabulous. I hung out with girlfriends (only) all day… and it has been a long time since I have done that, even in Canada (naturally, as most of the time I spend any spare moment in Canada with my fabulous husband!!!).

After waking at a leisurely hour, drinking REAL coffee for breakfast (as in not instant, which is what you usually get at cafes and in most people’s houses) and having toast (as in bread that is actually toasted… in a toaster… as opposed to the ‘toast’ you order at cafes, which is plain, white bread straight out of the bag), we had a little discussion about a section of the Bible my hosts were studying as a group, and then three of us girls took off for the day, and another one joined in. Three Canadians and an American. One of the Canadian girls is living permanently here in Kitale while the other girls are just there for a short time like me.

First stop, the baby rescue center around the corner. A British girl runs it now… I think it is was started by a family connection… not exactly sure… in any case, it looks like a great operation… 11 ‘babies’ between 8 months and 3 ½. Either abandoned by parents or orphans. Some come from as far away as Lodwar (Northern Kenya) and others are from close by. We held babies and played peek-a-boo for over an hour. Very relaxing on their expansive lawn.

After the babies we went to the museum to watch the finals for the secondary schools music competition. The singing finals were held in a small round foyer place, and the dance finals were in a large auditorium with beautiful mural like paintings on the wall depicting several tribes of Kenya.

The schools were supposed to choose songs along a theme, for instance to do with a certain tribe of Kenya, or 'popular music' or 'music from the 80's'. They were judged not only on their musical ability but also on the morals or lessons that could be learned from the song. Most kids performed dances/ songs that were from a tribe other than their own, such as these two schools doing islamic songs.

This pic of a kid with a cowboy hat cracks me up. The song is about a love triangle between a Kenyan man, the woman who's university education he financed in Japan, and the 'short Japanese man' who she stepped off the plane with three years later, while holding his baby. There were two boys who stood a bit forward of the semi circle of singers, and did some REALLY cheese dance moves. I've got a video of it that I will try to post at some point. Hilarious. I think they were supposed to represent the two men, but have no idea which was which.

The day was rounded off with a great meal and time of chatting about 'girl stuff', a visit to a tailor with a Kenyan friend to get a Kenyan style outfit made, and then a visit to my friend's house, where I got to see her mom's cool stove.

I got after a taxi triver on the way to Sarah's house...I used Swahili... so proud of myself. When he stopped to pick up the eighth passenger in a five-person vehicle, I asked him where on earth he thought she would sit. There were already four people in the back, and I was sharing the front passenger seat with another woman and both our bags. He could barely switch gears as it was, since I was nearly sitting on his seat. Obviously, he intended for this new full grown woman to share the driver's seat with him. I protested it would be dangerous, and that the car was already full. Once I started this line of talking, the other passengers joined in, and my friend Sarah declared we would not pay him our full fare if he let another passenger in. He did let the woman in, she did somehow share the drivers seat with him, and we did NOT pay him our full fare. Sarah and I paid 3/4 of the price for each of us and simply walked away. Most people agree here that while the law is there to limit the number of people in a vehicle to the number of seatbelts, police are generally paid off in the mornings to ensure 'safe' overstuffed rides all day long.