Bring on the Rain

It poured here last night, good old Seattle-style rain and I, of course, loved every minute of it. My mama was happy too since the cows havent been producing very much milk because there isnt very much water to drink and of course the dust situation is VASTLY improved today, however she was less than pleased about the leak in the kitchen roof. We filled up two buckets of water while cooking the ugali, kale, and meat (I'm going to guess goat) last night for dinner. Mostly we laughed about it and revelled in the sound of the rain pounding on the tin roof of our house. I wanted to stay glued to the window and watch the rain being blown around and the huge drops on the ground, but I also had to help with dinner so I didnt get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I was so dusty after yesterday my first instinct was to run out into it. Getting up to the training facility at Outward Bound today was a bit of a challenge because of the big puddles and slippery mud, but I think I prefer it to dust.

This past weekend I went on a walk with my Peace Corps friends to a "waterfall" that is only referred to as waterfall 51 or just 51. It was nice to get out and walk around somewhere besides the main streets of town we saw all week. Our friend Neil's brother Mati took us there. The walk was dusty and hot (and my friend Dan's host family lives up the steepest hill around), but it was really pretty when we got down to the river. Really it was more of a creek of barely moving water, but men were taking cattle there to drink and women and children were washing clothes on the other side. Once we got to the river we walked on boulders until we got to a dead end of rock on three sides with a little trickle of water coming through. The spot was really peaceful there and we all agreed it wouldbe a nice destination to do some pondering if we ever felt inclined. On Sunday, another group of us went again because we wanted to be out and two of the group hadnt come the previous day. This time we were escorted by the young girls taking care of Katie while her mama was out of town for the weekend (ages 9 and 13, haha). We got to our group meeting on Monday morning and the first announcement was that no one was allowed to go back to 51 anymore because, as it turns out, the actual waterfall is in Tanzania. Oops! I'm glad I got to see it though (and the people that didnt are pretty jealous). I'm also glad we didnt get caught, seeing that we dont even have our passports at this point as they are in Nairobi for processing our work permits.

Tomorrow we are making our first journey by matatu and I am kind of scared (maybe more than kind of...). Its pretty much the only mode of transportation though so I guess I better get used to it. Apparently people take all sorts of animals with them on matatus too, so that will be interesting. I always feel like I'm forgeting so much when I write here but I'll try to keep notes or something and write more soon...

PS. Thanks for the emails, I definitely love getting them. Kristin, good luck on the prelim!! You'll kick ass (and you know it).