Last night the three of us went over to Deo's, a little pub/grocery in the village of Rau near the old CCS home base before it was moved into Shanty Town. Finally, after a year of waiting, I had some chips-mayai. Basically, a french fries covered in eggs. It was just as delicious as I had imagined and more than worth the years wait. We had a little bit to drink, which is always nice for unwinding after a hard week, but we also had a chance to talk with Living and Issack (even if he was there only a short while).
I had been meaning to speak with Living about how much he has been a big asset to this project. Not only is he a translator, but he has been offering his time freely. I didn't want to assume that this would always be the case, as he is supposed to start school again on Monday afternoon. For this project I am looking for someone who would be willing to check up on the students once or twice a month and report back to me grades and attendance information, as well as other issues that come up. Maybe even some tutoring on the side if necessary. Luckily, when I brought it up to him, he said "I was going to ask you if you needed my help. Of course I will do that." I think that in the back of my mind I half expected him to say no, and I told him over and over that if it ever became too much work to let me know. It would be ok if he could not do it. He said he was happy to do it. I am happy that he is happy to do it.
After a great night's sleep we slogged through breakfast and hit the town this morning. I love that the weekends here are not conducive to working, and that they force me to take a break. I think these last few months of non-stop work are finally catching up to me. As soon as I got over my stomach bug, I now have a full blown sinus infection. At least it's still leaving me on a level that I feel I can function. I am eagerly awaiting Monday's work.
This afternoon Living stopped by to pick the three of us up to watch his soccer game. It was a big tournament game for his local team, and he was really excited about it. They needed to either tie or win to be able to continue on. It was good to be able to see a game of his, but the stares by all of the local students were almost unbearable. I felt so out of place, and more awkward than I do on any normal day of my life. Knowing that our being there made him happy made things bearable. He has done a lot to help us out in the last few weeks.
We made it back to the hotel just in time for sunset but noticed that the power still hadn't been restored from this afternoon's outage. Jen and I were a bit grumpy and just about ready to get to the room and go to bed when the lights finally came back on. Instead of heading out again for dinner we decided to have dinner here at the hotel. We met one of the other Mzungus staying here, Mike, who was curious about why we were still here. Most people at the hotel are here only to climb kili and stay a day or two. He has been here the whole time we have. Jen and I stayed up pretty late chatting with him. He is here working with an engineering company bringing water from springs off the mountain into towns. He seemed maybe just a tad bit bored as he was mostly on his own and there wasn't much to do on the weekend. We invited him to head over to Aroma for coffee with us in the morning and maybe over to the Tuleeni Orphanage in the evening when we go. It's fun to meet people and break out of our little bubble, and to expose them to a world other than the mzungu palace that is our hotel...
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