The ups and the downs

We haven't had wireless here for weeks, so the internet has been sporadic. I apologize to everyone who I owe an email. I promise I will catch up tomorrow night. Last Wednesday was the worst day here ft or me so far. Even with everything I've done and seen, sometimes you just have a bad day Everything was complicated, not working right, it was cold and rainy, no hot water. There's a fuel shortage here now too so I couldn't even heat water. Had to slog through the mud down then back up the 3 hills to get to the ATM. The kids were crabby, the staff were crabby, all the volunteers were crabby, It was just one of those days. Then the very next day, things just got better again. My Australian friends invited me over to their house for dinner to meet their visiting children,(from Dubai and Jakarta) and grandchildren. Miraculously Mary called and said come early and take a hot bath! Even with the new solar panels I had managed really only one hot shower and that reeked of gasoline. At her house my whole body fit in the tub, and the water was clean, hot and odorless!
I love meeting their British friends. They have such an interesting perspective .One of the women was telling me she was born here, had lived here 50 years, when I said "so you're Kenyan?" She quite icily said "no I'm British." Kind of funny. Anyway, I like asking them about how things have changed over the years etc. One woman was hilarious talking about all the "rubbish" she buys from peddlers/beggars because she can't say no. They, like the rest of the people here though, don't seem to know a lot about hiv/aids.Easier to live in a bubble I guess.
On Saturday I went to the village for the day for my friend Nicholas Makau's wedding. He's the manager of the village and the slum clinics. I knew him when I was here before. The wedding started 2 hours late and the Mass was 3 hours long, and I didn't understand a word. It was all in the local Kamba dialect. It was great fun and very interesting, they left the church in a donkey cart. They had actually been civil married for 7 years, have 3 kids, this was their church wedding. We had to leave at 4 to get back to Nairobi, so I missed the next 12 hours of dancing and music. Would have loved to have stayed for that.
On Sunday, after Mass here at Nyumbani, I went with the priest to talk to "some people about my classes". He was kind of vague about it, and when we got there I was surprised to find a room packed with parents from the Kiberra slum who wanted to learn how to talk to their kids about hiv/aids, and sex. Incredible 2 hours. I learned so much about their culture, how hard it is for them to do this but they really don't want their kids to die. They asked me to come back, so I will teach them the first 2 Sundays in Sept. How am I ever going to leave here after experiences like that?
I've started teaching my classes in the slum clinic, I will write more about that later. When the signal gets better I will post pictures. Miss you all
Kuwa salama Officer Tim xoxoxo Little boy