Random stuff

Yesterday I saw a little boy with a shirt that was too big for him that read "Canadian Girls Drinking Team."

Today was another day to show the benefits of compost. After a hot day with lots of sun, the cabbage plants in the compost/fertilizer/control experiment set up at Mawe Hai showed the benefits of compost. While the cabbage plants in the fertilized and compost trial look similar on a normal day, today the lower leaves of the fertilized cabbages were drooping to the ground falling flat. The leaves of the compost cabbages were still upright and looked great. Why is that? Well, besides being a great fertilizer, compost has tons of organic matter and the humus really helps hold water in the soil. Another point for compost (did I mention it's free for the making?). Check out the Mawe Hai album on the right for the pictures (I think they are at the end).

Today Wilfrieda was going to pick me up at 8 and then we were going to go to Ndosho to check on the progress of some rabbit hutches they are building, and then on to Mawe Hai. She arrived around 8:45 and needed to talk to Harper for something. Harper was talking to Lyn and even though Wilfrieda just needed a quick signature, she wouldn't interrupt the talking. We finally left Maji around 9:30 and were on our way. Where to? The hardware store because we needed more nails. We show up and we need 8 packages of different sizes and amounts of nails according to which project they are for. I've never seen anyone weigh nails slower in my life. I wasn't really paying attention at first, but when it rounded 10 I started getting a bit bored and antsy. We were done with the nails around 10:15 but Wilfrieda paid with a 100 dollar bill and we waited another 10 minutes for change. Then we needed some wire mesh. There goes another 25 minutes. We are finally on our way to Ndosho again and then we stop for 5 liters of gas for Mawe Hai (which was 1.7 a liter or 6.50 a gallon). We finally arrived at Ndosho after 11 when Wilfrieda said yesterday she would pick me up at 8. Good thing I'm a patient person and used to African time, or it would have frustrated me a lot more than it did.

I noticed a while ago that you can buy boards that are cut, but not cut quite all the way through. Like there are 5 or 6 boards that are completely cut except the last 3 or 4 inches, so it's like a section of log that's been cut, but they are still together for easy transport and also it keeps the wood flat as they cut it. I've noticed the last couple days there are a couple places past Mawe Hai where two people will roll a log onto a platform and one guy standing on top, and one on the bottom, will saw logs to make boards with a saw maybe 6 feet long. I can't imagine that it's a very fun job, but the boards are usually pretty even, so kudos to them. I actually think it's kind of cool though.

I've been on the ground in a couple places I'm not usually at and there have been a lot of kids around. They flock together saying "muzungu" like mad and any other English words they know (usually "morning!" or "give me money"). Today I decided I was going to have some fun so after I was bored and tired from a day wasted doing pretty much nothing (except playing with pieces of bark), one girl was walking behind me and said "muzungu" kind of quietly, but loud enough for me to hear. I turned around and said "Minajuwa niko muzungu, hunapashua kunisema" (I know I'm a white person, you don't have to tell me) while smiling, to which she said something about me having long hair. It's true, I really need a hair cut. I decided though as people say English words to me, I'm just going to say what they said in Swahili, so the next kid that says "morning" is getting an "asubuii" coming at him.

I can't really believe it, but the generator just went of to (drum roll please)... city power. We haven't had city power in about a week and a half. It's about time, but I wonder how long it will last?