Stories from Kapsowar

This post is a random collection of stories from the past few days. We are laughing often at ourselves as we learn how to live here. We feel like toddlers learning to walk, but the Kenyan people have been very gracious to teach and help us.

Black Water

I am just getting over a 3-day stomach bug in which I ran a fever and was dealing with night sweats. Night before last I was up in the middle of the night after soaking through the sheets from sweat and decided to take a quick shower to clean off. We have a hot water system for the shower only that requires flipping a switch on the wall, and then turning a knob inside the shower. The water heater element is in the showerhead itself so you increase the heat of the water by decreasing the amount of pressure, and vice-versa. Anyway, I followed the appropriate protocol but when I turned on the shower, the water came out brown and then black. This was probably from water run-off as it has been raining for a couple of days, but I decided to just go back to bed. Jason was kindly changing the sheets when I got back to the room and told him the story. Anyway, I am learning that we take clean water to drink, as well as clean (and hot) water to shower completely for granted at home.

Laundry

We have a beautiful woman named Mercy who comes a couple times a week and does our laundry and cleans the floors (the laundry is all still done by hand here). She is a great blessing! The morning after the above story, I had yet to wash the black water out of the bathtub because I was still very sick, so she had to do that on top of the laundry. I should have explained, but she might just think now that I am very lazy. L She was worried that I was sick because of the cold here (it’s been in the 60s the past couple of days). I assured her that it gets much colder at home and she asked me, fascinated, about what snow is like and how cold it gets. There is a strong belief here about cold causing sickness, so it is often hard to even find soda that is kept cold (partially because of resources and partially because of this belief).

 

Drinking Water

The system for clean drinking water is very interesting here as well. We have several large bottles of water that sit outside on a stump in the sun all day. The rays from the sun clean the water, and then at the end of the day we pour the water into a filter in our kitchen that filters the sediment. We then refill the bottles from the tap water and place them back outside for the following day’s sun to do its work. It’s very simple and amazing. I got behind one day when I was sick though, so we’ve now had to buy a few bottles of water from the store here in order to get ahead again. Apparently, only clear or blue bottles work for this method. This is probably basic fact for many of you, but I am easily fascinated. :)

A New “Friend”

A couple of days ago, I decided to sit outside to soak up some of the afternoon sunshine. I was sitting against the stone wall of the house, reading, when I suddently spotted a medium-sized lizard very close by staring at me. I said hello (I guess I’d either been cooped up inside too long, or was not quite lucid), and the lizard suddenly started climbing up the wall a little ways from me. When he got to the level of the roof, he suddenly jumped all the way down to the ground, and then began climbing again. He repeated this sequence multiple times, each time getting closer and closer to me. It was like he was playing a game, but I decided that if he landed in my lap, it wouldn’t be as pleasant as watching him, so after a while I moved away. (I know – I’m a wimp…) Anyway, I guess I was very easily amused that day, but I haven’t seen him again yet.

Night Watchman

Last night Jason had just fallen asleep and I was lying there listening to the delightful sound of a Kenyan choir singing their hearts out in their native languages and songs. We think it might have been a church service or revival meeting of some sort as you could intermittently hear a speaker in between songs, but we’re not really sure. Anyway, after a little while I thought I heard footsteps outside our house. I then saw the shadow of a man go directly past the window above our heads. I quickly shook Jason awake and told him there was a man right outside our window. Jason immediately sat up and loudly said, “Who’s there?” When there was no answer, he repeated this a couple of times, and finally a voice said, “I-I am security”. When Jason asked the man’s name, he said “Stephen”. He then stated that he is our night watchman, our security guard. Jason then thanked him and apologized for yelling at him. :) I think I scared Jason, and then Jason scared Stephen, all because I wasn’t aware we had a watchman and I must have been a little jumpy I guess…

Electricity and Hot Water

We were without electricity most of the day yesterday, which was no problem at all because our stove and refrigerator run on gas. We enjoyed making dinner with our headlamps (very similar to camping!), and then eating by candlelight. The only downside is no hot water. So, Jason convinced me this morning that he would just heat water on the stove for me to take a bath. The challenging part was keeping the water warm and trying to wash my long hair with a very small amount of water. We only have a few small pans so it will take me a while to forget the image of Jason running multiple times from the kitchen to the bathroom to pour a small pan-full of hot water in a corner of the tub so that I had something a little bit warm for a moment. He is so good to me. :) (See Mom, I told you he was taking good care of me here!) We may have to do this for a while however, because even with the electricity back on today, the hot water doesn’t seem to be working…

Food

We just returned from a local market down the road. We are able to get basic fruits and vegetables here, and the rest of our food we brought from Eldoret. We brought meat, yogurt, milk, rice flour, etc from the Nakumat in Eldoret (Kenyan version of Walmart!) We soak all of the fresh vegetables and most of the fruit in a bleach/water mixture for about 15 minutes and then rinse them in clean water before cooking or eating them. We tell the people here often that we have weak stomachs (which definitely seems to be true for me at least). They smile and nod. :) We are having many adventures in cooking. As I speak, Jason is making a gluten-free, pineapple, upside-down surprise! :) I’ll let you know later how it turns out…

Conveniences

It amazes me that in the middle of the Kenyan mountains, we are still able to use our i-pods, kindle, phones, and computers with internet. Although we need at least intermittent electricity to re-charge these items, it’s still incredible. We are so glad that we are able to communicate with you all! I still have to be careful when home-bound for a few days to not spend too much time on facebook though (maybe even more careful since the internet is slow… :) )

Hope you all enjoy a few glimpses into our current lives here in the remote but beautiful mountains of Kenya!