Jambo! Jambo bwana!
Habari gani? Mzuri sana!
Wamgeni, Wakaribisha,
Kenya yetu, Hakuna matata!

A silly song that gets stuck in your head very easily! Basic Swahili! Only a week has passed? So much has happened it seems like it should be more! .. As I continue to write I realize that not much HAS happened that is out of the ordinary :o).. define ordinary XD, it just feels long...
- I am breaking through cultures and merging them. At breakfast sometimes I have ugali (I cut into slices) with marmite and today I joined the US with Kenya and had a “peaut butter and jelly” ugali. XD
- Today I was talking to Hebalyne and she smiled at me, it was really an amazing moment… its just taking the time to sit down and spend time with the kids, or talk to them, even if they don’t understand you, it shows you care. I know many people have been praying for her, I am so thankful I am allowed to be the one showing her love.
- My third cold (or, third strong wave of the first cold since I got here) started up this morning with a sore throat and a runny nose. It seems Rahel and I have taken it in turns to have colds, they seem to go and suddenly appear again. Last week we had a rough time emotionally (it was a month since we arrived) and with flight arrangement stress for her it wasn’t the cheeriest of times but we have each other to lean on so we are ok! This week has been a lot more positive!
- Cavin Akech has made me cry in frustration but I am really getting to love him (!). Vitilus came in and talked to him (“the pastah, the pastah!”) and that seemed to calm him down and we have him sitting with the girls at the back (Susie had to bring a stick into the classroom to get him where we wanted him to sit) and it is A LOT better now (except poor Queen who is sitting beside him ended up hitting him yesterday cause he kept talking her puppet off her and today he did it again, she hit him and he hit her back and she started to cry). We are working on it… but I really want to understand him. His mother is in prison and he is looked after by his grandmother along with his three half-brothers (the same mother) so life is not easy for him. He seeks attention by being noisy, trying to be loved that way. Its funny, we can talk about him for hours at the dinner table. If he fails to get into primary one he won’t want to go to nursery again, he is way to old and too big and if he doesn’t get into primary school now, he won’t go cause he is much to old and he’ll end up wandering the streets. Keep praying for him, and for the teachers (pacience, LOVE and wisdom to know how to deal with him).
- I have also developed a rash on the backs of my knees and my right arm. I thought it was eczema initially, then Rahel said it looked like ringworm, a nurse came to visit and said it was a fungus and now no-one knows what it is. It was very itchy and about a week ago I scratched like mad and my right knee one opened up and there was a wound that got infected. Rahel has been faithfully washing it with warm salt water and it is getting better. I am applying “daktarin” cream to the fungus/eczema and it seems to be drying out but is not gone. I am taking antibiotics for the infection and my cold and I think that the rash may be because of the doxycycline (anti-malarial, a tetracycline for those Chem HL freaks). It makes skin sensitive to sun but the backs of my knees are never in the sun. So hopefully that will get better, if not when we go to Nairobi for VISA extension I will ask the nurse.
- We are going to a missionary station in Tinderet tomorrow because a missionary couple are leaving the field so the whole family is going for the weekend to say kwaheri, us included! That ought to be fun (and we may get some swimming done =D!)

So that’s all for this week, thanks for the e-mails (even those that have made me laugh out loud in the middle of the internet café!) and all the support.
This is Kat in Kisumu, over and out (with lots of love!)
xxx