Running water and waiting for planes

Here we are again.  Travel is a strange thing.  Its exciting, I crave it when I haven't done it in a while.  It's a thrill like little else.  And........it often is super stressful and exhausting.  Funny how that works.  This time I had everything figured out.  My dad was meeting me in Nairobi.  I had a hotel booked, a driver I would contact when we got there.  Cash for visas.  It was all planned out.  And I would get there a hour before dad so I would be fully  awake, reoriented and ready to take care of everything.   After flying out of Raleigh heading to Paris, we'd been in the air for about an hour and a half when the pilot got on and told us there was some kind of radar mechanical failure, and we could not continue the flight.  We would be emergency landing in New York in 20 min.  Boom.   Plan destroyed.   After waiting in New York for 5 hours, I confirmed I would miss my paris-to-nairobi flight.  They rebooked me the next day, and I got to spend a night in a hotel in NY.  My bags couldn't be removed from the plane until whatever they were doing to it was done, so I had to leave them.  They said my bags were supposed to arrive in Nairobi before me and I could simply pick them up when I got there.  Riiight........So not only is my Dad on his own in a huge foreign city, but i would be without clean clothes and a toothbrush for several days.   Long story short, Dad got my message about the delays, so he was at least prepared to brave Nairobi alone.  I spent three full days in the same clothes until my bags finally arrived.  The hotel graciously gave me a toothbrush and a ketchup-packet of toothpaste, which I rationed carefully.  I had the foresight to pack an extra pair of underwear (not my first rodeo), so it all worked out.  I did have a moment of wondering what exactly is it about traveling that I love so much.....but it was short lived.  I am back in my Kenya and happy to be here.

Me and Baba at a little street food restaurant-my favorite place for mango juice

Dad with Faith and Aggry

 (Baba is father in kiswahili.  My dad likes this language more than anyone else I know.  So he is Baba). This was Baba's first time seeing our land and our new home.  It was a proud moment for me, to have these kiddos of mine showing him the life we have made here.  Sometimes, especially when I am away, it is easy to get a little wrapped in everything yet to do, and the never-ending list that runs through my head likes a Ferris wheel.  But it's quite a blessing to have moment that makes you step back and really look a where you are and how far you've come.  And we've come a good long way, it seems.

"You do not know the value of water until you have had to carry it. "

Well said little proverb.  And carrying water is good for the soul sometimes.  But it can be hard on the body.  And while we recognize running water is a luxury and not a necessity-it sure does make caring for 15 children easier.   So we had a welder make us a metal tower to put a smaller water tank on.  Our plumber's name is Ezra, and he and his crew chipped bits out of our concrete walls to embed pipes in them (there's no hollow walls here).  He installed a pump and chiseled a hole all the way through our wall to connect it all.  Our water source comes entirely from the rain, which runs down the roof into an 8000 liter tank in our courtyard.  We can then turn on our little pump to pump water up to our smaller tank on the tower at the height of our roof.  Gravity does the rest.  It's practically magic.

Since the installation of the water, we've had to had several talks with the children about the taps.  When they fill up their basin to bathe, we now require them to stand in the shower room until the basin is full.  Those two minutes have proven to be a hardship for the kiddos, as they could be outside running around-but the likelihood of them becoming involved in a game of chase-ball (Arnold's game he invented) and draining the whole tank dry is too likely.   And our water is precious, even if we don't have to carry it anymore :)

Baba enjoying a Kenyan breakfast

Jessie