Home, Sweet Mutomo

So far, so good. I'm learning how to cook with the locally available produce which includes lots of tomatoes, potatoes, onions, avocado, and garlic. LOTS of garlic. Every one of my meals involve some combination of these aforementioned ingredients. It does take some serious creativity, and I've found the upside of eating lots of garlic is that it scares away the mosquitoes (and some people).

This past weekend I saw my first dead snake, stoned to death on the hospital grounds. Lucky for me, Kenyans seem to dislike snakes as much as I do, and are far more brave to actually do something about it. Also fortunate for me, they do not seem to make a distinction between those which are harmful and poisonous and those which are not when attempting to kill them. Even the nuns here try to assure me that snakes are more scared of me than I am of them, but I honestly don't think that is even possible. Maybe my garlic breath will scare them off, too.

Saturday is Market Day here in Mutomo, which is probably the most exciting thing to happen in a week. I've started buying my weekly allotment of oranges and eggs from the same sellers, so I am building a relationship with them (also known as integrating into the community). Often I'll get an extra egg and/or orange slipped in my bag, which I think is a form of appreciation at my attempts to speak Swahili. It's a nice system we have going.

This week I'm going to visit some of the local schools to do some follow-up assessments, so it will be interesting to get out and see more parts of the surrounding areas. More updates to come. Hope all is well.

PS. My foot has seemed to heal itself. I guess ignoring it and feeding it Ibuprofen once in a while is a cure in itself...