Boiled Eggs in Hot Springs

The weekend was awesome. Annie, Hannah and I went to Nairobi on Saturday. Nairobi has these appeals:

-- Cheap souvenirs (SUCCESS, we'd been told about a really cheap shop where everything was about half the price it is in Nakuru, and thus I bought way too many pretty soapstone items),
-- Good food. You have no idea how happy chocolate doughtnuts and pizzas just in a five mile vicinity make us.
-- The camera fixing shop with whom my first camera had a guarantee with. They told me they could fix it and send it back to me by Monday so I was well excited but after two phonecalls ("It has more problems", and "The lens is broken" - I knew that!) they are telling me it won't return home to me til next Wednesday.
-- Crazy men who hang out of matatus screaming "Give me visa!' at you. Ha.

We happily travelled back on our lovely cheap matatu (no more shuttles for an extra 100/- each for us), laden with awfully touristy things, and then spent a really funny evening out, where we finally returned to Summit after the shame and hilarity that was my birthday. Strangely, the only comment I got from the doorwoman, who definately knows us after so long, was 'you look smart tonight!', so I think they missed us and the crazy number of drinks our group buys. It was so good to be back at Summit again, we danced tons and got lots of free drinks from our rich and generous friend, Ozzy.

Then on Sunday I went to Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria, both about two hours away from Nakuru. It was AMAZING. We zoomed along in our hired van singing along to the cheesy music the driver was providing us with, stopping quickly at the equator for some pictures, watching all the sloping hills and millions of honey sellers lining the roads. We went on a boat ride onto Lake Baringo, which was so peaceful, and saw an island on which lives a 70-year-old man with 5 wives and 28 children. Livvy and I spent about half an hour discussing how horrific this must be for the wives and children, only to be told that one of the Kenyans in the boat with us was one of the 28. ARGH. "Does he speak English?" "Of course!" Oh dear.Lake Baringo also had crocodiles, hippos, and enormous lizards roaming its shores, but that didn't stop us from leaping off the boat, into the middle of the lake. It was a baking hot day and the water was lovely, plus there was the added excitement that in the murky brown water a giant long crocodile could easily creep up on us and nibble our toes. We were told that area of the lake was safe, and thankfully the only screaming that was done was when a big fish scared the life out of Anna.After the lake, we went to a reptile park on the shore, which was creepy because of an enormous python that we held (the texture was HORRIBLE, I hadn't expected to be afraid of it but I hated how it felt on my shoulders) and lots of snakes and crocodiles in small cages, which felt very cruel after having just seen them in the wild.From there we went to Lake Bogoria, stopping quickly for bread, butter and eggs for a bumpy lunch in the matatu. Lake Bogoria must've been one of the most beautiful places I've been in Kenya. The lake stretched out in a strangely long, elongated shape, green and shimmery, mountains coated in trees on the opposite side, and pools of violently bubbling, boiling water on the shores. There were geysers spurting water into the air, creating tiny rainbows everywhere, and a steamy mist floated around all the water. We found a long stick and attached a plastic bag onto the end of it, placed our eggs into it and then dangled them into the boiling water. It was like fishing with eggs. Within 8 minutes I was eating the best boiled egg I've ever had. I felt like I could happily stay there forever and just live looking at the amazing view in the late afternoon light.Schoolness:
The classroom has foundations and a floor and by tomorrow they will have started building the actual walls. I LOVE it. They're moving so fast that we have to literally go and look every hour to keep up. We had a really emotional staff meeting on Wednesday morning, where the headmaster officially told all the teachers where the money from the classroom had come from. He told us that they'd reached the end of the road, and all they could do was hope, before we came, and that we'd saved Nakuru Workers. Of course the words 'God has come' were mentioned many many times, but it was really moving and I'd like to pass on another massive thank you to everyone who's given money, especially those who, completely unexpectedly, gave more after my last blog entry. I love you all, as does everyone at Nakuru Workers. They're all so grateful, as am I.

I've had a lot of fun with my class this week, just being silly with them, drawing bad pictures of cows on the blackboard in science and getting them to draw some very interesting 'ghosts' as part of an English lesson. I've been to Pistis this week and had yet another great conversation with a boy named Allouise who is fourteen, extremely sweet, and interested in absolutely everything. I found out that he's good at drawing so I'm taking him a drawing book next week, and he's promised to teach me some kiswahili.

And then last night Amy and I slept on a dusty mattress, in a tiny room with about ten children in, at the orphanage. It was lovely :) We stargazed and they had immense fun doing silly things with our hair, and laughing at us eating ugali with them, and then at 6am this morning we waved them all off to school in the half-light, with the moon still shining over us. It was really nice to see them all running, excitedly, out of the gate to school.

Just one more thing to say: I have no phone. The story is long and complicated so I won't get into it, but I'm hoping to get it back. If not, I'll let you all know my new number.