Hitting the Wall

Yesterday (Wednesday), I just hit the wall sleep wise.  We hadn't gotten much sleep the night before (about 2 hours) because we had a long nap in the afternoon and then some business to tend to back home during the middle of the night.  It was all I could do to post those photos yesterday, and I fell asleep TWICE doing it!  I was asleep before 10 pm Kenya time.  I woke up once during the night and then woke up for good at 4:30 am.  I feel like a NEW person, ready to face the day! Yes, at 4:30 AM I feel refreshed and ready to go.

Things are going well.  You definitely need a sense of humor in Kenya to deal with everything from communication "issues" to traffic.  Each morning at breakfast, Walt's food is brought out first, and a bit later, mine is brought out.  Yesterday only Walt got toast...not sure why.  I told him this morning, I hope I'm the one that gets the toast as I'm kind of hungry!  Tuesday night I had asked for coffee around 7:30 am, but Walt was sitting right there with me so we assumed it was a package deal. At 6:15 Wednesday morning (also a contributor to our short sleep Tuesday night) someone knocks on our door with a pot of French Press coffee and one cup. There was no cream and no cup for Walt (I hadn't asked for the cream, even though I've taken it each morning in my coffee).  We just laughed and asked for cream and another cup.  It is currently 7:02 am and I'm not hearing any signs of life in the kitchen, so I'm wondering what, if anything, this morning will bring since I didn't specify anything last night...you just never really know so you just chuckle, shake your head, and move on.  It's all good.

We got tickled yesterday as the kids were performing for us.  The choir was getting ready to sing and they (all Kenyan kids I've seen in this setting) were introducing their song.  So they girl says, "We, the children of Virginia School for the Needy, stand before you today to sing a song and we hope that you enjoy."  We have never heard them say "school for the needy" before so we wondered if it had been stressed as a "marketing plan" when visitors are there. Not sure if it has been helpful, but I will say, the kids seem to be doing well.  As always, I have to remind myself it's by Kenyan standards and not American standards because they are NOT the same.  They definitely need new uniforms, and they need a bit more "structure" outside the classroom.  We will be meeting with the director today, to discuss some of these issues.  There is a team living here (from the US, Canada, etc) who are trying to help the community with sustainable resources.  This would be invaluable to the slum where the Virginia "School for the Needy" is located.  They did their assessment of Virginia yesterday and the director told Walt afterwards, "I don't think they like what they see."  Heck no they don't!  But I'm hopeful the director LISTENS to what they say. We will discuss the importance of this with him today.  I just feel like logic doesn't always come into play and I've CERTAINLY learned you can't be subtle.  They just seem to be making progress and it would be wonderful if they could continue on down the path!  

Have a great day!

**UPDATE: We did get coffee at 7:30!  See....

We also BOTH received toast, but only Walt received bacon.  Hey, it's a process. :)