I was just sharing about Kai with some work mates a couple of days ago, probably the day that you posted this....... I miss it too. Even with the dozen 5 hour community meetings every day.

We most certainly did NOT have a solar shower, although i heard about that when I was there. In 96-97 we had a do-it-yourself fire-warmed shower, which was a pain and took a long time to get going, so I mostly had cold showers. Plus, who wanted to steal firewood that folks were using for cooking fuel?

The solar shower and the wood burning shower were both there in 94-95 when I was there. In fall of 95 I know that Jeff Halper was sent to Kenya to make some repairs the bathrooms were on the list of things that were worked on that year perhaps thats when the solar shower dissapeared. We did have electricity but it often went out. We would have a week or maybe more at a time with no electricity. Most of the power outages were shorter a few hours or a day or two. There were a few longer runs though. It didn't seem to matter much somehow, lights no lights it was such an amazing time of discovery. I did my field project in Northern Kenya on the border of Turkana where there was no electricity or running water or telephones or even paved roads. I actually let my electricity get turned off for months at a time when I first moved home after FW. I think it was all part of the culture shock experience. It just didn't seem to matter to me. There are truly important things in this world and to me electricity just wasn't one of them. Its almost funny to think of it now.

Julie: The lengthier the better :)

drunk with Wambua were some funny times. We taught Wambua to play quarters. Funny! He didn't seem to understand at first and then all of a sudden this lightbulb look came over his face and he laughed and pointed "Drink". One night Wambua was telling a story about a former FW director of the center that had left on bad terms and he took the fridge with him? He was pretty drunk and he kept saying that the mans head was "...kama Jomo Kenyatta" then he would make airplane noises and woosh his hand pushing streight back across his forehead. I was laughing and laughing. His head was bald like the runway at Jomo Kenyatta airport. It was a classic Wambua moment. One of my other favorite Wambua moments was when someone decided to get a dead puppy tested for raibies and they wrapped it in multiple bags and envelopes and left it in Wambua's freezer. When he found the dead puppy Wambua was so upset he marched into community meating and proclaimed that a travesty against God and mankind had been committed. I still chuckle when I think of it. I cried when I heard of Wambua's death.

I remember Christmas day when there was a cow slaughter and auction of the meat. I thought Em Oak was gonna have a kaniption. I of course had to go see for myself, the meat lots all layed out in the field and everyone bidding on it, brought me back to my childhood and watching our goats and cows being slaughtered. Well at least I thought it was an acution, I may have been completely wrong.
Wambu was the gaurd right ( remeber faces not names, I apologize)? He was funny, I remember the giant spider in Mel, Callie, and Taylors room, he called it the "cow killer" spider, I remember him saying the words slowly so I could slowly figure out exactly what he was saying. Then there was the time that a few of the puppies disappeared and I asked him what had happened to them in broken Swahili and he did a very graphic story with his hands of the puppies being snatched up by something, I thought his sound effects were great. Not being a very good student of Swahili, I never really understood what had taken them. I think we should all be sent to Kai, it was so simple but you certainly learned a lot there.

dude I there. had a good friend named Jenny......