Commence the Carpentry!

That's the main hut on the left, where we eat and sit in the evening, where we watch TV and read and put together 1000 piece puzzles. You can see the ICODEI vehicle. I am staying in the hut on the far right, where there are two bunk beds in two separate rooms, and a little sitting area just inside the door.
This is the dirt road going from the ICODEI farm to the main road where we catch the matatu to Bungoma.
This is one of the loads of birds...they make these hanging spherical nests that have a little hole for an entrance on the bottom. There are maybe 25 such nests in the tree next to the main hut at ICODEI.
This s Tom, doing some carpentry at the clinic.

The wazungu party...at Red Hat. Going around from left to right, it's Abdullah, Katherine, Ben (not with ICODI), Andrew, me, Ruth, Tope, Brett, Tabrez, Katie, Sabrina, and Lorris. Abrahm took the picture.

This is just one of the ICODEI vehicles for the mobile clinic. You can see another one of the vehicles in the reflection in the window. This picture is taken on the side of the clinic.
Just the lamp at night on the table before the generator comes on.
These are some kids who wanted their picture taken.

I think the internet at this place doesn't like me. It's the first time I've been here, and it's by far the slowest. Also, I have been unable to send e-mails from this computer. I guess the only good thing is that the upload speed is surprisingly quick.

We started carpentry work yesterday; the carpenter, Tom, is finishing putting up the ceiling. I've been teaching 4th and 6th grade math classes, which have gone surprisingly well. I think I vacillate between giving them too much work and being unsure if I've given them enough (so then I just assign more...) Basically, though, the kids are learning the same thing as 4th and 6th grade students in the US--

The papers here have at least 2 to 4 pages of Obama news everyday. Occasionally, pictures of his grandmother in her village are posted.

The food is excellent--it's all very subsistence level stuff, so really hearty. Lots of rice and cabbage and everything is nicely spiced. The fresh fruit is incredible, and there's a surprising amount of passion fruit to be had around here.

People love having their picture taken here...every time I have my camera out, people say things like "take photo please!". The only rule is that you have to show them after you take it. Only once did we have a guy ask for a copy of it sent to him-he was thinking that we could just make it come out of the camera like a Polaroid.

Last night we all went out for an incredible buffet at a place called "Red Hat". A guy that's from Minnesota working on the other side of town joined us.

One day this week I spent with the mobile clinic, where Dr. Katie from Scotland and Akumu--the clinical officer--were working. It was very interesting, and the people (despite living quite far from a hospital) were very keen on certain things--malaria medication and antibiotics. Many of the kids at the school where the mobile clinic set up had never seen a mzungu--white person--and so they were totally intrigued by us, and even a little scared. They would go to shake our hands, and then pull away. Andrew once tried to scare them, and they scattered--laughing--and regrouped. We went to another school and Andrew did an HIV/AIDS awareness program. I was amazed by how much the students at the particular school we went to already knew about HIV and AIDS.

This weekend, I'm not sure what we're going to do...but next weekend we're planning on going to Uganda and rafting on the Nile; the weekend after that, we're planning on going to Kisumu.

Hopefully, I'll be able to have e-mail access this weekend.