It has been a while

Sorry it has been a few days since we posted anything. The main reason for our disappearance is that the internet here has been down for about 3 days. There have been a few times when we had a VERY slow connection, but never enough to post anything. When I say slow, I mean I tried for 3 hours to log into my email. The page was almost loaded when the connection dropped. 

So, let me catch everyone up on the past few days.

The main thing is that Lindsay is feeling a LOT better. She said that she feels like her health is back to about 90%. Getting her healed up was the main focus of our weekend. Her new antibiotics (imported from india) seem to have really knocked this thing out. She has been resting a lot and I have been doing whatever I can to help her feel better. 

After a couple days of rest and recovery, Linds felt ready to head back out. 

We rode the bike up to Kwale today. When I say "rode the bike," I really mean hobbled along. The engine stalled 3 times while we were driving at high speeds. The third time it stalled, there just so happened to be a matatu passing a truck in front of us. They were barreling straight toward us in our lane while driving around 70 mph or so. Keep in mind that we were stalled but still moving fairly quickly. Our only option to avoid a head on collision was to make a sudden turn and veer off the road. 

I may or may not have shouted something very unchristianlike at the matatu driver as we flew into the ditch. To those who might be worried that I offended someone, you can rest assured that they didn't hear anything as they roared past with the engine revved up and the radio blaring.

After this, I couldn't even get the bike started again. I had to remove a hose, drain the carburetor, and make a few adjustments to the fuel supply. This solved the stalling issue, but shortly after we were back on the road the chain popped off of the rear sprocket. This was easy enough to fix, but then it happened again... and again... and again... actually it happened 7 times. I realized that this was happening because the person who put the rear wheel back on the bike yesterday (oh yeah, we had another tire blow out while riding into the center of town yesterday) didn't put it back on correctly and the chain was too loose.  

We limped the bike back to the fundi (expert) who "fixed" the bike yesterday and had him correct this mistake. Since then, we've been OK, but we are beginning to count down the days that we must rely on this fabulous machine. Did I mention that the gear shift lever is broken, the clutch sticks badly, the brakes are shaky, the lights are sporadic and the electronic starter works about 1 in 8 tries? You have to realize that I say all of this with a sense of humor, because having our own bike (even this bike) is FAR better than having to take the matatu everywhere.

When we finally made it to Kwale, we visited the vocational training center again. I would like to revisit my previous discussion of how amazing this place is. There are dozens of people being trained here. These are hard working people who will soon have jobs in their new trade. Without the training center, this would not be an option. The samples of things that they have produced as training exercises are high-quality, beautifully crafted products. These workers will be great assets to their communities. 

The instructor of the sewing class thought it would be nice if he and the class could make us jackets. Lindsay and I loved this idea. We picked up some fabric when we went to mombassa. Today we dropped the material off and had our measurements taken. I will be very proud to sport the Pamoja Vocational fashion back in the U.S.

We then went to Terry and Paul's house and spent the rest of the day hanging out, talking about the various programs, and playing with the kids who live at the Infant Care Center (conveniently located next to Terry's house).

Having been here for 2 weeks now with all of these projects in full swing, I am happier than ever to be associated with everything going on here. I can't wait to bring information back home to anyone who would like to be involved with future projects. We have some great ideas brewing.