Day 27 Kakamega June 4, 2011

Hi

Today I spent the day relaxing, took a walk, and spent some time doing some Sudoku puzzles, variety puzzles, and some out of my Games magazine that I had brought from the states.  I pulled out the Bible and read the book of Mark again.  I love the phrase with God all things are possible.  I went to the Nakumatt to get a few things.  I wanted a ham sandwich so I bought some ham and some mustard.  Bought a bag of rolls and made three small sandwiches for dinner. I also had to stock up on some juices and tropical drinks.

As I was arriving back from the Nakumatt I stopped to talk with a couple of guys at the gate to the guest house.  They saw that I had a bag from the Nakumatt and the two guys started to ask me some questions about the states.  One of the guys asked me what kind of food do you eat in your country?  He wanted to know what our basic foods were and if we used a lot of maize.  You would think that I would know the answer to these questions and rattle off everything that we Americans eat.  I thought to myself they are not going to know what a cheese burger is, a cheese steak, a pizza, spaghetti, hot dogs, apple pie, cheese cake, or anything else that I eat in any given week.  I told him that we Americans eat almost everything possible to eat except ugali.  They were shocked and couldn’t believe we did not eat ugali.  He asked me if we had poor people and did they cook over a fire with charcoal, sticks, and wood like they do here.  Then I was thinking how do you explain the poor in America.  I tried to tell them that most of our poor people have electricity, water, food, and a roof over their heads.  I even told him that a lot of our poor have a car or two, televisions and computers.  Then they told me that they are not poor.  How do they pay for these things?  Luckily the daily storm was coming in fast and I was about to be relieved of explaining what poor in America really means.  I quickly told them that we pay huge amounts in taxes to help pay for everything America needs and in those taxes are programs and funds to help our poor.  One guy asked if this was only for citizens or can anyone get money from the government?  The rain came and I was saved.

Tomorrow is another rest day.  I will spend some more time on researching the various NGO’s operating here in Western Kenya.  If you haven't read yesterdays blog please do.  It goes over what we are trying to accomplish here in Kenya.

Take care and God bless

Dave