I woke to Nancy knocking on the bedroom door. I had slept in later there then anywhere else in Kenya, it was time to get up and get a move on. French toast and coffee for breakfast!! We ate and got on our way back to the school quickly. Today was Kenya's Independence Day so there were no classes, instead we painted the new classroom that our class helped to fund. With my knowledge of what a good paint job can look like I had a hard time working with such different materials but, when in Kenya!
We painted and painted, breaking for 11:00 chai, lunch, a little sports time and then 4:00 chai. 
When we got to our homes Nancy took us to the local orphanage where we got a tour of the facility. The kids followed us around and spoke Kiswahili with me. The orphanage, being what it was, was quite nice. The kids cornered me in the hallway giggling and whispering something. I bent over to hear them better and said, "Eti nini?" (What are you saying?) They giggled even more and then a younger boy asked me to speak Kikuyu through his giggles.
"Muriega?" I asked and with much laughter they all replied, "Turienga." (How are you? We are fine.) I'm guessing they were at the school and remembered me greeting everyone in Kikuyu. We made our way down to the door and I shared a "gota" with each of the kids which again brought much laughter. The orphanage mother told us to come back when we had time to play. We said "kwaheri" and headed back to the house before nightfall. A little girl, maybe two years old, joined us for part of our walk. She skipped along, clapping her hands, smiling and singing a song and would giggle when we looked down at her. She was super adorable.
When we got back it was time for dinner so we ate. I tried to stay up later then dinner but again was completely exhausted. Nancy escorted us to the bathroom again. I walked up to the outhouse, opened the door and, thank goodness for my headlamp, saw a giant black spider a foot above the hole in the ground making a web. The element of surprise again freaked me out and I immediately shut the door and told Nancy and Tina what I saw. Nancy laughed and swept away the spider. I explained how ours just don't get so big in Minnesota because of our climate, she probably thought I was ridiculous. We headed back inside and again I fell quickly to sleep.
**Photos in today's blog are courtesy of Kate Wadman, Kate Renneke and Betsy Rajala**
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