Setting In

Okay! Time for a little more details on our site placement. First, we quite happy with the way things have been going so far.

Location...
We live near the city of Bomet, which is only 3 hours West by car from Nairobi and the roads are good! Our school/house is another 30 minutes away by car, but it's relatively easy to get to. Bomet is a great size market town with almost everything you'd want (food, electronics, banking), but not so big that it has urban crime issues.

Housing...
We are living on the school compound and it's working very well. Our house is a sturdy stone/cement building with 2 bedrooms, a bath, kitchen, and living room. We get electricity in the morning and evening and even have indoor plumbing (no toilet inside though). The school has provided us with a good bed and a sofa set to use along with a propane stove. It's very comfortable. we're excited that we'll be able to house guests who come to visit.

Climate...
This region is located in the highlands "Tea Growing" country. In loitokitok the crops were almost exclusively corn, whereas here it's almost all tea leaves. The area gets a lot of rain throughout the year and the soil is very fertile. The temperature is warm during day, but at night it's been dropping pretty cool. The locals say it can even get down around 10 celcius in july!

okay... i'll write lots about our work and the students later, but for now let me describe the pictures.

1. Our living room set. In the background is our water filter and work table.

2. Kitchen, complete with a sink and propane stove.

3. Our bathroom. We have a shower head, but it's always cold. Most mornings we just heat water on the stove and use our 5 gallong portable solar shower. Works well.

4. I smell a rat... Or rather i saw rat droppings and hear scurrying in the ceiling. I bought this beefy trap in Bomet and now the rat is decorating the trash hole behind our house. One win for me!

5. i've been cooking like mad now that i have more freedom. This picture is of Brownies. I took one large dish and put in dirt in the bottom to insulate. Then i put the brownies in the inner dish. It worked great! A bit slow, because the water in the dirt kept the "oven" at around 212 F.

One last note to Charlie's mom! he's doing well. He passed his language and is in great spirits. I've really enjoyed getting to know him. He will be living in a town near Mirogi in Nyanza pronvince.