bring it on, week!

yesterday was QUITE the adventure. woke up at 7 (on a Saturday mind you) thinking i was coming along to work with Samuel since we had visitors, only to be informed that he would pick Peris and I up at the house later in the morning. so i did some housekeeping stuff and we finally got a ride to G-BIACK. on the car ride over i brought up the fact that we need to find the puppies homes very soon. Peris said, "in fact (her favorite phrase which is slowly becoming my favorite phrase. how can you not sound like you know exactly what your are talking about is true if you pre-empt everything with "in fact...") I was talking to Samson and he thinks you could take them home today.

oh, i'm bringing home two puppies today and didn't know it. probably the first and only time i am NOT upset about the lack of communication but completely elated with surprise. it feels like Christmas morning and i didn't have to get everyone else gifts OR turn a year older :)!

at the center i met Silvia Ponte, a fantastic Italian woman who trained some people in a community in Lamu which is an island off of Kenya in the Indian Ocean. they have a whole Grow Biointensive center there and started everything from scratch. she and Kibele (?), who had the most glorious Afro, AND winked at me when they left (!) had come to collect and exchange seeds. so amazing. as i put Ni Ni and Jack in a box with a blanket Silvia stole Ni Ni from the box and almost didn't give her back. we've agreed that i'll visit them in Lamu sometime in the next two months since she comes for short periods and really lives in London.

Peris informed me that it's much hotter in Lamu. kind of hard to imagine being somewhere hotter than here. the other day at 9 in the morning i was sweating like a crazy person when i just walked to the local store to buy maize flour. apparently the solution to the heat in Lamu is to simply not be burdened by clothes. should make for an interesting trip...

Jack and Ni Ni were angels in the car ride on the way home. they slept curled up together and were really patient when they woke up. quick trip to the store for a few dog items (i literally bought a baby blanket from the baby section. man i'm a total sap) and then it was time to familiarize them with their new home. after they got all settled in, it was decided that the mission to solve the ever falling apart (new) bikes should begin.

after walking about 25 minutes to the local market with our three broken bikes, Karanja (Peter), Shiro (Annet) and i spent about a solid hour and a half haggling with guys about what was or was not malfunctioning on each bike and how much repairing it would cost. it was crazy hot, i was really annoyed at being taken advantage of and when i left my handle bars were not perpendicular to my front tire. lovely. with total joy we raced on our bikes home after we got the hell away from the bike repair creeps. we waited about 10 minutes to cross the Kenyatta Highway and just as we were finishing crossing i suddenly felt like i was pedaling in deep, wet mud. i not only had a flat, but the entire damn, back tire decided to pop out of its place.

it was getting dark and we were about to enter some paths that Karanja himself told me not to go on at night. i couldn't believe it. after debating about what to do for awhile, some neighbor kids pulled up on their bikes and offered for Annet to ride one of theirs and they rode Karanja's since the seat was too tall for her, and i rode her bike. Karanja walked carrying my bike on one tire back to the market to a different place to have the tire fixed. although at the time i thought he was following us home.

when we were about to send out a search party and it was well after dark, he arrived back at the house, with my bike fixed and he apparently rode it back the whole way without any trouble. this morning the tire was completely flat again. blarg! oh and Karanja's pedal completely fell off one side of his bike about a third of the way home the first time. gotta love African style "repairs".

up this week is a visit to a hospital with a large biointensive garden in Kilimambogo, an American visitor who's staying with me for a few days since she's here to collect info for a book, and soil collection from 3 of our communities. i'm also going to call Solar Cookers International to see if i can get things rolling on that front. and we desperately need to label the beds since we've been on planting sprees the past couple of weeks.