Out of the frying pan into the fire

Lately it's been so hot.

My favorite descriptions of the heat have hands down come from Peris.

Yesterday:

"It is so hot that you wake up in the morning and feel like you've urinated on yourself"

"It's like we are breathing fire"

and

Today: "The heat is pouring down on us from Heaven"

Even sitting inside with windows open and out of the sun, you can feel your face sweat.

I guess it's good for me since I'll be in Lamu on Sunday for a week and it's HOT HOT HOT there I am told, with 75% humidity, too. So at least that should be less of a shock.

We had a water outage at the center for 3 days. It got to a point where people were worrying about the crops. Also, yesterday morning we were greeted with news of a really unfortunate tragedy that occurred during the night. All 14 of our baby chicks had been eaten alive by an army of merciless Safari ants and were now officially dead. All 14. I wish I hadn't seen the aftermath. Haven't seen many sadder things in my life. They were 3 weeks old.

Apparently safari ants can kill even bigger animals and people also.

So tomorrow I will leave Thika with one of our field staff to visit our satellite center in Lamu. We'll travel to Mombasa on the coast by bus overnight leaving Thika at 8pm and arriving sometime around 3 in the morning. Then we find another bus to take us up the coast from to Malindi. From Malindi yet another bus to Lamu. Apparently there is no boat involved! Hooray!!! I can't explain my relief in words. We are trying to confirm how many days of travel it will take but seems like it must be two. I guess I'll find out.