doozy of a day

Whew.  Where to begin?

Had a tremendously thought-provoking trip to Kikambala today.  My landlord's son invited me to the family shamba after I explained my love of growing things the other day.  It's a bit north of Mtwapa and there are actually two shambas.  One is 25 acres and the other is 6.  Not much is growing there for it to be called a "shamba", but I completely fell in love with the 6 acre plot since it was on a slight, rolling slope above many coconut trees, included a cashew tree, many OLD, giant mango trees and other fruit trees with fruits I couldn't even identify.  What a lovely area of Kenya.  The village/place that we were in is called Junju and there were many local houses constructed with the brilliant design of earth and branches.  I don't know why, but ever since I first saw them near Goma, Congo I have always really been drawn to these houses and secretly want one of my own.  I imagine they are nice and cool inside on hot days and at night I would fall asleep with the smell of earth around me.

I was offered a generous lunch (which I was definitely not expecting) of strong, black tea, chicken stew, bread and freshly roasted local maize with an out of this world dessert of freshly harvested and roasted cashew nuts.  Let me just say I think I've automatically become a cashew nut snob and will have a really tough time eating store bought cashews in the future.  There was also a dog hanging out around us that looked like an adult, female version of Jack.  Exactly.  It was so bizarre.

Speaking of the devil dog, for those interested, which is frankly probably nobody- he put several gray hairs on my head today.  After being bitter toward me for leaving him for most of the day, I took him out to play on the grass for probably a half hour the very second I got home.  Anyway, long story short within the span of a few short hours, my next door neighbor had angrily stormed over to threaten me in his night robe (yet again not even telling me his name or giving me the split second needed to open my mouth to apologize), I had an interview of sorts on my rooftop while Jack bit me and the wind blew and I threw my sandals repeatedly to try to distract him from biting me, he tried to eat a bag of my freshly roasted cashews, he drank from two of my water glasses, climbed inside my closet when I was reaching for clothes (I honestly considered locking him up in there out of spite), and he purposely overturned his water bowl when it was full.  I'm pretty sure I know who gets the short end of the stick in this relationship.

Now I'm having trouble sleeping because I'm a bit traumatized by my neighbor's awful behavior and I had caffeine twice today which was probably a bad idea given my ridiculously sensitive to everything nervous system.

My fan in the bedroom only has two settings: so slow that it barely is moving air at all, and jet engine- blow the eyebrows off your face strong.  I keep alternating between the two knowing I'll just wake up in my own sweat either way.

And now I'm hungry and will have to sneak into the kitchen and hope with all my heart that the dog, now locked in the little laundry area on the opposite side of the apartment will not hear or smell me and start fussing.  Wish me luck.