if i'm going to be forced to listen to Gospel music, it might as well be "Reggae Gospel"

Some random thoughts that have made an impression on me recently.

Standing in the middle of the slum we live next to, while buying meat for Jack with an audience of no less than 23 people (mostly small children). Or in a hurricane of dust in the beating sun while helping to construct sac gardens. While hammering nails into bottle caps for the inside of a seed bank wall with a hammer whose handle is a tree branch. That's probably the coolest hammer I'll ever see in my life. Scooping the innards out of two consecutive tree tomatoes while reveling in the incredible softness of the outer skin on my hand. Tree tomatoes are my latest obsession and they are like dessert, crunchy seeds and really unique/tart tasting pulp. Sharing breakfast with a new friend. Cleaning the dog run while Jack chases the broom as if it were alive. So many more but I'll have to leave it at that for now.

I have no idea why, but I'm really amused by a small realization I had this past week or so. Peris has a cell phone but is rarely around it, so much like my own mom.

Got the beginnings of a little mini garden going at home. Two containers (recycled from juice and milk cartons) on my window sill an aloe at my doorstep, two little strawberry seedlings that seriously need to be planted, and two unidentifiable green leafy plants in my room. Feels so much more like my home now.

Planted maize today and had fire-roasted, locally grown,indigenous maize as dessert after lunch. Mmm MMM MMMMMMMM! So chewy, sweet and delicious.

Night before last,Shiro taught me some Kikuyu dances to this song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU_qy_7eVVk I like everything about this song and it's video, minus the little shout out to "Jehovah", but you know, whatever. The artist and video both just ooze good vibes. Really the perfect pick me up if you ever need one.

Oh and Jack has decided his second most favorite meal (tea is #1 since, alas he is my dog) matchboxes, complete with matches.

Going to try to post some photos up over the weekend!

Now everybody get off of your computer and go "shake the booty that Jesus gave you".

Anyone know the key to creating more brain space?

I'm trying to figure out if there is enough room in my brain for all of the new things I am learning. I sincerely hope there is, but I'm skeptical. I fear that too much valuable space is being sucked up by ridiculous things such as the phone number or address of the house I grew up in, or all those stupid math equations I learned in high school- oh wait I forgot those instantaneously, so scratch that one.

One perk to having a Tanzanian nun sharing your living space for 8 weeks is that she is, after all, here to learn. So I've been joining her for some interesting classes. Favorites so far include Integrated Pest Management, Companion Planting, Nursery Design, Introduction to Seeds, and Chicken and Rabbit Production. Today I learned that there is a breed of rabbit named California White and they have them here in Africa. Way to represent California. I also learned that rabbits can get enteritis just like people and that baby rabbits and born with no fur.

Oh and sadly, the Loquat tree I planted is 99.8% dead. That makes my number of attempts at growing trees in Africa equal to the number of trees that have died after me planting them here (two). Not a great record. But the sunflowers are growing so happily and the oregano is coming up slowly but surely and the garlic chives are happy as can be. We lost the fennel when someone unfamiliar with it decided it was a weed, which is tragic. We are trying to salvage three cantaloupe seedlings that are struggling and we don't know why. Harvested fresh zuccinni, parsley, cilantro and amaranth and cayenne peppers and cooked them all up with pasta for lunch. So. delicious. Sure beat yogurt and peanuts a million times over.

Oh and the other day we found an adventurous little wild tortoise crossing the road just maybe 20 meters from the center. So I picked it up and had a pet tortoise for a day (I gave it leafy greens and water and visited it every couple hours). Decided it needed to be set free, but it was a fun experience.

Been thinking and thinking and thinking about my future. Hasn't yet resulted in any epiphanies. Wish me luck since I am itching to get going on this thing they call a "career". Honestly, I kind of want to start my own organic, open-pollinated seed company (don't tell anyone, please). That would be amazing. Or some days I-- whoops sorry I just took a dance break from blogging-- Shiro has a dance exercise tomorrow for school and she told me that everyone has to have their own dance and the teacher will pick the winner. A little messed up, but I felt compelled to help her.

I explained that when I really dance I don't know what I'm doing, it's not really organized or memorized formally. Then I remembered dancing with my family at some holiday (read: every holiday) to the electric slide. So I just finished teaching Shiro, a 10 year old Kenyan girl, the electric slide to The Dixie Chick's song "Hello Mr. Heartache". Pretty hilarious. She got it though and it was super fun. I also showed her my few, favorite swing dance moves that take all of 5 seconds to perform. Love that kid, she's great.

Went on my first solo bike ride right after coming home from work. It wasn't as unsettling or intimidating as I thought it might be. Something powerful about riding along bumpy dirt roads while kids shout "HOW-AH-YOOOO?", "HOW-AH-YOOOO?", while watching loose cows and goats munch on whatever they can find and the loads of trash covering the ground on the sides of the road reflect in the sunlight and almost blind you. Even the trash couldn't get me down this time, since the African air was on my face, the children were so genuinely delighted to see me, and I was reminded that even at 30 I still have some muscles left in my legs. So, of course, the crazy trash problem is still disturbing but today it couldn't overshadow the feeling I had of being so blessed --and now I'm back from a 5 minute wrestling match with Jack-- one of my favorite blessings in life. I swear this puppy can pee and diarrhea all over my freshly mopped floor, rip huge tears in my favorite pants with his little puppy teeth, claw at my arms until they're red when I try to bathe him, and he's still my pride and joy.

Tomorrow I'm going with Matisi to Thika River to work on composting with our group of farmers there. They have a newly constructed seed bank and one of the farmers took two of the puppies from Jack's litter (did you know a group of baby rabbits is also a "litter") so I'm anxious to check up on them. We will be walking from G-BIACK which will be fun as long as we don't get rained on. The rainy season can't decide if it's arrived yet, it seems.