Una kula wazungu?

So this week has indeed been somewhat chaotic, having no schedule... It caused me to unfortunately be a fair bit less helpful than otherwise. Still though, this week wasn’t without progress, and it wasn’t without challenges either.



The most notable one was that of the power failures. The electricity here is generated by a large dam nearby. And since it’s the dry season now, the electricity tends to dry out as well... If it wasn’t for YWAM’s generator, we would have been without any during the graduation, actually. But since it’s rather expensive they prefer not to use it. Last Sunday evening it was gone too, which actually yielded a very nice atmosphere in the dining hall, with gasoline lamps and flashlights. Afterwards I brought some documents to Sered and Sitini, who just started their own dinner. We ended up talking until half past ten around a few candles, it was very lovely being there. And the moon shone so brightly, there really wasn’t much of a need for flashlights outside.



Sitini told me the shipment of the computers takes longer than expected – about eleven months longer, at worst. So starting the computer school isn’t really possible very soon, most likely, at least not full scale. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything for it.

Besides this, Asheri and I will try to work on a little movie for YWAM’s 50th anniversary. We wanted to last Wednesday, but again the electricity had vanished. Word was that it would be gone from 9 am up to 11 pm, but it came back at 5. They plan to ration it until there is some rain.



I also moved to a new place, as the English school is now devoid of people. Now I’m staying at the room where Timothy, the base leader, sleeps. It’s actually much nicer since it doesn’t catch as much sun during the day, though the company of the students used to much more than made up for that.



As for the aforementioned progress, I can thank God that I finally formulated a solid research question. Yes, I have to do a small research of sorts. Luckily it doesn’t have to be anything huge, since I already did a lot of practical work. The plan is to interview some of the leaders here, to gather some information regarding the locals’ achieved level of education, their wishes and how much they use their education. I suppose it may be a little generic, but hopefully it’ll do. At least a gave some creative spin to it, which involves little paper people.



My Swahili also improved a lot. Before I wasn’t even allowed to speak it, since I had to talk English with the students. But while we had thirteen students at first, I now have about that many teachers, all willing to explain a few words during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here’s a few things I learnt:



Lala salama – Sleep well

Na kunywa supu ja kuku – I drink chicken soup

Hakuna matata! – No problem!



The nice thing is that no one will blame you if you say stupid things, you can get away with anything.



Me: Na omba magi? (May I have some water?)

Giros: Hiya, karibu. (Ok, you’re welcome.)

Me: Asante. Na penda wewe. (Thank you. I love you.)

Giros: ... Asante... >_>; (... Thank you...)



Still though, I’m lacking far too many words to have any decent conversation. For now it’s just greetings and saying what you eat or drink, I do suppose thanks to the learning environment. Perhaps in a month or so though...