Hakuna Stima

The electricity has been out since last night around dark (hakuna=there is no--like "hakuna matata" means "no worries," stima=electricity) and is still out at 3:30pm on Saturday. This is the longest I've gone without it since I've been in Kenya (except in the village, of course). Normally I can expect an outage on Sundays and it flickers sometimes on weekdays, but it hasn't ever been down for this length of time. Normally I charge everything before a Sunday or do everything that requires electricity before the predicted outages but this one I wasn't prepared for! My phone battery and ipod are dead but my computer was charged... but now is slowly running out of power... I'm opening my refrigerator only when absolutely necessary. Lots of my neighbors never have electricity in there homes, so I'm sure I'll survive.

Last night the singles on our team decided to host the couples for a nice Valentine's date. We set up my table with paper hearts and candles and then took the kids to Shane's (also in my apartment complex) for homemade mac & cheese and a movie. We were still cooking when the power went off last night--but with a gas oven and candles the night continued without a glitch. We played games instead of watching a movie with the kids which was more bonding for us all rather than watching a movie, right?! There aren't many restaurants in town conducive to a nice date, so I think the parents appreciated a quiet evening meal together away from the kids. They don't get that too often... if ever.

Pictures have been taking me hours to load onto the blog lately. I'm behind with a few posts because I haven't gotten the pictures up, yet, but stay tuned.

Hallelujah--I think the kitchen light just turned on!... and now it's off.. and on! and off. Well, at least we know it's still possible. Maybe by dark.

By the way--those of you reading--let me know what you want to know about life here in Kenya. Strangely enough things are getting familiar and I can't remember what is so different about Kenya (except I'm still aware there is no Target or Starbuck's). I've been here now just over 9 months! A team from the US is coming and I'm trying to remember what I miss so that they can bring me stuff... almond m&m's, flavored coffee creamer, fast internet, consistent electricity...! I guess I'm learning that I can make it with a lot less that I thought I could. That's freeing! Sounds like Americans might be going through a similar revelation. Let me know how you are doing.

Ashleigh