Caught in a Downpour in Shilongo!

Thursday, Sept. 1

So, I was getting off the matatu from Kakamega at the junction with the dirt road that is the path home to Rose's. With two bags from the Nakumatt supermarket holding juice and rice (heavy) and a large pumpkin from the market (really heavy). And my back pack. Full of my computer, camera, phone, and all of my various chargers. And it started to pour. Sheeting down, pelting down, slamming down. I crossed the tarmac road and took shelter under the overhang of a small corner shop, whereupon I discovered that I didn't have my phone with me. Luckily, I had my notebook with phone numbers, and one of the shopkeepers lent me her cell phone. I discovered that Nick and Melanie, who had spent the day driving to Kakamega from Nairobi with a van full of furniture for the Vumilia office, were back in Kakamega at the Nakumatt. Which I had left about 45 minutes before!

As I awaited their arrival I discovered one of the uses of the tiny tomato paste tins that are sold, re-purposed, at the little kiosks. This one - can you see the tiny handle welded on that makes it a ladle? - is being used to measure paraffin into a plastic baggie for a customer. Most people around here, which has no electricity yet, use paraffin lanterns to light (and I use the term a bit sarcastically - there is little gloomier than a mud hut lit by one paraffin lantern) their homes for a few hours after dark.











The customer will carry the paraffin home in the plastic bag. Imagine how poor you are to never be able to take advantage of economies of scale and buy items in regular amounts. Or regular containers, for that matter. (In fact, we ran out of paraffin a couple of weeks ago, the same night the generator broke AND my phone was dead with no way to charge it. Thank goodness for headlamps and spare batteries.)





So, I had a nice visit with the shopkeepers (the woman in blue was sitting next to a pile of maize, but didn't have any customers during the hour I was there, and the woman in olive green has the fruit stand on the left). The woman in blue let me use her phone.





When we got bored I took out my iPad and showed everyone film clips of the girls at the orphan home singing and dancing. These kids asked me to take their photo, and were having fun. I promise. But the camera came out, and suddenly gloom and doom.





You can see behind them that the rain has relented somewhat. But only about an hour of rain and you can see little creeks.

Then Nick and Melanie showed up, having picked up Rose. No room for me! They took the stuff, and I still walked home in the rain, but with a good friend and neighbor whom I hadn't met before. So, another new friend, lovely skin from the rainwater (or so my mom used to tell me) and new friends at the corner kiosk.