Despite my having wakened at 6:30, it was 11 am before I drove into Naivasha Boarding, a boys primary school, which Joseph attends. I’d had to field some phone calls, respond to emails, gather up my laundry to be done in the parish machine.  Off to the Naivas to get a Black Forest Torte, Joseph’s favorite, plus […]

Last evening I finally had a sit-down with Fr. Ngaruiya to discuss a wide variety of issues, all of which I had carefully noted in my laundry list of concerns.  My security while I am here alone being at the top of the list.  He proposed putting a dog in the Mji compound, which would […]

Mary and I discovered that David Mungai had locked the gate to the Mji compound last night, not realizing we didn’t have the key.  A call to Loise, parish secretary, brought someone to unlock us, but we also needed someone to unlock the dining hall door.  About that time Fr. Ngaruiya showed up and to […]

Promptly at 9 am Mary, Peris (whose name I had totally wrong yesterday) and I began working on math.  We started with vectors, which is complicated here, nothing like the vectors we teach in the US.  In fact, they had me baffled for a long time until I had a small talk with myself. “Margo, if […]

After another 10-hour flight, we finally land in Nairobi, taxi for a very long time, then stop.  Everyone is up, standing in the aisle where we wait, and wait, and wait.  “So sorry, ladies and gentlemen, there seems to be a problem with the corridor (what’s it called?).  We must wait until a stairway can […]

I’m sitting at SFO, waiting to board my KLM flight.  Vineet, a wonderful new friend of Kenya Help, found me a much cheaper flight than what I would have paid Emirates.  So this year no Dubai.  Instead, I pass through Amsterdam.  As usual, my son, Mark, picked me promptly and whizzed me off.  The young […]

I wouldn’t be sitting here if I hadn’t finished the packing.  Fr. Kiriti had wanted to leave Naivasha at 2 pm and it was exactly 2 pm when I tearfully said good-bye to Hillary, Margaret, Josephat and Cyrus.  It has always been hard to leave, but this time, all I could think of was, “Is […]

Sunday night and I leave tomorrow, flying out of Nairobi at 11 pm.  I arrive Dubai 5 hours later, have an eternal layover (4 ½ hours), leave Dubai 9:10 am arrive SFO 16 (!!!) hours later.  Yes I will definitely be jet lagged, but culture shock is always the worst part.  I realized a few […]