Inside the Place

Here is the inside of the place. Nice eh? Ben cooked some.

Today is Sunday and it is the first time I am alone in my room. Benjamin stayed for 3 nights to make sure I could handle my own cooking and housekeeping. Ben is 28 years old and says it is against his culture (He is Trukana tribe.) to see an elder working if there are young ones around. So Ben cooked, cleaned, mopped, did my laundry – all that stuff, out of respect for my old age. He is a great guy but I am looking forward to living alone and beginning my time in solitude at night. Ben, like very many in Kenya is looking for a job. I think he was auditioning for houseboy. There’s just no room. Ben is an interesting young man who literally bears the scars of his youth from severe caning and various curative rituals when he was a boy. He was an orphan for much of his life and now he struggles to find food to eat each night and is staying in a friend’s room in Nairobi. I met him about a year ago at the Village when he was doing work with the religious order he has since left.

Cooking will be my biggest struggle. The nearest store is a motorbike ride away and with no refrigerator, you need to shop often. So far, Ben and I cooked rice and tomatoes, cabbage and tomatoes, and I made pasta and tomatoes. Ben ate rice – no pasta. We also made peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I will always need to buy water since it was in this part of Athi River that I got typhoid last visit. I am fine now.