I think it’s pretty funny that the last three times I’ve paid my electricity bill there’s been no power in Tala.  Ironically it’s on days like that when I find the time to ride my bike into town and pay my bill.  Funny, eh?  We have pretty reliable power in Tala, but lately it’s been terrible.  Last week it was down for two days when someone stole a transformer (I guess they can get rich off the stuff inside), and this week it was down for another two days (around 36 hours) because someone apparently stole some power line poles.  Maybe they wanted the wood?  Who knows.

Yesterday I had no classes to teach, and there was no power so I couldn’t do any work on the computer systems.  This turned into the most boring day I’ve had in Kenya so far.  My laptop had no battery.  My iPod had no battery.  I read about 100 pages of the book Kristi sent me, It’s Not News, it’s FARK, so I was pretty sick of reading by the time dinner rolled around.  I was so bored that I started on dinner early, chopping the onions, garlic, pepper, sukuma wiki, cabbage, and tomatoes pole pole (slowly slowly).  I ate dinner by candle light, and listened to the Qur’an recitation on the local Islamic radio station.  I didn’t even drink any tea to pass the time because I felt guilty about the six cups I drank during the day.  I finally went to sleep around 8:30 or 9.  I think the power came back around 4 am.

Anyways, welcome to Africa!  Adios!