The Car Wash

Hello friends and family-

Happy Sunday! We completed our training with Kisumu yesterday afternoon. To celebrate they took us to have fish on the shores of Lake Victoria. Lake Victoria, for those of you who don't know; is a huge lake that has shores in 3 different countries (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania). The place is actually called Tilapia Hotel but it's called the car wash because locals push their cars into the lake right next to it, completely covering the front hood of their cars- to wash them.

East Africans in general are very particular about washing their cars...maybe it's all the dust but they wash them inside and out. Anyway, the Tilapia hotel was not a hotel at all from what I could see but was just a number of thatched roof awnings with tables and chairs underneath. The road getting to the place was extremely bumpy and I was crammed into the back of a van with 16 people from the site and training team. When we arrived, the first thing I needed to find was a bathroom. The toilet was a shack made out of metal with a wooden door that wouldn't close all the way. A co-worker of mine went in first, and was gracious enough when she came out to give me half a napkin to use that she had in her purse (no toilet paper). I went in and was a little surprised to discover a cement floor with a square hole cut in it. That was it. Needless to say I was very thankful I only had to empty my bladder. :)

The meal was a great experience. We were all crammed around a table and they brought out 8 whole tilapia, half had been deep fried and the other half had a tomato sauce over the top. They also brought out chipote, ugali and some cooked kale. The chipote and ugali is to be used when eating the fish. Ugali is a white starch that you take a chunk, roll in your palm, put a dimple in it and use it to scoop up food. Chipote is like Indian nan bread but East African style. Anyway, you belly up to the nearest fish with your neighbors and dig in. Each fish was probably 12 inches and Tilapia are pretty wide so it was a lot of fish. The only utensils used are the ones that God gave you (ie. your hands) It was a great meal.

Today we leave Kisumu and head east to Eldoret. It's about a 2 or 3 hour journey by car but we have been told the roads are very bad; extremely bumpy and that our bones will be tired when we arrive. Some of the people in our training team are flying but you can't fly direct from Kisumu to Eldoret. Instead, you have to fly from Kisumu to Nairobi (40 minute flight), have a 4 hour layover and then fly from Nairobi to Eldoret (60 minutes). I am going to travel by road. We are planning on stopping a couple times along the way, to see some sights. We are going to stop at the Kakamega Forest, where trees actually eat each other (totally true) and also at the crying rock.

It will be nice to leave Kisumu, it is a nice city but pretty hot and very humid. Eldoret is located in the rift valley so it should be cooler temperatures. I've read the only thing in Eldoret is a cheese factory (of all things!) that supposedly has very good ice cream. That I will definitely have to check out.

I'm not sure if I'll have internet access in Eldoret. If I do, I'll send updates.