Ben Freakin Carroll and mutatus

as i got into beatrice's car today about to leave the city center my first thought was man, that was a looong day, im dead tired and will sleep well tonight. then i started thinking about all we did and how much ground we covered in a variety of ways, and realized what an amazing day i just had. i feel a hundred times more comfortable around the city now. what follows will describe that day. but first....

...if you are anything like me you probably have very little appreciation for the impact that one Benjamin Carroll made during his semester here two years ago. i have yet to meet somebody who did not immediately ask about ben, and that is not and exaggeration, literally every person has asked him. and about half of them have said i reminded them of ben because we looked similar. pastor humphrey told me today that i would be little ben as far as he was concerned. and i havent even got to west pokot yet, where edward tells me they love ben more than anywhere. pretty impressive buddy

so today was our introduction into the world of mutatus. we rode to the city center with beatrice, and then met grace there in order to take a mutatu to the church. after the first 3 mutatus going on our route were full, we finally got on one with a little shouldering for position. we went to one of the oldest post test and counseling (ptc) groups in kawangware, a slum fairly close to pastor edwards house. in kawangware next week there is training for 35 more people who will be joining ptc groups. while learning some of the bead work which they do, grace and sylvia had a meeting with some of the members from that group planning for next weeks training. i made 3 different types of necklaces. while i have added more art to my resume in the last year that ever before (wai), today probably topped my crafts experience for my lifetime. i really enjoyed learning what i did today, and look forward to picking up many more skills in the ptc groups throughout this fall.

they served us tea with lots of sugar, sandwiches, and mandazi. mandazi is otherwise know to anybody who has been to new orleans as a beignet. i could be wrong, but i think this made sarahs day up to this point



we returned to the church via mutatus, but not before absolom bought sarah some grilled maize on the cob from a street vendor. it was surprisingly good, kinda like the half popped kernels in a bag of popcorn with some kind of hot spice sprinkled on.

i really enjoyed riding on the mutatus. it would be conservative to say a near accident occured about every 2 minutes involving the current van i was in. because the speeds werent fast enough to kill, it was kind of thrilling/entertaining to see how bad the driving was. however, if it was not for grace and sylvia helping us navigate, and by helping i mean steering us around like animals on a leash, it would be very scary to try to get where we wanted to go. the numbers on the vans tell what route they go on, however just because two vans have the same number does not necessarily mean they will go the same place. they are always yelling out in swahili, but i obviously dont know what they say. it would also be easy for them to rip us off if we werent with friends because i have no idea what certain rides should cost, nor can i tell what price they announce. im sure i will have plenty more experience with mutatus in the coming days and months.

we met a friend of sarahs from her trip here two years ago in the city center a bit before we had to meet beatrice for our ride home. his name is joseph and he is as enjoyable and funny as i was led to believe. he works for cisco, a program that works with street kids in the slum which he lives in, as well as preaching at a local church sometimes, and some music activities. we talked about going on saturday to work with him, i hope it works out. this is probably what was the actual best part of the day for sarah, even better than beignets. to get sarahs perspective on this whole africa thing, if you dont already, go here.

at dinner tonight rene was here again so we got to talk about south africa a lot. i forgot how much i loved that place and how fast i want to get back. speaking of south africa-best place ever- cape point.



i forgot my camera again today, but hopefully i can correct that tomorrow.

im tired, goodnight