"beautiful white girls don't fall out of trucks often here"

This morning for breakfast I had crepes with jam and hot chocolate. It was very gluttonous, but it made the knowledge that I would be eating a known chicken or something as horrible for lunch somewhat easier to bear.
The ride this morning was easier, as we seem to be figuring out how to fit all of us into the cab without me sitting on the door handle.
Before setting off however, I had to use the latrine at CABDA for the first time. I feel lucky having been able to avoid it for 3 weeks. It wasn’t actually as bad as I had feared though, but I am glad I was wearing a skirt. You basically stand on two steps above a whole in the ground and squat. I peed on my shoe a little, I’m not going to lie to you.
Next door to the classroom today the nursery class sang “B-I-N-G-O” over and over again. Neil and I kept laughing, which I was afraid was going to get us into trouble with the facilitator, who was sitting right next to us, but it really was SO cute.
At our break Neil gave the nursery class the Canada flag beach ball that he brought for them. I told him not to do it, as it would cause chaos and the teacher would hate us. She took it well though, waking them up from their nap time (!) to take them to a field and play with the ball. It was really cute, seeing them all scramble for the ball, and they gave us another “good job” dance, so it was worth it. Honestly, these kids could be throwing rocks at us and it would be the cutest thing ever.
Lunch today was the same as yesterday, but with beef, not chicken. While I have progressed far enough to be able to eat a chicken I have met, I simply cannot bring myself to start eating beef. I have confused my fellow CABDA workers, who asked what was wrong, since I didn’t take tea or eat lunch. I felt bad, and hungry, and tried to explain it in the least crazy way possible, saying that I don’t eat any meat that doesn’t come from a chicken, but I don’t think that helped. I tried to get across that my particular idiosyncrasies should not in any way change the way that they do things, and showed them my biscuits to hopefully make them ok with me not eating.
It was a humid heat today, and it just sapped the energy out of me. I was glad to be sitting there learning about child-to-child approaches to teaching, but sitting for 7 hours is a bit much. I napped during lunch break (since I wasn’t eating).
Group work was very difficult today. The two groups were split up differently, so I was with new people, including a teacher who missed yesterday. He took over the group, despite not knowing what was going on. I actually wanted to hit him with my chair. I cannot abide willfully rude ignorance. One of the CABDA staff found him hilarious, which I found worrying.
To top it off, a rain storm moved in while we were still going. The classroom has no glass in its very large windows, so the rain just blew in through the holes. Neil was just wearing a t-shirt, and when it rains it gets very cold, and one of the teachers called him over to sit between another teacher and himself to warm him up. The rain was so loud that the training could barely go one, as everyone must shout to be heard. Eventually we just stopped working and started talking. Somehow I got involved in a conversation about polygamy. The man who sat to my right has 4 wives, and on the left, seven. I was shocked, as I though the polygamy was on the decrease, something you found only in the most backwards parts of Africa. The group I was sitting with told me that it’s very common, and it isn’t going away, as it’s a tradition. I asked if the government was doing anything about it, since, as they stated, it was one of the biggest spreaders of HIV/AIDS, but they replied that “how can the government do anything when the president has many wives?” It was very difficult to get them to understand that it is illegal in Canada, it’s so ingrained here.
After the rain stopped we started up the class again, but I had stopped paying attention. Towards the end though, some classes began to sing on the other side of the school compound. It was by far the most enjoyable part of the afternoon. With just their voices they were able to make a far better sound than anything I’ve heard on the radio here so far. I would like to take this opportunity to mention how much the music videos here suck. They’re all very juvenile, made up of just a guy standing in front of drawings on the wall or something. Also, rap sucks here.
The ride home was more of the same, although you do not want to be stuck out in the boonies when the rain hits, the ride was a white knuckled one, with the truck sliding left and right on the mud. The women thought it was great, every time we shifted I would gasp; it made them laugh a lot. This time I was pressed so close against the door that my leg went 100% numb, and when I stepped out to let the facilitator out, I collapsed, fully on my ass, skirt flying akimbo. People stood and stared, as Neil put it “ beautiful white girls don’t go flying out of trucks often here.”
We went to the market, after I was able to walk again, to pick up a couple of things, and we decided to check out a restaurant in the hotel there. We walked in, only to be ignored. We sat down, only to be ignored. Neil asked for a menu, and we were told it would talk half an hour for our orders. Nothing new for Kakamega. We try to order, they’re out of everything, and it will actually be two hours before any order can be put in. It felt like one of those French restaurants where waiters refuse to meet your eye, so they don’t have to serve you. It’s possible my outrage at the place came partly from not having eaten since 7:30 that morning, but there is no way I’m going back. Which is a shame, as it would have been nice to have somewhere else to hang out than at the guest house.
We walked home, had some vegetable curry sent to the room, and Neil made some soup to tide me over. So, despite a long day, things have turned out ok today!