Update!

It's been a long time. I may have just set up posting by email, which means I don't have to blog from Gatundu (when they have power) or Nairobi (where I've been for the past two weekends, but not again soon). Last time we tried to blog in Gatundu, there was electricity rationing because it was Wednesday. Anyway, we are spending a weekend in Nairobi. Josh and I, seeing an opportunity to travel with the prefects, rode in a packed bus of high schoolers to the giraffe sanctuary and Mamba village Friday (see pics). The giraffes ate pellets from our hands and, if coaxed, from our lips. I need to get the pictures of that online-my previous picture uploading was interrupted and I don't have them today. Mamba village had crocodiles! Their toothy grins and surprisingly squishy flesh

So, we have seen many beautiful things this weekend on our midterm break. The Min. of Ed. actually recommended (mandated? I wasn't sure of the wording) that boarding schools (most of them) not take midterm recess to stem the spread of H1N1. However, students still needed to go home to collect school fees (that would've been today--they would've just stayed at school for the weekend and gone home today anyway), so we let out as soon as we knew that schools nearby also had. I wonder if some politician just wanted to cover his bases with that mandate.

There have been some interesting discussions about polygamy that we have heard. Because of a proposed change in legislation, it has come up a few times. As far as I can tell now, the church does not support second marriages (polygyny, of course), but tradition and government will as long as the man can support a second wife and has the first wife's permission. Josh and I have both been surprised to hear women championing the cause more rationally than men. For obvious reasons a man's argument for a second wife is accompanied with chuckles and grins, but a woman's argument can be based on bitterness. One intelligent unmarried woman lamented that all the good men would not take second wives, proposing (is twice too much?) a situation where good husbands have multiple wives and bad guys have none. I was not converted, but it was the most effective argument for something that until recently was just part of the culture, or as one person told us, part of being "a gentleman."