Monday, July 16, 2012

When it all starts making sense…


Today was a day of making connections. For some reason all of the discussions I had with people triggered connections in my brain to understand. It’s interesting how just now I am finally making sense of certain aspects of the culture or where things are coming from. Maybe I am finally understanding.

This morning I received an e-mail from a friend asking me if I had ever read Little Prince the book. No wonder the name of that school sounded familiar, along with a familiar looking picture at the entry. I had read the story in French last year. I only remember bits and pieces of the story so when I return home I will have to read the book in English. I was telling Vivian about this realization. She told me how there is the book in the school’s library and the children absolutely love reading it. I wish I could have seen this book when I visited.

I was telling Vivian about my visit to the small church this weekend and she explained why the church is so important. The church I visited on Saturday is the smallest in Kenya and was built during World War II by the Italian prisoners of war. The church is a symbol for the everlasting relationship those who fought in the war had with God. This would explain why the church was built in 1942.

For some of the meals in the Guest House they serve a tomato salad. I could never figure out why the salad tasted so spicy. I always get the tomatoes thinking it will be just plain tomatoes, but it always seems to have a kick. At one point I thought the spice was caused by the onions. Today I finally realized the spice is because the salad I eat which I thought was only tomatoes is actually tomatoes and chili peppers. They look so similar that I can’t tell the two apart. This explains a lot.

Before I left I was told about the products icipe makes with the insects. I always thought this was just the research I had seen on the first day with making insect repellents. Even after living on this campus for almost two months I still don’t know my surroundings. I entered a new building today where many insects are kept. These insects are used for producing different products such as honey and silk. I didn’t get to see any of the insects directly, but their products look awesome. Amazing how such a small insect can create such beauty.

Those are most of my discoveries for the day. I never fail to learn something new each and every day I spend in Kenya. My time in the office today was spent catching up on writing and working on my research report. Hopefully I can get a majority of the report written by Friday.

No comments:

Post a Comment