RAIN

I was just sitting down to write a post about the drought. No rain. None. Nada. Zip. Hakuna. Its been hot, dry and no signs of rain. Even today, it was blazing hot and not a cloud in the sky (which really is good because we have church outside on Saturdays- if it rains we have a small problem). But we need rain. Desperately. The Evening News is all about the cattle that are dying. Herdsmen are bringing more and more cows into the city to graze. We haven't had consistent power in months.

I took a nap after church today and I woke up to the wind blowing (which often gives false hopes of a storm!). I was cooking my dinner when I started to hear this....

Amazing isn't it! Rain has never smelled better or sounded more beautiful. Its been raining for 30 minutes straight- amazing! (sorry there really isn't any picture with the video- its dark out, but its raining!

So keep praying for rain! We still need more!

A Cold, Drizzly Day- PRAISE THE LORD!!!

It rained today. Not a TON but we'll take it!! We woke up to a it-just-rained smell in the air (infinitely better then burning garbage, let me tell ya!) Usually, rainy days are met with a lot of complaints in Kenya (its usually cold, it messes up people's hair, and it makes the roads a mess) but today, everyone was like "It's raining Woohoo!!"

So keep up the prayers for rain (although not on Saturday because we have church outside on Saturdays and no where to go if it rains. (Hey, God answers specific prayers too!))

Carpe Diem

So I'm getting more into the swing of this Power Rationing thing. It involves a lot of planning ahead (and a great knowledge of the city- all estates (aka neighborhoods) are split in half (Group A's have power outages M,W,F, Group B's are T,Th,Sat) so if you are going somewhere, you have to figure out where exactly you are going and if that side of the estate is an A or a B. (I know- its kind of confusing- join the club!)

I'm an A- I have power outages M,W,F- so every night you go to bed thinking "what day is it?" "Will I have power tomorrow?" "Will my phone battery last 2 more days?" and since I go to sleep listening to music, I have to set my alarm for 6.15am so I can turn off my computer before the power goes out and drains my battery (since there's no guarantee I'd be able to charge it during the day- we still have random other outages) go back to sleep for an hour and then get up for the day.

It also makes me be a lot more mindful about how much I'm cooking for meals (since the power goes out every other day, leftovers (and most everything in the fridge) goes bad really fast).

But I've learned Power Rationing is all about Seizing the Day. If you have power, do anything and everything you need to do that involves power (shower, write emails, etc). When the power is on, charge everything you have (Ipod, computer, phone, extra batteries). When the internet is working- USE IT! IT CAN AND WILL GO OUT AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE! And when the power's off, you can do all the other non-power activities (washing clothes, reading, etc).

Word on the street is that we will be having this power rationing until the big rains come in November. Good thing we are settling into a system!

Water Crisis Update

Small update- Power is being rationed 3 days a week now because the city literally can't create enough electricity for us all to have power (Nairobi is divided in half- we have power cuts Mon, Wed, Fri while the other half has power cuts the other days - we all get power on Sundays!) And then on top of that is the water cuts 2 days a week- my compound has enough stored water that we are never completely out- but that is not the reality for most of Nairobi. Water is scarce, expensive and quickly becoming a hot commodity. We desperately need massive amounts of rain.

Water Crisis

I wrote in my last post about our electricity issues- its been a long week. 3 full days without any power (and the other 2 had intermittent power) which has made for some very boring days and evenings (today ended with 3 of us playing Eye Spy because there really wasn't anything else to do- we'd made up a movie trivia game, played Name That Car, and Random Swahili Words- Eye Spy was all that was left to play!) Although I'm sure it would have been funny to watch the 3 of us trying to get ready to go pick someone up from the airport tonight using our Ipods/phones as flashlights- I managed to put on makeup with my Ipod shining in the mirror for light) The entire city has power and water rationing because it just hasn't rained. The last rainy season was almost nonexistent and now there just isn't enough water to power the city (we operate on hydro-electric here) or meet its water needs- we are up to 2 power ration days and 2 water ration days a week now. The lack of water and power is inconvenient for us- but deadly for many. Aside from water being difficult to find, cholera is on the rise and in the water source (I always boil and filter my water so I'm not worried about that but not everyone takes that precaution). Animals are finding their way into the city looking for food and water (no lions yet mom- mostly just monkeys).

There are lots of reasons for the climate change- many people are blaming the deforestation of the Mau Forest. Regardless, many many people here are suffering from the illnesses and problems this brings. We are all praying for rain. Lots and lots of rain. We have another rainy season coming up in the next month, hopefully this time it will rain.

ROUS's: Part 3- the Saga Continues...

So when we last left the story- Devon and I had chased the rat down the side of our apartment building. We were all pretty excited- I had 2 roommates that weren't afraid to be in our house- life is good. Until we got home from church on Sunday. Julia is baking in the kitchen with a friend of ours and out they come, screaming, about a noise in the oven after they had turned it on. They were convinced they were cooking the rat (not a bad plan in my opinion- at least we would know it was dead at that point) but they are freaking out so I go to investigate. The rat's not in the oven, its not in the broiler, and it wasn't behind the back piece of the stove (the good news is I'm getting really good at taking our oven apart and putting it back together again in less then 15 minutes). So the rat has alluded us again- I checked all the cupboards, under the fridge, under the sink- no rat. Christine (the screamer) shows up in the middle of the hunt- she opens the door and the first thing anyone says is "go home! you can't be in here!" Julia won't go back to baking- she's worried its going to jump out at her. So we convince her that she needs to wear my big rain boots- that way it can't run across her feet. So she is cooking in rain boots and a Sunday dress. And we dont' see the rat again all night. Just before bed, I decided to set the trap again and apparently that worked because Julia woke up to a nasty dead rat on the counter this morning! Thankfully she woke up her brother to take care of it.

So we are a rat-free zone for the time being. Let's hope it stays that way!