Indian Ocean

Thurs. July 23
Today I swam in the Indian Ocean. I actually walked to an island in the ocean. Our home for the next nine days is about a 10 minute walk from the beach, a little inlet from the ocean where some sailboats can dock and the tide comes in just the same. The difference between this area and say a resort are the reeds and moss that make up the shoreline. The first couple yards into the ocean is filled with the vegetation, a little slimy and irky but I managed to get all the way under save my head to make it to the rock island. Our host George motioned to a tree that at higher tide was halfway in the water despite the hammock hanging from it. He said just 5 years ago it was never under water. I’m hoping to see another beach without the extra weeds but regardless the water is beautiful blue green and the sand is soft and white. It feels nice on my feet.
I’m hoping to make a habit of running to the beach. The walk there is through the forest and down some back lanes so a muzungu running to the beach won’t look terribly ridiculous, at least not to a large amount of people.

This morning was slow to start and typical of our time here. Jami and I slept in since we didn’t know of any plan for the day and no one woke us up. We eventually made it to the school just avoiding the 2nd of half a dozen torrential downpours of the day. The boys had gone before us to treat the truss with motor oil. Termites are a huge problem all over East Africa it seems so all the hard wood used in construction has to be coated before installed. They had gone about 8am so were utterly wet and black from the work. They continued to endure the rain and the stain for some time until lunch was ready and the last truss was painted. Meanwhile the girls gathered trash, made a rock wall around the garbage and tried our best to stay busy. Tomorrow we hope to hang out with the students more, maybe play a bit of jeopardy with Canadian trivia and maybe I’ll throw in one about Obama (a sure answer). Other than that the next week and a half will be interesting and a good time to meditate for all the “work” that awaits us.

One more addition to the list of characters around here apart from the aforementioned monkeys, dogs, camels, and lots of bugs, are 2 geese! These geese are mean little beasts, like mad cats. They hiss, bark and even nip at us. Plus, like every other fowl animal around on this trip, the SQUWAK! Early in the morning, later in the morning, at lunch, during afternoon naps, in the dark and as we go to bed. My goodness- noisy birds!