Master Mamai day 3...

Today I woke up and the market would be closed today so that we could all go do something together, we decided on this very hot day Master Wanted to take me to a hot spring. The hot spring was a long ways away, but we got there at around 12:30 we took a long time swim in the hot spring. This was the first time I've ever been to a hot spring and I loved it! We got back to the house at about 6:00. For dinner we had salmon and salad. After supper I brought in snow and put in in a bucket then went to sleep, hopefully it will melt so I can take an ice showerish thing.... I think.

Leaving Marugue....

This morning I woke up, got dressed and packed. My plane left at 12:00 and it was 8:30 the taxi came to pick me up at 10:00. I was sad but happy to leave Marugues' village, I was sad because I would miss him and all of the kids, but I would be glad to leave because I miss my family and want to see them. Me and Marugue went to the school to say goodbye, all the kids were very sad to see me leave. Finally I had to go. I said my final fair well to Marugue and I thanked him for letting me stay with him and to learn from him. I walked back to Marugues' hut and waited for five minutes till the taxi came and picked me up. We got to the airport and I went through security, security was fast and i went through, when I got onto the plane I was thinking the whole time about Marugue, will I ever see him again? I do not know but i hope so.

Marugeu Day 6... Sunday

I woke up this morning and was very soar from the day before. But today was a new day and I did not know what Marugue and I were going to do. When I walked into the room where Marugue was he was not anywhere. I figured he had already gone without me to get food. So I went back to my room and dressed for the  day and decided to go outside and wait for Marugue. About 30 minutes later Marugue came back with some rice and corn. I poured both of us a cup of water, and then sat down and helped myself to some rice and corn.  Marugue told me that he would be sad to see me leave tomorrow morning. We both finished quickly because we were both very hungry. After we ate I asked him what we would do today. He said since I left tomorrow that we should do something that we will both remember. So we both were thinking and then Marugue decided that we should go into the wild and examine the wild animals and see what else was out there. so we both got a couple water bottles each to use for the day and set out on our journey for the day. we've been walking for about one hour and we already have seen a rhino, and now we were hiding behind a bush looking at a baby lion and its mom. They left and then we kept on walking and found a small elephant, a giraffe and a king cobra (that we kept our distance from). When the sun was coming down we decided it would be safe to get back the the hut. We were back to the hut but during the day we found a dead male lion fresh untouched. Marugue told me this was great and we would eat meat tonight! so we started a fire and put a pan on top of it that we could cook the meat on. When the meat was done it smelled delicious, Marugue did not have any knives, so we just ate it like it was finger food. After dinner we both felt very full and we were glad we had been starving all yesturday and hungry today. When we were done we were very tired from our long walk and went to sleep...

Marugue, Day 4...

It was Friday today and i just woke up. Marugeu came to my room and told me it was too hard to get food so we would get some food at the village five miles away. we walked there for about 2 until a taxi came an we hopped in. We told the driver we would pay him with food if when we get back. We went into the market and I had about 2 dollars to spend that day and so for $1.00 I got me and Marugeu and spent another 25 cents for uncooked rice for the driver. He also gave us a ride back to the middle of our village where we walked to the school while eating. This time we were not quiet and Marugeu was telling me about how lucky i was to have an education from The U.S and kept telling me to take advantage of that, he also told me that if he was in my place in the U.S that he would try to get a good education so that he could get a good job get money and send it back to the village and help his country. By the time we got to the school it was about 10 O'clock and we were late we walked into the classroom and Jaime immediately shoved me up to the front of the classroom. I asked the class to tell me what we learned yesturday and one little girl raised he hand, I called on her and she told me. But she forgot how to sound out the Jj. But otherwise she recited what we learned right. For the rest of the day we completed learning about the rest of the alphabet after Jj. By the time we got back to house it was about 5:00 and we saved our water that we got at the school so we could make our corn. We steamed our corn and ate. When we finished everything it was already 7:00. Again we went outside to harvest and tend the crops. we watered and pulled weeds and made sure everything was cooking good. Then we both went to bed.

visit with Marugue Day 5

Today we got up very early around 5:00 in the morning and got 4 3 gallon jugs, I would carry 2 and Maugue would also carry 2 of them. we started our 5 mile walk. we were both still partly sleeping and did not walk at all on the way there. When we got there there were a couple of other people there too and we walked up and had a five minute break before getting water. We got up 5 minutes later and walked over to the pond and filled up. to get 6 gallons of water there I learned was very hard and it took us most of the day with all of the other people that showed up during the day. we finally filled completely up by 5:00 and then started our walk back to the village we were 2 miles away from the village and it sun started to set. Marugue told me to hurry so that the animals would not get us at fully dark. we started to both hurry as fast as we can with 3 gallons in each hand, which was not very fast. it felt like forever but we finally got back to his hut. we were both starving but also very hungry but we went to bed knowing there wasnt anything to have. So we both fell asleep a couple minutes later.

Master Mamai Day 2...

Today I got up in the morning and it was freezing outside of the hut/house it was freezing, snowing everywhere. I was so cold I changed into my thick jacket, pants, my shoes, and scarf and then I headed towards the kitchen. As I entered the room a very good scent of honey and tea filled the room. Master had made "his cold day tea" as his wife and daughter had called it. as soon as the tea was done he poured everyone a cup of it. as soon as I took my first sip of mine it instantly warmed up my whole chest and the more of it I had the more warmth flowed through my whole body. The market that Master and his family wasn't too far away from tho house so we all dressed in the warmest cloth we had. we walked there as a group and discussed who was going to be working where (it is a family business) we got there at about 10 O' clock and got everything ready for the coming customers who I was told come around 11' O clock so we set the red meats all at one place sitting on top of the snow (natures freezer). we set the grain items all in their ow section that was cleared from snow, then we put the liquid items at their own place so they will not freeze in the freezing weather... We were putting the last couple things down when the first customer got a ceranrap strip and covered the piece of meat that he wanted. Master weighed the meat and that is how we knew how much money it was. For the next couple hours the weather cleared up and about a dozen or so customers came and got the things they needed payed and left. by then it was 5' O'clock and we just cleaned up all of the things that had not been sold, and some of it is what we bought for our dinner, we headed back to the house as you can call it but it was more like an apartment made of mud, clay, and straw... Anyways when we got to the house it was about 5:30 and we all headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner, i mostly just cut up some carrots and other vegetables because I did't know how to cook the roasted duck, when the duck was ready and the vegetables were steamed Master asked me to do the honor of making the first cut into the duck. Obviously I wasn't going to be rude but i did not know how to cut a duck so  I just tried my best and cut the wing off. We then all ate dinner in silence. When we all finished dinner we put the plates and everything in a pile. then we all headed to bed.

Marugue day 3...

Today I woke up to the bright light coming through the small entryway to my room. I got out of my bed and went on my way to find Marugue.  He was in the kitchen eating a small bowl of rice, he had also made one for me and it was lying on his small coffee table.  He said good morning and asked me how I slept.  I said that I had slept very well. From there we ate in complete silence.  I was very hungry even after the bowl of rice but knowing how hard it is to get food in his part of Africa I chose not to ask him for more being polite knowing that he probably eats just that bowl of rice for his whole day.  I asked him what we were doing today and he said since it is monday "we ill' go to da' school".  I went back to my room and got dressed in a light shirt and pair of shorts and vans shoes. We started our walk to the school and once again when we got there all of the kids were very surprised to see a white person participating with them.  Apparently I was the special teacher for that and the next day and was assigned to teach the 1, 2, and 3 graders how to write and read the Alphabet. We all finished learning the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, and Jj.  I was told that we would finish the rest tomorrow.  When the school day was over me and Marugue walked back to the house and started preparing 2 more bowls of rice, I was starving. When the rice was done we once again ate in silence.   In the cool night air Marugue thought that it was a good time to manage his crops, so he and I worked on pulling weeds and looking for ripe vegetables.  We found about 3 or 4 ears of corn so we took those inside. I soon learned that we were in the garden for about 2 hours and we were both very tired so we headed inside and went to sleep.

I got up in the morning today at 6:00 and walked to the well with a small group of 10 or so, the walk to the well was very long and tiring, when we got there we met other people there who were also there to get their water for the next 24 hours. We all filled up our canteens and big water containers, we all had different kinds and ways to carry it back. The way back was very long and tiring and felt like forever I was one in the group that carried one of the larger propotions  of water, 6 Gallons. Other people had about 2 - 5 Gallons. The walk was also mostly uphill and very hot, lots of us were sweating. By the time we got back to the camp we immediately headed to school for our classes and by that time everybody was tired.