A strong urge to beat children with sticks

The program over, the hostel vacated, the matatu entered (26 Passenger Capacity my ass...I counted well over 70) and here I am...the middle of frickin' nowhere. Mikinduri, Kenya. A fairly sizable (though spread out) town near Mt. Kenya with a lot to be done and not a whole lot to do. My days are spent in meetings with the local business and water project subcommittees, assessing the sustainability of local projects and drafting a funding/grading report to send to Ted, a kindly resident of PEI who apparently finances EVERYTHING here. I eat lunch at a local feeding centre, after taking the names of about 80 orphans, serving them and washing their dishes. Nights are taken at (wait for it) THE LOCAL POLICE STATION, which somehow has the cheapest beer in town. Don't ask who thought it was a good idea to supply a group of 30 cops (armed with AK-47s and G3s) with an ass-ton of booze, but hey...it works for me.

The nights have been hard to pass (we're searching fruitlessly for board games, all we have is magnetic snakes and ladders), but the days have been super busy. Last weekend I rode around with the Honourable Peter Munya (http://www.mzalendo.com/Members.Details.php?ID=118), making campaign speeches for him and informing the area about my work as the "Water Expert" (alongside Peter "Microfinance expert" and Ellyn "Health Expert").

My only real annoyance here is the village children. They're constantly banging on the windows of our place asking for money/bread/candy/our radio/etc, breaking into windows to take our bag of sugar, asking us to play football when we're working and being general nuisances. Our general solution is to chase after them screaming in Swahili, carrying large sticks and threatening to cane them (which would be the general punishment they'd get here anyhow). Them kids run fast when shirtless white dudes chase after 'em. Hah.

Anyhow, today is my first day off since the program started in January, so I'm relaxing in Meru. Eating fried fish, drinking coke and basking in the Internet I've so sorely been deprived of. We're off to try and get some groceries and find a Monopoly board.

Cheers

-Dave