Ugunja and Back

heyyyoo!
So since my last update I've done a whole bunch of great things.
Last Saturday I went to the Kenya vs. Nigeria world cup qualifying match, it was a riot! LITERALLY! Following a very controversial go ahead goal for the Nigerians the Kenyan faithful were not a happy bunch. . . but we made it out of the stadium alright. I went with a man named Paul who is from CBM and his son, and his son's friend. GOODTIMES.
Sunday morning I hit up an easycoach bus bound for Kisumu which is closest city to Ugunja where I was planning to go and visit my friends there. 7 hours later I arrived in Kisumu and my friend Jacklyn was waiting for me. We got in a Matatu and headed for Ugunja. Now this road is possibly the worst road in the country, or maybe the world (that I've experienced anyway) so what should be about an hour drive is a two hour drive, on a good day!
On the ride I learned that back at Jacklyn's family's compound there were some issues. Her older brother Tobias' house had just been burnt down. Now I asked why, and who did it, but there didn't seem to be any answers, so I just dropped it and said I would love to help rebuild. That's exactly what we did! Luckily for them I had some mud hut building experience from my last visit in Ugunja. This time was a lot cooler though, got to be involved from start to finish. It was amazing to see the community come to help in a time of a need. By 6am on Monday morning there were some 20 people gathered to help. Some people collected wood, some collected grass for the roof, some started preparing the dirt (that's where i jumped in). By the end of the day, the frame was up and there was a huge pile of grass waiting to be put on the roof. The next day we started filling in the dirt and some of the older more experienced men were up in the roof working on the grass! By Wednesday it was time to move in. Awesome!
The rest of the week in Ugunja we went in to town to help out at the Ugunja Community Resource Center. There wasn't a ton of work to be done, as they were winding down for the end of the year, but I helped Jackie with her year-end report and we also visited a couple of people in the surrounding area. The only disappointment on my visit to Ugunja was that I didn't get to see my good friend Maureen in the library : ( she was gone to conference somewhere.
All in all, it was a great stay in Ugunja, and I could have stayed for a another week. I have experienced a new level of hospitality that i didn't know existed... and once again found myself extremely humbled.
Now I'm in Nairobi with the Kenny's, another CBM family. I'll be here for the week helping out with their work, I cant wait to see exactly what they do, and help where I can help. Yesterday and today have already been a blast here, playing with their three kids and just being around Canadian people is refreshing. Not to mention that last night we had pizza and beer. Canadian!
peace.