Today was the perfect kind of day that I've been waiting for here.  We went into town on the Dala-Dala which is an old school mini van falling apart, packed with people and just when you think no one else could fit we stop and pick up another person.  There's a young guy that hangs off the side a bit and signals the driver to stop, there was one stop where he had to run aside pushing before he hoped back on.  We took two of the younger girls from the orphanage, Neema, who is the most precocious little girl with missing front teeth, and Mirena who is the polar opposite.  She's new at the orphanage and painfully shy, she'd lost both her parents and was living with aunts and her younger brother and sister.  Although her situation was bad and she's much better off at the orphanage, but it was hard for her to leave her aunts however mean they might have been.  Her brother and sister have dealt with the shift much better, her younger sister Bright loves to hang all over us and wear us out.  Bright is HIV positive and will be starting medication soon.  Here you need to be showing symptoms to get perscribed medication from the government.  When she gets on medication she'll start living at Teacher's house rather than at the orphanage because her medication will need to be very regulated.  She's the youngest in the orphanage at four years old.     

We went into town to be supplies to paint the computer room. We saw Masai warriors in their traditional dress and spears walking down the street.  There are  a few things that bring Masai to town, to sell traditional medicine, and to work as guards.  No one messes with a Masai because everyone knows if they've been crossed a Masai won't stop until somebody is dead. At puberty that go through a right of passage, leaving their tribe and going on a journey by themselves.  Years ago their mission was to kill a lion with a spear. They've never been conquered as a people and could have held off the expansion into East Africa for many generations but chose not to.  Danial, a Massai, teaches in the local preschool and is involved with the orphanage. He's slight, soft spoken and very welcoming.  If it wasn't for the facial scars on both his cheeks I would have had no idea he had grown up in a Masai village.  He's a rarity, a college educated Masai teaching hundreds of preschoolers all day long.  Jamie  King helped fund-raise and start an organization to sponsor two women from Daniels village to go off to college, making them the first Masai women to go to high school.  Others have gone since through the organization but I'm not sure how many, what an amazing thing though!

After getting all of our supplies we went and had lunch at one of the more touristy cafes here.  Teacher, Brook, Neema, and Bright headed back to the orphanage in teachers car.  Jackie, Greg and I waited around for a Dala-Dala, but weren't seeing any going our way.  After about 10 minutes we decided to take a few motorcycle taxis, (called piki-pikis) back to Pasua, where the orphanage is.  Piki-piki's completely taken over the taxi business because they're so much cheaper.  Back at the orphanage, with all our supplies, we started to paint.  Greg's got a concept in mind for the computer room and paint is only the beginning.  After a few hours of painting and about an hour of cleaning up our mess we headed home.   

        Right now Jackie and Brook are cooking stir fry with the vegetables we bought at the market, which will be a much improved meal then what we've had, haha.  Greg doesn't cook much and his food at home was pretty limited. We've been eating fine though and I'm not at all the picky eater I used to be so I don't mind rice a tuna two nights in a row but I'm excited for dinner tonight.  

Much Love to everyone, we'll try to keep the blog updated, sorry about not posting sooner we were having trouble getting it to work here.  

-Elena