2 Years & 50 Cows

My blog posts have been really long, too long I think. So here are a couple short stories for you:

Today I was working in the field, locating water sources, where woman walk great distances to fetch drinking water for their families. We were climbing a pretty steep hill when it started raining, sprinkling at first and then it really started coming down. "What should we do?" I asked my Kenyan counterpart, named Lucas. "Hmmm," he said looking around (and then he suddenly spotted an older woman with a huge smile on her face coming from her hut), "We shall go to Mama Councillor's house!" And just like that we were welcomed in - "Caribou!" Mama shouted with glee. Which means, "You are welcome to come into my home!" So we went in to take cover from the rain. Mama is an older woman, but Lucas informed me that she is running for councillor, a political position in Kenya. Go, Mama Councillor!

Mama Councillor

She fed us bananas and we had a great conversation. She spoke really good English, which is rare for an older woman. And then she announced to me, "I want to learn English! I REALLY want to learn English!" I offered to teach her a bit right then. "What do you want to learn, I can teach you." I offered. She answered, "The Bible!" Errr...so so sweet, but kind of a huge undertaking. I was touched. And then she emphatically declared, "I shall learn English for two years, and then I shall die!" What?! Did she seriously just say that? I asked Lucas for a translation/clarification. Yep, she meant it. She wants to learn English, and then feels like she'd be ready to go home to Jesus.

Lucas. We're currently interviewing him for a position as my local counterpart. He's a kind-hearted, well respected, hardworking family man. We've walked many, many miles together.

And, one more...

I was waiting for a big community meeting that we (Nuru) were hosting to begin (which 140 people turned out for, which was so great!). I hung out with Eunice, my translator, and a few older mamas. One took a particular interest in me. She had the stretched earlobes, super long ones and she was rocking them for sure. We chatted and laughed together and Eunice helped make sense of it all.

At one point it came out that I was married. The XL earlobe mama looked pretty angry and starting going on some kind of a tirade. A few minutes in, I asked Eunice what she was saying. "She is very angry that you are married, Nicole. She would've paid many cows for you for (to marry) her son." What?! It turns out that this woman with her large lobes went for 50 cows, in part due to the large lobes, which are super attractive, my mama explained to me, while dancing. 50 cows?! Apparently now the dowry is about 6-10 cows, but even back in the day 50 was pretty hefty.

She looks angry, but I took this while she

was concentrating on what Jake was

saying at the meeting. Notice those lobes!

Doug laughed pretty hard when I came home and shared that one. His response: "You gotta blog about that!"

So, there is definitely a lot of hard stuff going on around us, but we're laughing too. The Kurians are definitely a laughing, smiling people.