Some challenges

So maybe no one is reading this anymore... because I never post!

But there is a reason for this: the internet is basically impossible to get to.  

The time here has been flying by.  I can't believe that I will be home in almost a month exactly.  

So the news:

The play is going really well.  It has proven to be incredibly moving---and needed desperately.  Rehearsals are time consuming, every day of the week from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  I come home too tired to move.  We begin performances the week after this one.... we have been doing little performances in the community to great success.  We have especially been concentrating on invisible theatre---theatre that the audience doesn't know is a play.  This week we've done two plays like this.  In one, Peter a Kikuyu, goes to visit his best friend Tosh, a Luo, in Katwakera.  There are still no Kikuyus that have come back to Katwakera.  All were chased, or killed, during the violence, and the few that have tried to return have been beaten or chased away again.  In the play, Marto (one of the actors, and someone who participated in the violence) yells out "Kikuyu, Kikuyu!"  He and Stephen (another actor), go up to Peter and Tosh and ask why Peter is back.  They tell them that they've been best friends since childhood, so shouldn't that be allowed to continue?  Marto and Stephen fight with them, until Coaches and Sharon come on the scene, and begin to argue with Marto and Stephen to leave them alone and allow them to be friends.  We wanted to see how the community responded---and whose side they would take.  The play turned very heated, Stephen even grabbed a knife from the stall of a fruit vendor who had stupidly left it unattended and out in the open.  Some people were yelling "Start beating him and we'll join you!"  and "Tell that dirty Kikuyu that we don't want to pay rent anymore."  Others were saying, "Why do we have to keep fighting?" "I tell you, this war isn;t over yet," and "Let them be."  One Mama yelled at the vendor whose knife Steve had taken saying, "Don't leave that out there like that---if that boy gets killed it's on your head."  The play ended before anyone turned violent, with Marto and Steve making peace and letting them continue on their way.  Incidentally, a similar scenario had taken place the day before, in the exact same place.  We hadn't known this before.... but a Kikuyu butcher came back to take his shop, and he was beaten and chased away by his former business partner.  We for sure saw how volatile the community still is, and personally, I was grateful that Kennedy had arranged for some "security" to linger nearby in case anything got out of control.  

In other news, I spent the past week having a horrible allergic reaction to malarone, the anti-malarial drug I had been taking.  Huge hives, and swelling---my knee became about two times its original size.  But I am much better.

Kennedy is making preparations to leave for Wesleyan---he's so excited.  We have made arrangements to travel together (Wesleyan is the best, they are the nicest and most personalized school ever) and we will hit stateside July 24th!  We plan to be in NYC July 24th-30th, and then go to Denver, arriving the 30th!  Hoping to see you all in one of those places.

Hope everyone is well!