A Bit About Bungoma

So, for the next twelve weeks, my home is in Bungoma. I'm living with the Reverend Kistos, the pastor of the local Anglican church, and his family. They are pretty dang awesome, which is great, and they have some nieces and nephews living with them now who are cool too. Bungoma is the biggest town in the area, although it gets pretty rural pretty fast, at least by our standards.

Many of you may be wondering how I get around this place. There are three methods of transport here in Bungoma: the tooktooks, the matatus, and the boda bodas. The tooktooks are like motorized cars that have three wheels like tricycles, and their name comes from the noise the make as they go along. The matatus are like buses, but buses that you can hail down any time you see them. Finally, my favorite and most frequent method, the boda bodas. These are just bikes that you hop on the back of, and ride along. It can be pretty terrifying because what with the tooktooks, matatus, crazy Kenyans driving their own cars, and swarms of other boda bodas, death seems like a constant option. So far so good.

It rains every day here around four, and everything sort of shuts down. The temperature is great, although the sun is markedly more intense (we passed over the equator on the way here).

Anyway, keep praying for me and my research. Right now, there are lots of things up in the air, and I just am hoping that they come together quickly. I'm going to visit the Russells in the neighboring village tomorrow, so that ought to be fun too.

Peace,
Michael