kids!

biking the other day i found some sweet singletrack... not particularly technical, but fast and fun. reminiscent of the coulees except for the views and the crazy kenyan kids. i think i mentioned before that if i am not going fast enough (read uphill) i tend to gather groups of kids behind me. these guys were total goofballs. they actually spoke english fairly well so gilgal (the local primary school) must be pretty good. we had some deep discussions about the fact that the footpath i was following turned into a maize field and that there was no trail into the valley where i wanted to go.

work at the hospital has been pretty tough lately. it has been busy but bearable as our new sudanese interns have arrived (deng and daniel) and i am working with both of them (one on maternity and one on peds) and they help a lot. but there has been a lot of sadness here. that being said, peds and mat are great... i get to play with kids and make them smile and hand new babies to moms and make them smile too.

speaking of playing with kids, this is one of the aspects of our house that i really appreciate. we live right on the edge of a large field that serves as a free range playground for all the local kids. on the way home from a stressful day at the hospital i can usually stop and teach some kids a few tai chi moves (they love it!) or try to lift as many kids off the ground as i can, or drag them around with my feet. a few days ago we came home to organized races going on around the field.

today some kids had set up a makeshift adjustable highjump bar so we did some jumping and then i taught them to limbo. i really love the kids here: they find joy in simple games and in just running and jumping and moving. they even fall for the old pulling off your thumb trick that my dad used to do! afterwards they all take turns pulling on my thumb trying to yank it off again.

before we participated in the highjump kylie and i went for a run. we rounded a corner and spooked a 2 year old boy who had gotten ahead of his family. he immediately hopped over the fence to our right. i assumed he was taking a shortcut home, but when we came nearer i realized that he had hopped over a dropoff and into a thornbush where we was now suspended. i had kylie grab my belt and reached down and extracted the poor kid (sans pants) just in time for his mom to come around the corner. i guess having 2 white giants pound around a bend right at you is pretty scary for a little marakwet kid... sorry!

well, i had better go. kylie is yelling at me to get off the computer.