Our Good-Bye Adventures

With less than one week remaining before we leave Tenwek, we (the Cropseys) have begun the formal good-byes.  A week and a half ago, we visited the home of Tenwek's ophthalmic technician.  We had a very nice lunch with Wilson, enjoyed meeting his family, and touring his property on the side of a mountain.  The kids had a wonderful time playing with the animals and making a total mess of themselves in a dirt pile.

Adventure #1:  Getting to the bathroom...

*As is common in Kenyan homes, the latrine is typically located some distance away from the house.  Getting to this particular latrine required some athletic prowess.  First, you have to climb up an almost completely vertical make-shift ladder and then climb over the fence that is immediately at the top.  After walking through a cow pasture, you have to climb over another fence before ascending the small hill to the latrine.  Trying to accomplish this in a jean skirt with a toddler (or two) in tow while being 28 weeks pregnant was no small task!

Adventure #2:  Eating the rooster...

*Wilson's family was extremely generous and we left with quite a few gifts which included two large bundles of bananas, fresh milk, and a live rooster!  Elise and Micah enjoyed his company for the rest of the weekend until reinforcements arrived Monday morning who could help us with the butchering process.  We decided to try a fried chicken recipe which probably wasn't the best choice in the end.  He's a mountain bird after all and was quite lean.

This past weekend, we visited Richard, the community eye health director.  Our visit was supposed to be "short and sweet" with just chai, but it turned out to be 6 hours long due to adventure #3.

Adventure #3:  Mudbogging...

Since "Jolly" (the McCropder van) was in use on this particular day, we used the Tenwek Eye Unit Land Cruiser.  The roads were certainly rough and it was good we had a 4WD.  Perhaps that gave John more confidence than he should have had!  We had almost arrived at Richard's when we saw a field up ahead with some water in it.  It had rained the night before, so we thought it might be a large, but shallow puddle.  John sped up hoping to just skim on through.  Unfortunately, once we got closer we realized there was a drop-off, and this "puddle" was actually a spring-fed, "bottomless" mud hole.  Our front tires skidded over the edge before we came to a stop.  We left the vehicle wedged on the edge of the hole and enjoyed a pleasant visit with Richard (which included an archery contest and a tree planted in memory of our friendship).  After our visit, John and other friends tried to extract us from the goo using boards, rocks, and a car jack.  After about two hours of failure, a pick-up came to our rescue and pulled us out.  The kids did great and were amazingly patient.  

There are more farewells in the days to come and we look forward to the adventures they bring!