"Sukumu Weki" is said to be kale but I'm pretty sure it's grass

It was a sad day at ICODEI. The dog fell ill and after a week of not eating and increasingly losing his balance he went through a weekend of seizures until the vet could come on Monday and although he proclaimed he would be fine and all he needed was a muscle relaxer and some hydration and it was only parasites that had closed his windpipe and intestines, Louie died a few hours later. So we had a nice little burial and started training a few of the other strays to play with us and not beg for food.
The van broke down on the way to Kitale today (surprise surprise) but it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened! A woman invited us off the road into her village where we were shown a mock-circumcision rite. The boys danced and sung and the one woman who had some English ability narrated what was happening. She said this Sunday night will be the real thing and they will sacrifice animals (and I'm pretty sure she said "wear the intestines around the neck"), dance all night, and in the morning cover themselves in mud, enter the river, then emerge to have the ceremony that we were witnessing finished with the actual circumcision (Did I mention these boys were like 13? And the line that was repeated many times was that they were not to cry out for it would bring shame to the family. Ouch.) She said the increasingly Christian population goes to the hospital and has a ritual-less circumcision but that many clans still choose do it the traditional way. She invited us back on Sunday but I'll be away.. but it was great that I got my own private screening.
Eventually a car met us with the required part but we were still 2 hours away and it was late (and I think they were skeptical that the van could make it there and back) so we were dropped back in town. It's fine, though, because I'm leaving tomorrow so I'll be able to pack and get everything in order.
Yesterday's class was so frustrating. It was at a school and I recommended that levels 6-8 be present so the headmaster packed us into a small room then I had to fumble with the generator for a good half hour before I had anything resembling power. He kept interrupting me asking questions that I knew I had to cover. "You said mothers can transmit to their babies. Perhaps you could explain how?" Really, dude, cause I'm pretty sure that I've done this more than once now and I'm actually kind of good at it. I was in the middle of saying how the virus can't survive in saliva which leads me into my section on myths of how the virus spreads (i.e deep kissing, mosquitoes) and he jumps in explaining if two people have open wounds blah blah blah. Yes.. I was in fact getting to that. Just stupid things like that for a good hour. The icing on the cake was at the end a girl had a follow up question on condoms and other prophylaxis and not a dozen words into an answer he cuts in saying how she shouldn't be considering having sex anyway and that's reserved for marriage and reproduction and if she's already done it it's a mistake. My translator and I just stood wide-eyed. I was not there to teach abstinence only education, although of course I cover that as an option. But here I was talking about how open and honest communication is crucial in slowing the spread and this guy is cutting me off telling me I wasn't to talk about anything else. I was so frustrated. So I sort of pouted my way through the rest of the day, regretting not having something more profound to have said to him or to the girl (or, anything not the least bit profound would have been better than my silence). On top of that my GI tract was throwing a temporary hissy fit which I thought I had under control until we were thoughtfully offered lunch of the two Kenyan foods I have trouble stomaching in large quantities and it was all over from there.
I'm pretty excited for this next week. For the break in general in addition to what I'm actually doing. When I get back I'll only have like 3 weeks left. Whoa.