A full week later

Yesterday was the last day Regina Owino was with us. Her stay has been so rewarding and I'm feeling a bit tight chested today. She has moved to Linda W. house for a few days and then on to Emily Matthews. Emily will get her on the plane a week from this Sunday for a long trip home arriving in Niarobi Monday night and then to Eldoret Tuesday morning. How excited she will be to see family and friends, some of who said a trip to Indiana would be futile wishing her to live with a heart that might or might not result in sudden death. It's been weeks of great experiences from a trip to the north and a trip to the south to see a little of Indiana country...making corn porridge every morning which I ate as a child in the evening with the name of cornmeal mush. Different names...same thing. In Regina's case, lemon juice was always added to her cup. Then there was the yummy Kale dish. Yes...yummy cooked only to the first degree of doneness. Tomatoes, onions and cilantro and hot peppers along with bush meat (beef stew) were Regina's delight. Me trying to understand the queens English and trying not to say to many times...what did you say and the Regina trying her best but being defeated in talking like an American. We talked about Red Neck stuff...her children...two girls and a boy, one finishing law school, one a senior in highschool and her 8 year old son...my children...finding out that she was born in 1970 just as Eric was...hearing about her mother carrying for Gift...wanting to buy a motor bike and laughing when her late husband saying he would not wave if she drove by...ladies don't drive motor bikes in Kenya...being the first on the dance floor...making tea the Kenya way, it must be boiled...eating egg plant making it the American way...sleeping in till 11 one day and then back to sleep in the afternoon helping her newly repaired heart mend...her last meal with us included liver at her request and at my request a trip to Dairy Queen. Every day was packed with a little of this and a little of that. She is returning to Kenya with a huge photo album of nearly 300 pictures of places she has been and the miles she has traveled. So..Kenya came to me and I am all the better for clearing a room of unneeded things...borrowing a bed and making a place for a new friend to teach me more than I could have imagined. We have been blessed. In two days we are off to Michigan anticipating a wonderful two weeks camping with 5 grandsons as well as their parents. Now I would say that this summer has been especially eventful with not to much grass growing under our feet, not a whole lot of time to sit but more than imagined learned.

Just a bit of musing on the past month.