We’ve got this genius guy here, someone who has managed to hook a microwave system to the only satellite serving Kenya telecom to improve our phone system. He is an accountant, programmer, engineer, etc.

He hurt his shoulder recently, and has had a rather painful recovery and therapy. I saw him walking the hall of the business office, and he had a bag of frozen peas on his shoulder. As you know by know, I am quite quick on the up take, and so I exclaimed ` That man has a bag of frozen peas on his shoulder.’

The explanation? Ice packs aren’t easy to come by, and they are pretty expensive. The doctor told him that peas conform to your body shape, so just put some peas in a bag, freeze them, and voila!

It works, but it is still as strange of a sight as I’ve seen lately. It fits into Africa; making due with what you have, and being creative in the process. If you come to visit though, play it safe and skip the peas during a meal.

RVA is THE place to be when the world cup is going on. There are so many countries represented here that it’s hard not to get swept into the spirit of the event. Nancy and I went to this tiny restaurant near campus. They cook over an open fire, chickens regularly walk through the door unto the cement floor, and there is no electricity.

But someone had an old black and white TV, and they rigged it up with a battery and rabbit ears, and there were twenty people watching world cup. It was my first sports bar experience in Kenya.

We had a short story in English class that dealt with young people becoming aware of their own mortality. I asked the class if they had any experiences with that feeling. One of my students from Uganda told me that there was a python in his village that had killed over two dozen people in under a month. He was riding his bike one day, and he thought he saw it and fled home. When they killed the python later that week, it was over 15 feet long. I was truly happy to be in Kenya and not Uganda.

They had early graduation for one of the seniors today. Regular graduation is not for a few weeks, but he received an appointment to the Coast Guard Academy and has to report for class soon. I’ve known Luke since he was a baby, and I will spare you the details of how much I cried.

But the thing that made me cry the most was every senior got dressed up to honor him. No one told them to do this; they just decided on their own.

This is such a neat place.

Your pal,

Steve Peifer

Me and Katie

JT with the eye of the tiger in rugby!