500,000 friends

I was walking around Kisumu by myself yesterday, so I had a lot of time to think. I won't bore you with everything that's been going through my mind with no TV, internet, or ability to go out after dark (which is 6:30pm), but here is one thing that was pretty cool. By many people's definition in America, a friend could be someone you don't say much more to than "how are you?" and "fine." The funny thing is that here, every single person I pass asks me that, I mean EVERYONE. So in a city of 500,000 people, I have 500,000 friends. This is a very good thing because sometimes walking around alone I start to feel very vulnerable, especially when a group of guys come up and start asking me a lot of questions and walking along beside me. I have found that in this situation, the best defense is to make friends with as many people as possible by smiling and talking to people so that I don't feel like I'm alone and I don't feel as scared. Yesterday, as I was walking, a woman came up behind me and just struck up a conversation with me. She was very nice and it made such a difference in how I felt when I was walking with someone else. We just chatted along the way, and right as I was about to arrive at where I was going, she turned off to go see a shoe man about fixing her shoes. I think God sent her to me at that exact time so I didn't have to walk the whole way by myself.

Anyway, yesterday I got to go see the kids at ringroad again. They weren't really doing anything in class because most of the teachers were gone and the term was finishing, so I just hung out with them and laughed with them and took some pictures. I don't know how to explain it, but there is something truly special about these children.