Becky and Travis in Africa!

Hey Family and other people,
Hope you guys really want these emails, because you’re going to get them.We’ve finally started filming and spent all day yesterday in a near by town called Ganze. The road there was unbelievably bumpy and rough but after two breakdowns and a flat-tire we made it there. (It took another breakdown and a mechanic to get it back to Kilifi, though.) We filmed all day and it would have been unbearably hot if it weren’t so windy. I was really grateful for the wind, since the wind kept down the bugs and the heat, but it made interviews pretty hard. The interviews with Farmers were really interesting. Most of the farmers could speak pretty good English. (They spoke better English than Mary, at least. Just kidding, my dyslexic sister.) Others we interviewed in Swahili with a translator. They loved to talk aboutKomaza. One question asked was how Komaza was different from other organizations working in the area and every person was quick to say“Komaza is helping us for the future. They are helping to give us a better life. Other organizations just give us food and aid for today. But what do we do when they are gone tomorrow? Komaza gives us a way to do that for ourselves.” It was a very neat experience to hear them talk about what they would spend the money on, too, since the first thing everyone said was School Fees. School here is public, but they have to pay about 100 to 200 shillings a month. That’s the American equivalent of 1.50$ to 3.00$, but it’s too much for many people. But actually it’s probably more, since after a few calculations we learned that for our small apartment in Provo we pay over 37,000 shillings for our cheapy rent. For a similar-sized apartment in Kilifi you pay less than 2,000 shillings. It’s much less to live in Kenya. Travis loves that everyone here rides bikes. They’re very sturdy bikes, too. One person will ride and carry heavy loads or multiple people on the back. There’s no way that our aluminum bikes in America could hold so much weight. Travis is thinking of buying one, since it’s only about 20 dollars, and then we’d just ship it home. Even 100$ of shipping wouldn’t be too much for such a sturdy bike. We heard before we came that Kenyan food was really bad, and I think poorer people do eat much worse than us, since often they just eat corn flour mixed with water. It’s not very nutritional at all which is why so many children are mal-nourished. But they’re not big-bellied and dirty with big sad eyes. They’re happy, relatively healthy children who just don’t always eat their vegetables. Add a few Doritos and they’d probably get about as healthy a lunch as an American kid. But as for us, we’ve been eating really, really well. Yesterday we each had a mango, about the size of a baby’s head. Seriously gigantic, juicy and delicious. We have a private cook and housekeeper, who makes our beds, washes our dishes and makes us delicious curry every evening. Didn’t I say I want to stay here forever? Rice is a definite staple for us Mzungus, we’ve had it with every meal so far. Yum, I love rice. Especially cilantro and lime spiced rice. I want it every day. Yesterday we were up by 5:30 and didn’t get to bed until after 11. It’s really tough when you’re actually working, hiking, and carryingtons of film equipment all day under the Lion King sun (Boy am Isunburned). So this morning we got a chance to sleep in and we started the day with Yoga on the beach at 8am (I said sleep in,right?) and then went for a swim as the tide came in. So far, it’s a perfect start for the day. It’s only 11, but we’ll have rice and beans for lunch soon, along with bread that’s like a mix between tortillas and naan. Oooh, it’s perfect here.
Love you all ,Becky and Travis.

p.s. Parents, please forward this to our siblings or other friends. Our connection is slow and we didn't send this to very many people. Sorry the internet has been down lately, we'll try to talk again soon.