I calmly lifted the deck in the air. Slowly. Very slowly.

Saturday

I woke up too early this morning. Dougie B has a meeting with Edward at 11:30am this morning, and then we're headed to Pipeline for a Committee meeting at 1pm. So, really, I didn't need to wake up until like noon...

I had planned on waking up around 9ish, that way I would still be able to catch breakfast in the morning.

Well, I feel asleep with my TV on and at 9am CNN woke me up. I remember it being nine, because the guy on the news said it... so I jumped up, grabbed a shower, put on my nice, clean, hand-washed clothes (they do it right in A-Freak-ah!) and headed out the door for some brreeeakfast.

I ate a lot of fruit, some potatoes, and an egg... over easy. I then sat there for a little while waiting for Dougie B. What seemed like an hour went by quickly. I thought to myself "Dang, Dougie B sure is sleeping in! It's gotta be past 10am!"

So I opened the computer for two reasons:
1.) To try to post more pictures on the blog so that I could try to get caught up.
-and-
2.) To see the time.

I actually didn't look at the clock right away... I connected to the net and opened Firefox and notepad to type up a blog post.

After a few moments, I thought about Dougie B again... looked at the clock... it read: 12:48am. Now this clock is still set to Ft. Myers time, so that I know what time it is there. 12:48 Ft. Myers time is 7:48am here. SEVEN!! I freakin' woke up at seven!

Now I'm still tired, and know that I could've slept in for 2 more hours!

It's okay though... I'm not going to go to sleep tonight... I'm just going to stay up all night. That way, hopefully, I'll be able to sleep the 8 hours from here to Amsterdam!

My plan is to pass-out from here to Amsterdam (8 hours), relax during our layover (2.5 hours) then rely on Wal-Som (you know we ghetto fab) for the flight from Amsterdam to Boston (9.5 hours). We then have a THREE hour layover in Boston, where we'll be headed out to grab lunch in the city (if possible), and I'll just tough it out from Boston to Charlotte and from Charlotte to the Fort.

I know it's rather selfish, but I've been praying that God will give us A330 air busses from here to America... also that the seats next to me would be empty too... say a prayer, will ya!

Steve was right on time... as always. They say here that there are two times: Africa time and Steve time. "Africa time" is a 'show up whenever you feel like it' kind of time. You can set your clocks to "Steve time" he's NEVER late!

Anyway... off to Pipeline we went... it's not a really long drive to Pipeline from the guesthouse, but it's certainly not a short drive either...

It's a strange day here in Pipeline today. It's very warm, the sun is very high... the people seem to be really happy today. It's as if they don't realize that they live in the slums.

These are truly beautiful people!

We had a meeting... from 2pm - 6pm ... I WAS DYING!!

So, I did what I always do... I went outside to play with the kids. Steve says to never do this.... I have a rebellious streak.

These two girls in particular were just AWESOME! Sharon and Sheila. What amazing girls, both VERY educated. They walked up to me, and put there arms around me and said "Hey Slim!"

"Jambo," I replied "how are you girls doing today?"

"Mzuri sana, Slim." "Do you know what that means?"

"Of course! I've been learning a LOT of Swahili while I've been here!"

"Oh, that's good! We have a question?"

"Anything! Go 'head!"

"Do you have a family?"

Man, my gut wrenched.. how do I answer that? "Yes, yes I do. I have an amazing family and you have nothing?" I've been asked many questions before. Some of them were even difficult questions. In most cases, it was easy to answer... never did I think that one of the most difficult questions would come from the mouth of a 5th grade orphan!

"Yes I do. I have a Mama and Baba, a Ndungu, and 2 Dada's! They're awesome people!" I said.

"That's so good Slim! Do you have any kids?"

"No, not yet. I'd like to have kids though!"

"Slim?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think that when you have your kids, you can bring them here to see us, one day?"

I had to fight back the tears. My gut turned, my eyes hurt, and my throat became more dry than that of a pothead.

"Of course.. I would love for you to meet them!" I finally answered.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No." I replied, heading towards the 'fiance punchline'

"Well, when I'm older, I'll be your girlfriend!"

"Hahaha... that's very nice, but I'm actually engaged to an amazing woman back home. Her name is Laura."

"She must be very beautiful!"

"Oh, you have NO clue!"

"When do you get married?"

"In just 6 weeks! Can you believe it!?!"

"Wow! That's very good, Slim. I wish you the best of luck!"

"Asante sana" I replied.

"Slim?"

"::chuckling:: yes?"

"Can we ask you a question?"

"::chuckling continues:: Of course!!"

"When you get married, do you think that you can bring your wife here to meet us? We want to play with her and do her hair...?"

The tears finally came out... "Of course... she would love it here, and love to meet you!"

"Do you think that she would want to be our best friend?"

"She already is!" I exclaimed.

I got called back into the meeting at this point. I didn't want to stop talking with the pair, but it wasn't long before we were able to talk again.

"How much Swahili have you learned, Slim?"

"Not much." I replied as I rattled of the list of words that I knew.

"We'll be right back!!" the two shouted.

During this time, a small group of kids came to find me. Some of them had seen me doing magic for Steve and wanted to see some. I was surprised at this. Edward told me that the kids would be too scared of magic and think I was Satan. As "Satan" was not quite how I wanted to be perceived by the kids, I pretty much kept it to myself and adults.

I said no... "It's too scary for you!"

"Please, please, please, please!" they rang out.

So I ran through a couple card tricks. They were speechless. I then made a 1Ksh coin appear out of thin air. Then I made it disappear, and reappear behind a small child's ear.

They watched in amazement as the 1Ksh coin changed to a 5Ksh coin... RIGHT BEFORE THEIR EYES!

As if that wasn't enough, the 5Ksh magically doubled to a 10Ksh coin at the wave of my hand!

They were stunned!! "More, more, more!!!" they shouted in unison, like a well rehearsed choir "More!!" they cried.

"Okay. I'll show you ONE MORE. But you've gotta promise that you wont get scared!"

"We promise." they chimed again.

I didn't explain to them what I was about to do. I just asked a girl to pick a card, by her "own free will" of course *wink**wink*

She chose the Queen of Spades. I then instructed her to put the card back on the top of the deck. I flipped the card back over and told them to watch closely.

I calmly lifted the deck in the air. Slowly. Very slowly.

Their eyes were GLUED to the deck.

"Watch closely!" I said as I let the suspense build up.

"Do you see it?" I asked.

"Do you see it!?!"

They didn't know what they were looking for... as I hard not really started the trick.

"Concentrate." I instructed them.

"Concentrate hard!"

Slowly but surly, the card LIFTED itself right off of the deck! It float nearly 3 inches RIGHT OFF THE DECK!

At this, the kids SHRIEKED and BOLTED away from me as I laughed.

Soon the girls came back. Sheila handed me a folded up piece of paper and said "This should help you with your Swahili!" I opened the paper. It was Sheila's version of the Swahili crash course.

Sharon lifted out her hand and said "This is for Laura. I made it for her." as she handed me a necklace. "Tell her I love her and can't wait to meet her!" she whispered in my ear.

What amazing kids these are.

I'm very happy to be going home, but very sad to leave. Kenya, very quickly became my home away from home.

We left there... headed back to the guesthouse to handle some business, and then dipped to the Java House for dinner.

It was good, as usual.

Taxied back to the guesthouse for some MUCH needed sleep.

I'm heading home on the 28 hour traveling journey. Goo.

S