happiness is a warm gun

chris and i have finally moved in with the lovely family of which we spoke before. pastor stafford and mama happiness have welcomed us most profusely into their home. the house itself is a kind of square shape with a courtyard in the center which is where all the activity centers. chris and i have a small room off of the courtyard with a small sitting room, quite lovely. all of stafford and happiness' children are grown and moved out but they have taken in three boys who were previously living in the street and an nephew and a niece. and there's another american, paul, who also volunteers at neema building a bottles to beads kiln. living with a family again is really nice, they are quite attentive and provide chai at every waking moment. those of you who know my struggle to leave my addiction to caffiene in america will laugh at the return of my steady drip now.
mama happiness is somewhat of a character if only because she says "asante sana" to absolutely anything you say, really anything.
our new home is a bit of a distance from town which means we had to buy a bike. i say one bike because we are planning to travel with me on the rear rack and chris doing all of the work, this is the most economical means possible. buying the bike involved about three full days of bargaining which included me offering to bring another mzungu woman for them to marry in exchange for a couple of thousand shillings off of the price of the rear rack. this was only after having to refuse an offer to be swept away to another village away from my husband, in which case i could assume chris would get the bike for free in exchange.
i'm considering either planning a thanksgiving celebration for our host family or ignoring the holiday altogether so i'm not reminded of missing my family terribly during arguably my favorite holiday. i'll let everyone know. love. annie