My Visit with Maruge #1

Today is Wednesday the 10 and I am flying to Eldoret, Kenya to visit Maruge and his school.  My flight is at 11:00 pm tonight, so I am checking over my packing and plane ticket.  ....Four hours later.....  I am safely on the plane and heading off to see Maruge.  I fall asleep for most of the journey, I only wake up twice which is good because I want to be fully awake for my seven days with Maruge.  I finally arrive in a small village near Eldoret and pay a Kenyan man to drive me to Maruge's hut.  When we arrived Maruge came running out to greet me cheering.  It was clear that he had been waiting for me very excitedly since I accepted his request to visit him in his village.  He hugged me and started dancing around and cheering more.  "Hello Maruge", I said.  He just kept cheering.  When he was finally done he invited me into his house and I got settled.  While I was "making myself at home" he told me of how the little tiny hut that he used to live in had collapsed so he decided to move to a greener place nearer to his old school.  This one had many more rooms, but was not too big and a nice field for a garden and his new goats.  I was super tired so I fell asleep on Maruge's spare bed and did not wake up for about 14 hours, which was strange, because I slept so much on the plane.  When I woke up I wasn't quit sure what time or day it was so I quietly tip-toed into the main room in the house, but didn't see Maruge anywhere so I went outside to go for a walk.  However when I walked outside I saw Maruge sitting on a huge rock watching the sun begin to rise.  This answered my question about what time it was, so I walked over to the rock and sat down next to him on the rock.  It was nice, we just sat there for who knows how long until the sun was completely up.  We had been silent for so long it was strange to hear him speak, "I do this every morning, ever since I got an education and learned that I didn't have to struggle finically anymore I have been so much more free.  Before I was just so angry all the time, for what the British had done to me."  I tried to imagine how it would feel to have everything you loved torn away from you.  I was certain that the money and education were little compensation for what he had gone through, but at least now he knew that he had been recognized for the sacrifice he made.  After that Maruge wanted to show me his garden and his goats, so we climbed off the rock and went behind his house into a huge dark green field that I had missed when I arrived in the dark.  Two parts of it were roped off; one for his two goats who Maruge called Baya and Bashira, and the other was for his little garden.  He showed me how to milk Baya and then let me milk Bashira.  We set down the pails of milk and he had me taste some of the vegetables and fruits in his garden.  Then we went inside and used his butter churn to make butter, then we took the rest of the milk to his "cheese hut" and he showed me how to start making goat cheese.  It was almost dinner time so we got some "ripe" cheese, a loaf of bread, the butter and some leftover milk and took it out to the field by his house.  It was amazing! We ate all of it, lay down on the green grass and waited for the stars to come out.  When they did it was magical.  I had never seen anything so beautiful before, they were so clear.  Finally I was tired enough to leave the wonderful view and go to bed.  It had been a great day.