Marathons and Mud Huts: Are there chickens in that chicken house?

One of the main reasons I had to get back to the village in a certain time frame, was the chickens! We ordered 16 chickens to be picked up on April 27th. We ordered the chickens from Eldordet, which is a town about 2 hours away. The reason for this, was to get a new breed of chickens for our project. This breed, called Kenbro, is a cross between the local variety of chicken and a broiler. This supposedly makes the chicken very disease resistant as well as larger than a local chicken. We shall see! We picked 2 month old ones, so that they no longer need heat on them. Heat without electricity is a little annoying, it involves keeping a fire in with the chickens.

The day before the big chicken pick up, we received a new volunteer. Wayne had come from the UK to stay with us for a week. Since school was still on break, he decided to come along for the day. We made plans to get up SUPER early so that we could get there and back all in the same day. I think Anerico misinterpreted what super early meant, he got up at 5 am before the sun was even up. He sat in town for over an hour waiting for us!! I don't know how he expected us to get there in the dark so early. Haha... He was just THAT excited.

Luckily, we were able to get a little nap in on the way...

And what a day it was. It wasn't looking too good at first. I thought we were going to have to spend the night in Eldoret, despite our order, they hadn't brought the chickens into town from the farm for us yet. Luckily, they were able to get them to come, but I think Wayne started learning that nothing happens too quickly in Africa. Once they finally did arrived, the fun began. While we were trying to determine if they had brought us the 14 hens and 2 roosters as ordered, on of them jumped right out of the container Wayne was looking in. It made a run for it down the street. I couldn't stop laughing, but I think Wayne thought he had lost a chicken before we even got them home! It was a pretty funny scene, Wayne running down the street after a chicken. According to Wayne, he would have caught the chicken, but someone pushed him out of the way to help him. The chicken was returned.... and we were on our way.

We got them home, and I was a little worried that not all of them would make it. The roads here are not so smooth, so they had to endure a pretty long crowded bumpy ride. They made it though! Here they are arriving home.

Unfortunately, while I was gone, not as much progress was made on the chicken house as I had hoped. It turns out that Anerico was very sick and even admitted to the hospital. He claimed it was 'stomach malaria' and that he didn't drink enough water, so they had to put water right into his arm with a tube. After talking to Rose, she thinks it was actually Typhoid, but everyone here calls everything malaria! For now, Anerico is insisting on keeping the chickens in his living room. I think he actually likes doing this because he was using the chicken house as a kitchen. Oh boy.