Elephant Wins

Marta and I went to Meru the last couple of days to offer technical support for the Laare Community Computer Center, which was set up by another MIT student and AITI member, Eric Mibauri. Meru is the center of miraa production. Miraa, also known as qat is a mild stimulant that is chewed mostly around the mideast. It is especially popular in Somalia, where despite not having a government, they still manage to fly in daily shipments of fresh miraa. It comes in twigs that you have to chew. I tried a little bit when I was in Mombasa, but it tasted so bitter than I was only able to chew a couple of them and didn't feel any effect.

The Laare center is run by a Catholic church. They have since branched out and donated some computers to two girls' secondary schools in the area. Marta and I visited all three and helped service their computers. Unfortunately, power is only available at night, so we basically hung out all day on Tuesday, played with some of the nursery school students, and visited Meru national park with two Fathers.

While at the park, we were driving around a sharp corner and nearly ran into an elephant. We must of surprised it, because it turned around and started to charge the car. The priest who was driving the car quickly threw it into reverse and drove us backwards up the trail until we escaped. It's a good thing, because we were in a little Subaru and in the game of Subaru versus Elephant, Elephant wins.