Do chickens have gender identity?

I love the drive from Kisumu to Ndwara…since it’s familiar to me now, I like looking for landmarks, and seeing what has changed.  Lots of work on the road, which is improving it somewhat.  I was happy to see that the men working on the road project were Africans and not all Chinese workers as I have seen in some other places.  It means that the money will get spent locally and benefit lots of people.  I have been told that Chinese construction companies pay their Chinese workers by depositing the money in their bank accounts in China, so virtually none of it gets spent in the country where the work is going on.

Arriving home was the same as always.  A few things have changed, many things remain the same.  The baby chicken that I named Jacinta last year is now fully grown…and turned out to be a rooster.  I suggested that they not let me name any more chickens, since Jacinta is probably suffering from some gender confusion, but apparently it is a great source of humour.  They wanted me to name another one this time, so to be on the safe side I named it Rocky which was the most gender neutral name I could come up with at short notice.

A quick wash and change my clothes when I arrived, and then off to the celebration of the appointment of a new assistant chief of the region.  This is a government position, something like an assistant government manager for the region, and for the first time ever, it is someone from the Ndwara community.  This is a cause for real excitement, and is likely to have a positive effect on the library.  Unexpectedly, I was expected to speak, but all I could manage was a small speech of congratulations, and express the hope that we would have a long and fruitful working relationship.

The really good news from the government is that we have been promised more Constituency Development Fund money,  which should be enough to finish the building.  Still it’s sometimes a long trip here between the promise of money and its appearance in the bank, so I will save my real celebrating for when it appears.

My wonderful puppy Willie is now full grown and has become a lovely dog.  He is very affectionate which doesn’t seem to be very usual here, and really loves to play with Mathews who is the boy who lives with Mama Doris and takes care of Willie.  I always think of Mathews as a little boy, since he was when I met him, but he is now in Grade 11 and taller than I am.  He is one of my favourite sponsored students here.

I was really tired after the adventure getting from Ghana, and it was wonderful to climb into my familiar bed in my familiar bed room.