Jess is the most awesomest ever!

This morning Janelle* picked us (Zoe, April, Jess and myself) up at 6:15am to go for a run on the beach. I'm meant to be on complete non-activity time while I'm away, but six weeks of nothing has made me a little fidgety. We went out to the house of a lady with a kid in Janelle's class. She lives on a compound right on the beach, so we set off from there. Jess, Janelle and I were running, while the others walked/jogged with the dogs. We ran for about twenty minutes without talking much, then Jess dropped back to the others. Janelle asked me a bit about how I'd got here, what my plans were, and we had a nice chat about stuff for a bit, but I was just as content to run in silence and watch the fishing boats come in. It was lovely. We only ran for 45 minutes at a fairly easy pace, but I finished up a pretty sore. That was predictable. I'm silly sometimes.

When we got back to the house Lisa made us pancakes for breakfast - delicious! I ate lots of them. One must take full advantage of offerings like that. She also gave us quite a few valuable tips about cooking over here - some ingredients you just can't get, and it's hard to know what to improvise with, so it was great getting the local knowledge. She also wrote out some recipes for us, and showed us how to make maple syrup to go with the pancakes. Good stuff.

So, while we were at Lisa's I had been bemoaning the lack of animal life on the compound. I'm really not used to having nothing around me. I did recognise the impracticalities of having a dog, but surely the three houses could share ownership of a goat? Or even, I said, chickens?

Anyway, we went home, went shopping, went back home, and I thought nothing more of the conversation. I've been complaining to Zoe in a similar vein for days. Then later in the afternoon, we hear the doorbell ring. There is nobody there. Instead, there is a chicken. A chicken!!

Jess bought him from Tegeta market while shopping with Marie and April. They definitely saved that bird from being eaten, I have a feeling the stallholder was pretty surprised at them taking him away alive. They had to carry him in a plastic bag with his head sticking out.

I am so happy. He may not have many feathers, but they will grow back. He may be scrawny, but we will give him a tough name. We have a chicken! He's pretty tame, wanders round next to me when I put him outside. But he is very pathetic looking. Here is a photo:

We've been collecting name suggestions before the compound reconvenes to vote. Here is what we have so far. Feel free to add to the list if you have any ideas.

• Henry (not really tough enough for my liking)
• Charlie the Chicken (the same) (Phoebe, Grade 1)
• Charlie the Crusher (better!)
• Fang (my suggestion)
• Spike (mine) (look, I want him to sound tough ok)
• Brewster the Rooster (Zoe)
• Mr Tok Tok (Jake, Grade 1)
• Chik Chik (Alia, Grade 1)
• Chakula (Kiswahili for 'food') (mine)
• Chamchana/Chajio (both Kiswahili for 'dinner') (again, mine)
• DSB (Demented Scruffy Bird)
• Fowler (put forward by the DSB himself)
• Colonel (again the chicken)
• Tank (Timill)
• Nugget (Bec!)

I should probably be banned from making any further suggestions. Will let you know the outcome of voting.

Dinner was taken care of by way of us being invited over to the Larmey's house to babysit their kids. Ha. We tried to tell them that we didn't need to be paid - firstly, their four monsters are absolutely gorgeous and it was a pleasure to look after them, and secondly, they were feeding us! But they insisted, and well I guess neither of us really wanted to complain. We had a great night. They've got the most beautiful dog, Ginger, who they rescued off the street a few years ago. But she made me miss Tali. We had pizza, went for a swim, watched a movie... I got shown up by a ten year old. Let's not go into detail there.