Stoney Tangawizi, originally uploaded by Kattaka.

Sanity thy name is Tangawizi.

After a hard day of work I want nothing more than to go home and pop open a bottle of Stoney Tangawizi - a delicious, refreshing ginger beer brewed here in Kenya. Im getting addicted to the stuff. Its not as harsh as other ginger beers Ive had, but has a lot more kick than a ginger ale. I think its just the name that really attracts me to it - TANG-A-WHEEZY. It means ginger in Swahili.

Lately it seems like there are so many more kids on the streets asking me for money. I mean, it went from my encountering maybe one or two a day to sometimes up to a dozen. And they are so young! One girl couldnt have been more than 3! They are taught simple English and sent out to get money from foreigners. Its hard to keep reminding myself that giving them money - or even food - only encourages them to keep up with that means of getting food/money and only leads to more problems down the road. Glue sniffing is a big thing here too. There are some half-crazy people who walk around with their little bottle of bright yellow glue in their mouth as to allow them constant sniffing. They stumble around and harass people for money. I wonder how many of the kids who are begging for money will end up like that or are already into glue sniffing. It starts out as a way to curb hunger and then just turns the brain to mush. Ugh. Ive heard about lawsuits against glue companies in Central America because it is such a problem there too. Somehow I think the problems are not necessarily rooted in the glue companies selling the glue - but that s just me.