Sunday, December 18, 2011

Kenyan Night Out

For those of you who may not know, Jeremy now has a full-time job at the embassy. Since August, he has been Customer Service Director, head of a new office whose mission is to help embassy staff get the services they need from the other 1200 staff spread across 45 offices. Jeremy's primary customers are new arrivals. As you might imagine, moving your family halfway around the world to start a new job involves a lot of questions, paperwork, and logistics.

Jeremy has a great staff of three Kenyan customer service professionals. On Friday night, they invited us out for Kenyan barbeque (locally called "nyama choma") as an office Christmas party. The party was supposed to get started at 6pm, but due to the legendary Nairobi traffic, none of us got there until after 7pm. We ordered drinks and chatted until the food arrived, which did not occur until 9pm.

First course was goat liver...yum (not really). Next course was goat kidney, which actually was tasty. Only the women are supposed to eat the kidney; the full explanation was unclear, but it seemed to relate to fertility. Then the main course came - roasted goat, roasted chicken, ugali (startchy side dish made from maize flour), and kachumbari (Kenyan-style pica de gallo) - all served family style with no serving or eating utensils allowed, just your fingers!

Full from dinner, the ladies got up to do some dancing. They taught me a couple traditional dances, one of which involved doing the twist for an entire song, which seemed to last FOREVER. When we returned to the table it was time for the final course: a horrendous soup of boiled goat head and hooves (I chocked down only a sip, but Jeremy cheerfully drank a full portion) and Kenyan sausage, which was tasty, but very fatty and chewy.

We finally said our good-byes at midnight, after being informed that a "real" Kenyan night out would involve going clubbing and not getting home until dawn! It was a fun night and we're thankful to Jeremy's staff for being wonderful individuals, cool peeps, and showing us the Kenyan way to have a good time!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Christmas Miracle

This weekend, I sang in the Nairobi Music Society Christmas concert.  I've been singing with the group since October.

As concert week dawned, I woke up on Monday with a sore throat.  My symptoms slowly worsened until I stayed home from work on Thursday with a full-blown cold.  By Friday afternoon, I was able to walk around without totally exhausting myself, so I headed out to dress rehearsal.  

To save my energy and my voice, I sat in the pews during the rehearsal, following along with my music but not singing.  As I listened, I thought "Oh my God, we have to perform this tomorrow!  We are not ready."

But when concert night rolled around, a Christmas miracle occurred.  We actually sounded good!  Really good!  As we finished our last notes, the audience enthusiastically clapped, clearing hoping for an encore.  Sadly, we did not have one prepared, but it was gratifying to receive such praise for our performance.





Monday, November 28, 2011

Marine Corps Ball

Each year on November 10, the United States Marine Corps celebrates its birthday. Since 1949, Marines have been providing protective support to U.S. diplomatic missions around the world. And each November, these diplomatic missions look forward to the Marine Corps Ball - with its speeches, pomp and circumstance, drinking, cake cutting, eating, drinking, dancing with your colleagues and boss, seeing who brings the most outrageous date...and more drinking! Below are a couple photos from our first Marine Corps Ball.




Sunday, November 6, 2011

Time to Make the Bread

Those of you in the United States may be surprised to find out that Jeremy has become quite a baker in Nairobi. I believe this newfound baking interest stems from two circumstances: 1) most of the bread available in Nairobi sucks (except for the French bakery and Art Cafe), which is especially sad after the great bread in Portland from places like New Seasons and Great Harvest; 2) he spent his first six months here without a job and with lots of time to be creative in the kitchen.


Many of his breads have been standard French or Italian loaves. He's also dressed them up with parmesan or garlic. To please his "healthy" wife, he even made whole wheat! Jeremy has also branched out to other bread products including pizza dough, Stromboli, and cinnamon rolls. He made cinnamon rolls for a potluck brunch a few months back, and the other guests keep begging him to make more...one person even wanted to hire him to make a batch for a birthday breakfast! Of all his creations his favorite is a beer bread boule (see below photo).

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Trick-or-Treating in Nairobi

If you live outside of a kid-saturated surburban housing development in the United States, you've probably had the same experience I've had the last several years on Halloween: you go out and buy a bunch of candy, turn on the porch light, and happily anticipate the doorbell of the first trick-or-treater. Then you proceed to wait...and wait...for the doorbell to ring. By the end of the night, maybe 5 trick-or-treaters have come by, and you're stuck with a huge bowl of candy to eat yourself.

I'm happy to report this was not my experience in Nairobi last night. The Embassy organized trick-or-treating in our compound of 60 houses. The best part was I didn't even have to buy the candy!! The parents of the trick-or-treaters provided candy in advance to our social activities office, who then distributed it to the houses who were giving out candy. So, last night I happily spent an hour giving out Snickers and M&Ms to princesses, goblins, Captain America, jedi knights, werewolves, and other costumed munchkins. And all I have left are a handful of Tootsie Rolls and hard candies. Success at last!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

KFC

Although I would not be caught dead in a Kentucky Fried Chicken in the US, the first KFC in Kenya opened a couple of months ago in Nairobi, and I couldn't resist checking it out.

The word is that the line has been out the door since opening, so we decided to go during the week, when crowds would likely be smaller. We timed our visit perfectly because we didn't have to wait at all!

I ordered the two piece chicken meal with fries and a drink for $5.80 and Jeremy got the "fully loaded box" of one piece of chicken, a chicken burger, fries, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a drink for $7.80. Sadly, they do not have biscuits here in Kenya. They have an item called "mini loaves" that are Kenya's attempt at something resembling "bread on the side," but the min loaves didn't look appealing enough even to sample.

We ate in the restaurant, which actually had a nice atmosphere, compared with the depressing, dirty, harsh fluorescent environment of a US fast food restaurant. They actually had a couple different seating options, from sitting at a side bar with tall white stools, to regular tables, to a comfy couch area.

Business was good for a Thursday night; I would say about a third of the tables were full and people kept showing up as we were eating. We also had the pleasure of an experience straight out of white trash, fast food America: a mother yelling at her kid and shoving food in his mouth as he moaned and fidgeted in his chair!

I have to admit: I'm not much of a fried chicken eater, but it tasted good!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Cat Health Update

After her encounter with the dog, Bellini was fairly sedentary for several days. As she began to move around more, we noticed her back feet were the cause of her discomfort. She didn't let us get too close, but we could see that her middle toes seemed stuck together. However her mood improved as did her mobility, so we watched to see if she would heal on her own.

She definitely seemed better and even started venturing outside again, but her feet were still causing her some trouble. So it was off to the vet today. The vet concluded that Bellini had shredded her back toenails on the tree, exposing the nail sheath, which was now infected. Bellini received a soothing antiseptic foot wash and started a three-day course of injected antibiotics. We'll be back at the vet the next two days for the remaining injections. Ah, the joys of pet ownership!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Sunday Outing


Yesterday, we finally visited the Karen Blixen house, made famous by the book and movie "Out of Africa." A lot of the items in the house are replicas, because Karen sold most of her belongings when she left Kenya to return to Europe. The grounds are very nice, and they have a cute garden restaurant down the street from the house.


After getting our fill of history for the day, we headed to Blankets and Wine, an outdoor concert/hang-out event held monthly. We ran into several other Embassy and expats friends there.


Kenya's version of annoying city birds are called kites. They will hang around anywhere there is food to see if they can get lucky. And if they get tired of waiting, they will snatch the food from you, literally. At one point, the area around us became target practice as kites dive-bombed people's picnic blankets and grabbed food right off people's plates or even out of their hands! Luckily we were sitting under a tent, so we were safe from the bird attack, but I saw some people get hit multiple times by the pesky kites!

Soon after that, ominous clouds gathered overhead, and as the rain started coming down, we decided to leave. That turned out to be a very wise decision, because about 15 minutes down the road, it started absolutely pouring, and we wondered how our friends were faring under the tent!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

How we almost killed our cat

Yesterday our neighbor was having a BBQ. As we walked back and forth between our houses with various food and drink, our cat Bellini was watching us curiously and seemed to want to participate in the action. She's an outdoor cat who's very adventurous, so we decided to encourage her to follow us to our neighbor's backyard. We didn't plan to let her in the yard, but thought she could hang outside and watch us through the fence until she got bored and went home.

As I entered the yard, our neighbor's rambunctious dog came tearing out of the house and pushed past me out the gate before I even comprehended what happened. The dog raced after Bellini as she took off running. According to bystanders, the two went flying around to the front of the house and Bellini barely made it up a tree before becoming dog food! The dog was called off and taken back to the house, but Bellini stayed up in the tree a good 30 minutes before we could coax her down. Since then Bellini has been uncharacteristically subdued and didn't even sleep with us last night. I think she quite literally had the bejesus scared out of her and it will be a couple of days before she's back to normal!

Below is a picture of Bellini in her normal, pre-dog attack mode. This is a picture of her up on our roof. I told you she was adventurous!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Garden Fever

We're very excited by our garden! After nearly nine months of doing absolutely nothing with our yard, we finally put in some plants. The previous residents had already laid a pretty good foundation, but we had some ugly plants to remove and new ones to put in.

We have a new vegetable patch with lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and onions. We plan to add tomatoes and maybe beans. We also have a random aloe plant in there, which we didn't want to transplant!


We also now have Herb Row with sage, marjoram, lemon thyme, oregano, chives, basil, and lavender.


We can't take any credit for the below plants. They were all already there. It's a bit chaotic with plants growing over top of each other, but we both really like it!


And I couldn't resist a photo of Bellini and Cosmo playing in the yard. They really love their mini jungle!


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Relaxing weekend on the coast

After a busy July at work, including organizing the "East African Workshop on Cyberspace Security," we took a well-deserved long weekend in Watamu on the Kenyan coast.

We didn't spend much time on the actual beach. The brown stuff in the foreground of the below picture is seaweed! The entire beach was covered with it, right up to the barrier wall of our resort.


So we spent most of our time in the resort, including massages at the spa, lazing by the pool, and enjoying drinks at the bar. The drink we are holding below is a dawa, a potent vodka drink mixed with honey and lime.


The resort organized a day trip to nearby Malindi, which has a significant Italian expat community. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat at a place called "I Love Pizza!"


We also satisfied our shopping itch, picking up the below items for a total of $60. If you receive a present from us in the near future, you might be getting a preview of it here!


After Malindi, we visited the Gede ruins. Gede was a thriving city back in the day, but was mysteriously abandoned, and now only the outlines of their buildings remain.


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Safari in Tsavo

My latest safari took me to Tsavo, where we stayed at Man Eaters Lodge.


Man Eaters is named for the "man-eating" lions who killed 100+ railroad workers in the Tsavo region in the late 1800s during the construction of the railway from the Indian Ocean to Uganda. We did not see any lions on our trip...although both nights there were two zebras who came to graze on the green grass surrounding the lodge's restaurant.

The lodge is actually a tented camp...which means each sleeping area is a semi-permanent structure with canvas walls that is kind of a cross between a tent and a cottage:


We saw lots of elephants on our trip. In fact, during our first late afternoon game drive, we didn't see much of anything in the fading sunlight. But just as we pulled up to the exit gate, we turned and saw a small group of elephants crossing the road behind us! There was something mystical about standing there in the growing darkness watching these massive animals walk quietly by just steps away from the barrier out of the park to the rest of civilization.

It was too dark to get a picture then, but here's another elephant pic. We were very close to this guy and ready with the foot on the gas to take off if he suddenly got upset at us!


Besides the animals, I really loved the landscape of Tsavo, which reminded me of the American West:



Sunday, July 10, 2011

Movie Theater

We just got back from seeing Hangover II. I don't know how the theaters stay in business around here. There were 5 people total in the theater! And the other times I've been to the movies in Nairobi, the crowd was the same size.

The theater is actually pretty nice...decent picture and sound quality, comfortable seats, and even cup holders. It's not quite the same as Regal, but hey, it doesn't cost as much either! We purchased popcorn and two sodas for less than $3.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Expat-Ville

Well, we have finally entered expat-ville: we hired a housekeeper and today was his first day.

And it's totally AWESOME!!

I came home to a clean kitchen, with no dishes left on the counter, or even in the dish drainer. The bed was made, with the pillows and blankets carefully arranged. My clothes were ironed and folded in the wardrobe. The soap scum was gone from the bathroom.

Unfortunately, we didn't hire him to cook for us...so I have to go make dinner.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Tour Guide in Kenya

Here are some pictures and highlights from my Uncle Jim's visit to Kenya.

First stop was the Giraffe Center where we fed and pet a giraffe.


Afterwards we went to the Bomas of Kenya Cultural Center to see traditional dancing, drumming, and acrobatics.


The centerpiece of the visit was a three-day safari to Masai Mara.






We were all excited that hot cocoa was served at every meal at our camp, including during afternoon tea following a long (arduous) day spotting wildlife.

Our safari concluded with a visit to a Masai village where we danced with the villagers.


After returning to Nairobi, we toured Kibera slum, and learned about the businesses and social systems the community has developed to support itself.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Favorite Safari Animal

I've decided that my favorite safari animal is the Thomson's Gazelle. I know, I know. If I can be out seeing lions, giraffe, elephants, and rhinos, how can my favorite be a simple deer-like animal?!? But the Thomson's Gazelle is just too cute prancing around the savannah!

Mountain of Chocolate

My fabulous Uncle Jim visited from the U.S. and brought me all my favorite chocolates: chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered cherries, caramels, and nonpareils!!


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Brew Bistro

We went out to eat last night at the Brew Bistro, Nairobi's microbrewery. Jeremy was so excited to drink IPA and chocolate stout after all the Tusker lager he's been drinking. (Tusker is the ubiquitous Kenyan beer.)


In the US, most brewpubs aren't known for white linen service and excellent food, because - let's face it - the focus is on the beer. But this place was actually pretty fancy and served excellent steaks. I think it's safe to say we'll be back!


Friday, June 3, 2011

White Water Rafting

I went white water rafting on the Tana River last weekend. I think all rafting guides must go to the same training school...I've been rafting in Colorado, Maine, and now Kenya...and the spiel and the jokes have pretty much been the same every time! But this rafting trip was crazier than any other one I've been on.

It started with the security briefing. The guide gave a long explanation about dealing with crocodiles...starting with baby ones and moving up to crocs the length of our boat. Then he laughed and said "Does anyone still believe me? I've never seen a crocodile in 20 years of rafting on this river." We all chuckled nervously wondering which part of the crocodile talk was the truth...the first part, or the joke at the end?

Once on the river, we went through some pretty easy water and then proceeded over our first big rapid. The guide pulled us over to the side once we got through and told us we'd be going surfing...which means going back into the roiling water at the bottom of the rapid! We did this a couple of times, but the guide was not satisfied with the limited number of people falling out of the boat. So he said "Ok, you three are going into the first compartment of the boat, Erica's gonna sit on your lap in the middle, and the remaining two people move up to the second compartment." Essentially, he completely front-loaded the boat, so that capsizing was inevitable! There was only one boat in our group that did not capsize while surfing. However, that boat threw all of its occupants except one who was left desperately clinging to the handholds while the water continued to buck the boat and the guide, equally desperately, swam back to save him!

The next hour or two passed relatively quietly after that. Then the guide informed us we were approaching another big rapid, which would basically fold the boat in half as we went over. As predicted, about halfway over the rapid, I went flying into the water. I came to the surface underneath the boat and had to make three attempts fighting the current before emerging successfully! Once the guide righted the boat and got us situated, we had a chance to examine what had just conquered us. That thing was NOT a rapid...it was a six-foot waterfall!! And since we went first, we got to watch the other two boats come tumbling over and toss the occupants into the drink.

Having all survived, we made our way back to camp and commenced into re-tellings of our near-death experiences over an awesome lunch of steak, sausage, soup, coleslaw, potatoes, and fruit salad.

Can't wait for the next rafting trip!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Editorial: Advice to the new Ambassador

I think this article is an excellent caricature of the former US Ambassador's relationship with Kenya:
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/What+Ranneberger+might+have+told+his+successor+/-/440808/1166834/-/item/0/-/wd51my/-/index.html

Of course, it may not mean much to those of you who don't live in Kenya, but it gives you a taste of Kenyan politics and our former Ambassador's approach.

We had a spirited debate in our office today about this editorial, and the fact that the new Ambassador mentioned that he plans to take some of it to heart. I think a softer approach is welcome, whereas my colleague thinks America needs to keep poking Kenya in the chest and forcefully telling its politicians to buckle down to the hard work of actually leading the country.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Teppanyaki

We went out for teppanyaki at Onami tonight. Teppanyaki is a Japanese-style cuisine where you sit around a flat grill and the chef chops and cooks everything in front of you.

But this was unlike any teppanyaki I've had before. My meal was SEVEN courses:
Cabbage Salad
Broccolli with onions and peppers
Shuyu Tofu
Stir-fried vegetables
Stir-fried rice
Miso soup
Carmelized pineapple with custard

The best part, though, was that the chef had Jeremy cook the stir-fried rice! I wish I had had my camera as he did the "Japanese egg roll" and tossed the rice like a pro!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Golf Club Membership

I never thought this would happen to me, but I am now a member of a golf club. Or, I should say that Jeremy is a member of a golf club, and I am a de facto member as his spouse. Since I don't play golf, I don't think I'll take much advantage of the membership.

As you might imagine, gold clubs in Africa are a bit different, and more affordable, than in America. Since I haven't actually visited MY golf club, I have to go by what Jeremy has told me. A major difference is having to deal with monkeys on the course. They don't attack the players or try to steal the balls, but sometimes they do hang out at the tee box or along the course, and it's a bit unnerving to turn your back on a nearby monkey to concentrate on your swing. Another fun thing is that the club has a specific rule regarding safari ants. Safari ants travel in colonies eating anything that comes in their path - grass, plants, fruit, your toes, or anywhere on your body if they happen to crawl up your leg! So, the golf club rules are that if your ball lands in the path of safari ants, you get a free drop, meaning you can move the ball away from the ants with no penalty.

For now, we are still probationary members, which means any full member can ask management to rescind our membership if he feels we are unsuitable for the club, or act like jerks on the course. Since I don't know much about golf club etiquette, it's probably safest for me not to visit the club until our membership is fully approved. :)

Monday, May 2, 2011

Hiking in Karura

We went hiking today in Karura Forest. Karura is only a 5-minute drive from our house. It was a great hike...and we only went through part of the forest. We saw a small waterfall and marveled at the locals playing in the polluted water. And we walked through a small cave with some sleeping bats. Hopefully we'll go back again soon.



Monday, April 25, 2011

Birthday Celebration

My birthday fell on Easter weekend this year. Since I had a four-day weekend off work, we traveled to Diani, on the Kenyan coast of the Indian Ocean. For my birthday, we went to Ali Barbour's Cave Restaurant.


Ali Barbour's is set in an actual coral cave, with the rooftop opening to a beautiful starlit sky. It also offered the first gourmet meal we've had since leaving Washington DC. As a couple who enjoys going out to nice restaurants, we were so happy to be in a romantic restaurant eating delicious, creative food served by courteous staff.


Our concierge had made the reservation for us and obviously mentioned it was for a birthday, because the maitre d' asked whose birthday it was when we arrived. As we ate appetizers, main course, and then dessert, I was on guard for an embarrassing birthday moment. But we finished dessert and nothing had happened yet, so I figured I was in the clear. As the server picked up our dessert plates, she leaned towards Jeremy and said "I would like to be seeing you." Jeremy looked confused, so I translated for him: "She wants to talk to you for a minute." He spoke with her briefly and then sat back down at the table...and I knew it was coming. From behind me I heard voices singing "Happy Birthday," a small cake with a sparkling candle was placed in front of me, and I was handed a big cake knife.


As the servers faded away, Jeremy and I laughed and laughed that we had already eaten dessert and now had to stuff down this cake that the staff had kindly prepared for us. Jeremy told me that when the server pulled him aside she said "we have a cake...when do you want it?" And he's thinking "uh...before we ate dessert" but instead said "now would be good." It was a long meal, but makes for a good story!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

More driving adventures in Nairobi

It's awesome to be riding in a cab...at night, in the rain...watching the windshield fog up because the defroster doesn't work, and the driver swiping at the windshield with his hand in a desperate attempt to see out. To top it off, we run into a ditch because he can't see where the road ends and cuts a corner too close.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

What's up with the supermarket employees?!

Customer service is basically a foreign concept in Kenya, so you learn pretty early on to lower your expectations. But the supermarket employees here have the strangest habit that I just don't understand:

I'll be going down the aisle slowly, looking for something on the shelves...or I'll be picking up a couple items comparing them, and a nearby employee will stop what he's doing and watch me or sometimes move closer to me. He won't ask if I have a question or need help, but he's basically hovering and watching me. It's really annoying and unnerving. Maybe they've been taught this in their customer service class...to be available for questions...but it ends up coming off like they need to keep an eye on me or I might steal something off the shelves. This happened to me four times today during my trip to the store, and I was about ready to scream. Instead I looked back at one of them until he turned away and moved along.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Kenya milk


Aahh, Kenya. We bought this milk yesterday and by today it looked like this. I've never seen milk separate before. What's even better is that on one of our roads trips out of town, there were people selling small jugs of milk on the side of the road. Yum...milk that's been in the 80 degree Kenya heat for hours!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Photos of UUs in Kenya

Here are some pictures with the UUs:



Above: Mary, Teresia Justin, Ben, Josphat, Erica, Henry, Nancy