Photos of UUs in Kenya

Here are some pictures with the UUs:

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

UUs in Kenya

I met today with a group of Kenyan Unitarian Universalist leaders. (For those who don't know, my religion is Unitarian Universalism...learn more at http://www.uua.org/. Kenya is a predominantly Christian country and UUism in Kenya is a liberal form of Christianity.) They were so excited to meet me! UUism is growing in Kenya; they told me there are UU congregations all across Kenya from Nairobi to Kisumu on Lake Victoria to Lodwar near the border with Ethiopia/Sudan and to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast. They are currently working to centralize their operations and strengthen their affiliation with the international UU body. It was really wonderful to hear their excitement about their activities and to answer their questions about the UU faith in America and in Portland. What a small world...one of the guys is a Facebook friend with one of my Portland ministers!

We met in an area of Nairobi I hadn't been to before: Eastlands. I picked up two of them in central Nairobi and then drove them to the meeting place. On the way, they told me we would be going to "real" Nairobi, not the "elite" Nairobi I live and work in. And after the shacks and crooked vendor stalls and poorly paved roads we passed to get there, as we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, I have to admit I wondered if my car would still be there when I returned.

I shared my first truly Kenyan meal with them: the server brought a hunk of grilled lamb to the table, where he proceeded to cut it into bit-size chunks and put it into the communal plate in the center. The plate also had tomatoes chopped with onions like a pico de gallo, french fries, ugali (boiled maize cake) and another dish made of mashed potatoes with mashed beans and whole corn kernels. As I looked around for a fork, the group chuckled at me and said they eat with their hands. As we dug in, the server also brought a platter of beef cooked with tomatoes and potatoes. So we ate and talked and 2 hours quickly passed. THEN everyone started ordering drinks. The group ordered for me and the server put two cans of Reds malt beverage in front of me. I wondered who was going to drink the second one, and the group told me that in Kenya you're always given two! Good thing I didn't order vodka! Another two hours passed, this time with more animation and laughter as the drinks kept coming. I finally begged off of further drinks saying I had to get home for dinner!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I agreed to meet with this group. It could have ended up a very boring meal with us sitting in silence. But I'm so glad I did. I hope to have the chance to visit each of their congregations around Kenya while I'm here.

Driving in Nairobi

I drove yesterday for the first time in the rain AND the first time at night. Those sound like fairly lame accomplishments, but driving in Nairobi is a totally different ball game than in the US.

I wish I could appropriately describe the driving conditions here. Jeremy gave you a taste of it in one of his earlier blogs. Essentially the roads here are just wide enough for two cars, have no lines, no street lights, no traffic lights, pedestrians and bicyclists along the side of the road or actually in the road, sometimes hawkers or beggars even standing in the middle of the road (I could buy a puppy, kitten, or bunny without getting out of the driver's seat), and motorcyclists driving down the middle of the road if traffic isn't moving fast enough for them. Then there's the added excitement of other vehicles without working brake lights or turn signals! And dodging potholes!

In America, there are tons of signs and laws dictating how we drive. And much as we like to complain about other drivers, or that jerk that got into the left turn lane but has now decided to go straight, US drivers obey the signs and laws. In Kenya it's a free-for-all and literally whoever goes first has the right of way. There are some roundabouts in downtown Nairobi that have traffic lights, but no one even looks at them. During commute times there are policemen directing traffic to prevent complete snarls, but otherwise you just go when there's the opportunity. There are also plenty of 4-way intersections with no traffic lights or stop signs. I know there are some of these in Portland, but they are on side streets. In Nairobi, they are on the main thoroughfares. This leads to those wonderful situations where you have 2 or more cars stuck in the middle of the intersection and literally no one can move forward or backward.

Which leads me back to my driving adventures yesterday. It poured yesterday for the first time since December. Which meant the roads were covered with massive puddles or flowing carpets of rain. I felt so bad for the poor pedestrians who were just getting pounded by the waves of muddy water from all the passing cars. Luckily only once did I get windshield whiteout from another car's spray. And lucky that I have the high clearance of an SUV. Then I offered to drive someone else home after dinner. Although they live near me, they failed to mention that their house lay on the other side of a construction site with only muddy tracks leading the way through the mounds of earth, ditches, half-erected structures, and construction vehicles...again with no street lights and certainly not the blinding spotlights used at construction sites in the US. Plus the path had changed sometime during the day, so we ended up at a dead-end and I had to execute a K-turn in this dark environment. I'm going to be a driving pro by the time I get back to the US!

Chicken Wine

We purchased this wine the other day from the duty free store. I mean, who can resist a label with chickens on it?!? What's even better is the label says absolutely nothing about what kind of wine it is. All it has is pictures of chickens, the word chicken in English, French, and Spanish..and if you look closely on the back it says Rose Wine. And it only cost $3. I was completely prepared for it to be undrinkable. But we drank it the other day...with a meal of chicken of course...and it was actually decent! We're hoping to go back and find Pork Wine and Beef Wine. It's great when a wine tells you what to eat with it.

First Safari

Since J has conceded that he has failed miserably as a blogger, he's decided to allow me to be a guest columnist.

We went on our first true safari last weekend. True, we visited Nairobi National Park back in December, but that's so close to home it didn't really feel like being "on safari." This time we went to Lake Nakuru Natl Park, which is about 2 hours northwest of Nairobi. We stayed at one of the best hotels in the town of Nakuru, but it's a bit disappointing to pay $150/night for a worn-out room. The bathroom ceiling had a huge water spot, and Jeremy never did master the proper flick of the wrist to get the toilet to flush. I wonder what the discount hotels are like!

But the safari was awesome!! Lake Nakuru is just the right size to get around the lake in one day. We saw zebra:

Flamingos:

Rhinos:

And baboons. We stopped at one point for a posse of baboons crossing the road. One looked over at us and decided he should check us out. He ambled down the road toward us, then stopped and sat down right next to passenger door. He looked at me and promptly showed his distaste by peeing!

We also saw pelicans, buffalo, and gazelle. It was a fabulous trip and we're looking forward to more safaris!