What's for Dinner?

Since I'm feeling a bit lazy tonight and it's a nice follow-up to the last post I thought I'd show everyone what I've been eating here. These are all dishes I have made for dinner while in Kenya. I like to try everything new I see at the market since there isn't much variety here. I've been a very experimental cook with all the new food and different cooking facilities. As you can see from the photos some things turn out and others are barely edible :)

Arrowroots are a very common vegetable here and is mostly served as a main course. Once it's peeled it looks like a giant potato with purple veins running through it. It is almost tasteless and quite crumbly. I am not a fan but I am given them from time to time so I eat them upon occasion.

Mukimo is a very traditional Kenyan dish and this one is served with a side of chapati. I love mukimo but I don't cook it often because it is a lot of work. It is mashed potatos/bananas/pumkin with spinach/carrots/maize in it. The combinations are endless and I like them all!

Cabbage and Carrots is not a nice meal. I am often given cabbages when we visit local farms and one cabbage lasts one person for several meals so I'm always trying to find new ways to cook it. This must have been the day before market day though because this is a sad effort.

Cabbage and Potatoes may sound Irish to most but it's fairly common in Kenya. I went crazy and added a little pepper which is a very non-Kenyan thing to do. Here in central Kenya the most exotic spices people use are cilantro and salt.

Peanut Butter and Bananas on Toast is a favorite. I have to go to Thika for the peanut butter but it is my emergency food. When everything has to be cooked from scratch having at least one option that is "fast food" is critical! I included the bananas in the photo so you can see how tiny there are. We have many types of bananas here but this is my favorite. They are very sweet but you should only eat a max of 2 a day or they will stop you up. I was well into my stay here before anyone mentioned that...

Eggs are my main protein source here so I eat a lot of them. I probably won't eat eggs for a few years after I return to Canada. The fresh pineapple is delicious though.

Barley Chili was an experiment. I made chili with just beans but didn't feel like I was getting full so I added some barely flakes to it the next day on the reheat and it really beefed up the dish. I was pretty proud of my ingenuity but I wouldn't recommend trying this at home. I have the feeling I won't choose barely chili over regular chili when I have the choice.

Well, that's a week of food...I'm definitely excited to get back to my kitchen with an oven, multiple burners, and a refrigerator!

Chapo

As part of my Kikuyu training Grace has taught me how to make chapattis. Chapattis are a staple food in Kenya and are served with most meals like bread. They'll even chop it up into little pieces and put them in your fried eggs which is really quite a treat. They are similar to a tortilla but much heavier and greasier. They are a cheap, simple way to fill your belly so we love them here! I've posted step by step instructions as given to me by my friend Grace so you can make them at home. (No, she was not more specific than this.)

Step 1. Put water and flour in a bowl and add grated carrot for an extra treat.

 Step 2. Knead the duff (dough) with your hands until it's ready.

Step 3. Roll the duff into balls and roll them out on a stool with a rolling pin. Grace can roll these quickly into perfect little circles but mine had some pretty irregular shapes.

Step 4. Melt some cooking fat into liquid and pour onto an iron plate heated over a fire. Put the chapos on to cook and flip them when ready. Grace has a clever flipping system where she can cook 3 at a time but I don't think I'll try to explain it here.

 Step 5. Get someone else to wash the dishes :)

 Cooking chapattis is a lot of work and they tend to be cooked in large quantities so I usually eat them at other people's homes or buy them in hotels but it was fun to learn how just in case I have a chapatti emergency someday.

Art School

I leave a week from today! And I'm so behind on my blog :) But I've decided to make an entry every day before I leave so get ready for some serious blog action. I'm going to have to backtrack to February 14th for this one.

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I'm a big fan of holidays so when Valentine's Day rolled around I thought I should celebrate even though people in the rural areas don't observe Valentine's Day. I was headed to my friend Grace's that day so when I went to the city earlier that week I bought some colored paper, a glue stick and some markers and planned to make Valentines with her girls.

When I showed up at the house I told the girls I had an activity for them and I asked them what they knew about Valentine's Day. They'd never heard of it so we were definitely starting from square one. So I explained that you make cards with hearts on them and they could each make one for their mother. I demonstrated how to fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a heart and I thought we could take off from there. I assumed I would help the six-year old twins and the 9 and 10 year old could make their own. There was a great deal of hesitation so I made one to show them what it could look like. We got started and I realized the 10-year old didn't even know how to use scissors! Apparently the Kenyan education system has no room (or funding) for art classes.

I ended up doing all the cutting so we didn't have to take anyone to the clinic but they started to get the hang of designing and gluing and had a blast. There was a lot of copying of my Valentine but I guess you have to learn how to do things one way before you can find your own way. We became a Valentine factory and they kept making Valentine's until we ran out of supplies.

Then we let their mom come into the room and she was absolutely thrilled. They don't have arts and crafts and had never seen anything like them so the wow factor was huge. The mom decided they were so pretty they should be hung on the wall and from the ceiling. Since the walls in rural homes are papered in newspaper they actually are quite lovely decorations.

I left that day knowing I had blown their minds with art and knew I would have to do it again!

Since then I've tried my best to introduce something new every time I visit. When I arrive they always want to know if I've brought an activity. I've taught them how to play Slap Jack, put together a puzzle (a very difficult and foreign concept), make Easter cards with moving chicken beaks, and paint.

Every time we start a new activity I'm surprised at the lack of creativity but I suppose that has to be taught as well. When I first taught them to use watercolors they only painted words, then I got them to paint pictures of what they were drawing, then they started copying pictures from a sign on the wall and finally moved to just drawing pictures they could make up.

I'm totally jealous of Shaela's job teaching art to little kids now. I had no idea how much fun it could be!

Do You Trust Me?

I mean, I'm wearing a Trust t-shirt and sitting in a Trust truck so how couldn't you trust me? We had a very successful event with 150 people today discussing mpango wa kando which, literally translated mean "a little something on the side." This is the term for extra marital affairs which are a serious problem in the spread of HIV/AIDS among married couples so we partnered with PSI to do some behavior change and some informal research on the problem. A great but very long day.

And today was a big day for another reason... My replacement volunteer has arrived! Kirsteen will be taking over for me when I leave on May 4th so she has moved in with me and I will spend the week training her and introducing her to the community. I'm quite relieved to have that all settled and now I'm just a little concerned about how I'll fit everything in before I leave! I have several projects that I'd like to have finished before I go plus I'm creating a website for the organization. Only 1 week left!

A rainbow heading straight into Gatura.

Cousins Meeting

I believe I have mentioned my co-worker Martha. She is lovely and we have a lot of fun but I am always learning new things about her. The other week she had to leave for the weekend to go to a "Cousins' Meeting." I was intrigued...
I had to know more! Our conversation went something like this: 

"What is a Cousins' Meeting?" Erin asks innocently.

"You don't have cousins' meetings?" Martha says in surprise.

"Well we get together about once a year but we don't have formal meetings," explains Erin.

"But what do you talk about?"

"I don't know, we just hang out."

"You don't take minutes at your cousins' meetings?!" asks Martha in shock.

After much discussion I learned that Martha and her cousins (over 40 of them) are a registered group and get together 3 times a year in different cities to meet. And they truly meet. Martha is the secretary and she takes notes. She let me look at her minutes book and here is an excerpt.

"It was resolved that those who had not married to try as much as possible to do so and involve parents colsutation while exercising due care."

At this meeting is was also decided that they would have a secret friend for the the next meeting which was a big hit because that is now a regular event and was the focus of the most recent meeting. So, Kyle, Hannah, Kristie, Grant, Aloy, what do you think? Cousins' Meeting next year? :)

Back for More!

After a whirlwind trip to the States to attend my brother's wedding followed by a great 4-day conference in Nairobi I'm finally back in Gatura! Thank you so much to all of you who sent donations back with me. We are in the process of organizing and planning for their use and I will post pictures in the next few weeks as we start sharing them with the community. We are still missing a few things from our list so anyone who missed the deadline but still wants to donate is welcome to pledge money and I can do the purchasing. Just send me an e-mail with the amount and I'll let you know what it can be used for.

Collins "reads" a book about Canada that Stephen donated to the library.

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I can't believe I have only 1 month left! There is still so much to do but I'm working on finding a replacement volunteer so he/she can continue building the capacity of GKHBC as there is so much potential yet untapped. This month will be incredibly busy and I'm looking forward to it. We are opening our library next week, beginning a free tutoring program for orphans the week after, organizing a community event with free HIV testing, and continuing to improve our HIV/AIDS support programs.

When I'm not at work everyone is busy stuffing me with food since I'll be leaving soon. Everyone I've met thus far wants me to come visit and at every home I have to eat until I'm too full to move and then I'm sent home with a bag of food. Tonight I left work early as there was no power again and went to a former co-worker's grandmother's house where I was given 3 manazi (like a giant puffy glazed doughnut without the glaze), an arrowroot, and 2 sweet potatoes. I couldn't finish it all and I was sent home with 2 manazi and 5 sweet potatoes. I've been invited to another person's house for the day tomorrow so I won't be able to eat my leftovers plus I'll come home too stuffed to do anything but sleep with another bag of food again!

I feel a bit overfed but really the hospitality is simply amazing. The honor that is given to visitors is touching and people truly appreciate your willingness to travel to see them. Here that often involves matatu rides, long walks through the mud, and/or extremely long days but it's a sacrifice of something anywhere you live so I have learned to truly appreciate all visitors and I think I'll be a much better hostess when I return home. So anyone who wants to travel to Vancouver get ready for some Kenyan hospitality that will knock your socks off!

The woman I visited today is "60 something", has 13 children, many grandchildren and a few great-grandchildren and no wrinkles?! She spent all day in the tea fields in the pouring rain and then hiked 1 hour home to cook dinner for me in a smokehouse kitchen. Her floor is made of mud, ash and cow dung and she has to hike down to the river to fetch water daily. I don't think I could handle all that at 60...could you?