love | cook | adventure

I spent yesterday in the kitchen with the new cook, Damaris. For lunch she made a couple of traditional dishes – Ugali, a cornmeal mush, and Sukuma Wiki, which translates to push of the week. It is made with greens (Collards, Kale or Spinach), and then a variety of other ingredients such as carrots or tomatoes or onions. And then I made the lentils, adding a little spice to them with curry, onion, tomato and garlic.

Sukuma Wiki

Steve’s Lentils

Carrots – fresh from the Shamba!

One of the stoves we use – a coal fired stove.

Then for dinner, Damaris made a traditional rice dish – Pilau. It was so good! She used a muddler and muddled garlic, ginger, and cilantro, then fried this with fresh green onions from the Shamba. It was all cooked with a spice blend called Pilau Masala. She also made more Sukuma Wiki and I made Beef Stew. The beef stew was a hit – I sautéed ginger, garlic, red onion, tomato, curry powder, beef masala spice, and oregano. To this I added the beef and the broth it was cooked in. As the meat began to get tender, I added sliced carrots, thickened it with roux and then finished with Peanut Butter. The peanut butter addition was a big hit with the matrons and Kenyan staff.

All in all a productive day!

Stanley picked me up at 10 am this morning – first stop the Nakumatt for some water; candy for the children; and snacks –  Cadbury Chocolate (for some reason I always gravitate to this); peanuts; and Haribo Happy Cola Gummies (a tradition from the first Kili trip).

Nakumatt Village Market

It’s funny, as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I recognized this mall. On my last trip here, I had a few hours before I had to leave for the airport, and went to lunch at the nearby Tribe Hotel. I also remember there was a swimming pool/water park here, where we took some of the older kids. (The pool/waterpark has since been demolished, making room for an expansion of the mall.)

Next stop – the ATM for Kenyan Shillings and finally Safaricom to buy a wireless modem and SIM card for my computer. It’s the cheapest way to buy data and critical for me to send this blog each day!

With these few errands complete – it was a straight shot to Njabini. My things have changed- the road to Njabini has been repaved and isn’t speckled with giant potholes! On my last visits – cars would weave from one side of the road to other as they would try to avoid these pothole. Most of the drive was familiar – there are a few new buildings going up and there were they periodic police check points – today there were THREE. For these check points, the police lay spike strips across the road, ask you to pull over, they look at your vehicle registration, your drivers license, scan your car to make sure it is road worthy and that you are not carrying any contraband. Needless to say, we “passed” each time.

The road north from Nairobi to Njabini.

As we got into Njabini, I became more and more excited to see the kids, the matrons and everyone at Flying Kites! Unfortunately the road to the house isn’t paved, but since it was dry, it wasn’t too bad. (During the rainy season it is impossible to drive up the road)

When we pulled into the compound, I felt like I was back home after a long journey, although there were some evident changes. But I guess after 2 1/2 years from being away there are bound to be some changes.

The first thing I could not help but notice was a new roof going on the house – they clay tiles were being replaced by a metal roof.

I was immediately greeted by many of the children as today was a National Holiday and they were not in school. However, I did notice that there were not as many children as I had expected. I soon realized that many of the children had graduated from our school, and were off to secondary school for the semester. Also, the boys are now living at our school, leaving only the younger girls at the house.

So as I reconnected with the children, I was surprised (although I should not have been) at how big they are getting. I was given a tour by Mach (Elias), who has grown, but not as much as some of the other children. It was wonderful to see his smiling face again.

The next big change – all the rooms have moved around! I think it will take me at least a day to get familiar with the new layout. 😂 The family room has moved to the old boys dorm, the kitchen and dining room are now where the office used to be, and the volunteer lounge is where the dining room was.

I also noticed that with the addition of electricity, living at the house is not so rustic. There is a refrigerator and microwave in the volunteer kitchen, and there is a water heater for the shower!

Another addition to the house – Rabbits, Rabbits and more Rabbits!

Today I also met some of the volunteers – Steve who is helping with the construction of the new dorms, and then two friends Mandy and Alex. Tomorrow I will meet the other volunteers who are off to Zanzibar for a short holiday.

We finished the night with family meeting – Mary and Serah lead the meeting. It was a small group – Lucy, Tabby, Virginia, Rahab, and Thogu – but they all made me feel so welcome.

Well, although it’s not getting late, I am a little tired and will go to be early. Have a great night!

It’s funny how things come back to you so quickly – and being back in Nairobi is like riding a bike, somethings you never forget – even after 2 1/2 years!

Let’s start with the notorious roundabouts from the airport to the city centre. To the average Kenyan – it’s part of life, the traffic congestion, and maneuvering through the roundabouts – it’s orchestrated chaos. To the average person who is not accustomed to this – it’s like being shot from a canon into a spinning wheel, you close your eyes and hope you don’t hit any spokes on the way in and that you make it out of the other side in one piece. I guess I am part Kenyan – it’s just part of driving here – and it didn’t phase me.

Then upon arrival, I was presented with a glass of mango juice. There is something about the juice here that is sooooo good! And for breakfast I had my fill of fresh fruit – there is just something about the fruit here – it is so fresh, so sweet, ripe and so delicious. So it should be no surprise that I had two large plates of fruit this morning – watermelon, papaya, mango and pineapple.

My Hotel – The Sarova Stanley Hotel

This morning I was up bright and early – 4:00 am to be exact. I tried to go back to sleep, but with the travel and time change that was not in the cards. So I decided to take advantage of the hotel wifi and cleared out my email, got caught up on Instagram and browsed through Facebook. Then at 6:00 am I was off to the hotel gym for a great workout – 20 minutes running on the treadmill, followed core and ab work, followed by upper body strength training. It felt good to be traveling and not to neglect my workouts.

Feeling the burn at the gym!

After my workout, a nice shower, yes a shower. You may ask the significance of this – well this will be the last time in two weeks that I will have the luxury of a long and warm shower like this. I can shower at the Flying Kites house, but it’s quick and the hot water is hit or miss. Funny the things we take for granted back home.

Breakfast was next on the agenda – I splurged and had a couple of Kenyan Donuts, Mandazi, with my coffee – another thing that brought back memories – that strong, dark Kenyan coffee – half a cup coffee, half a cup warm milk – it’s that strong! I then enjoyed two eggs – cooked to order, served over wheat toast and drizzled with a spicy pickled mango oil (my own egg creation!) – fresh juice and that fresh fruit I mentioned earlier.

So I am off to get my gear ready as Stanley will be here at 10:00 am to drive me to Njabini!

until next time…..