Random Signs...

To round out the random food posts, here's a great sign in a grocery store. I have no idea what "Tastic" Tasty Kampala Bananas are. Maybe they are FAN"tastic"? But the end of the sign is big enough to see part of the broken off "FAN" if that were the case. Can't figure it out.

The wonder that is the Uchumi Sandwich!

How have I missed out on this for the YEARS I've lived here! No one thought to tell me about the closest thing to Subway (or real sandwiches period) in the city? Uchumi, you are a frustrating store but this just made up for it all!

Look at this: BREAD! not just wonder bread but BREAD! and meat! and cheese! and veggies! and mystery sauces! All for the low low price of 140Ksh ($2). This also just made paying my electric bill 80x's more fun (because this grocery store is also the place I pay my electric bills- at register 5.)

NYAMA!!!!

Ok, one of my favorite parts about Kenya (besides amazing people, great friends and beautiful landscapes) is nyama- aka MEAT! I am a carnivore. You all know this. Its not a meal if there isn't some form of meat involved (ok that's a stretch-I go days without eating meat here but you know what I mean!). I love meat. And in Kenya, you can get meat (unlike other areas of the world I have lived). And I've even found some great, clean places to get fresh meat! Even better!

Today, a co-worker took me to this great place just around the corner from our office for nyama. Its a butchery/restaurant and it is GOOD!! You can't get much fresher then eating INSIDE the butcher shop! Its hilarious- you walk in and first its the butcher- with raw sides of meat hanging next to him (no nifty styrofoam/plastic wrapped packages here!)- and he is sawing off a piece of meat for a customer. And just passed him, separated by an iron grate door, is the 8 seater restaurant. They cook the stew just outside the door and then you eat! YUM!!!

A Great Day

Great discussion, great questions, great Tag-Team answers.

Just a really good day! I like these kinds of days!

Home Remedies For Destroying Cockroaches

Its Home Science Adventure Time!!!

Ok- its not really that exciting but I am trying out some homemade cockroach killers. Because we may have the beginnings of a problem. I've only seen 2 and my roommie has only seen 1 but its better to nip this in the bud! Cockroaches are a normal part of life in Nairobi (pretty much everyone gets them, even in really clean houses, at one time or the other... or more often then that! My neighbors have TONS of them EVERYWHERE!)

But just because they are a normal part of life here doesn't mean we have to just sit back and let them take over! Once they get in your apartment, they are hard to get rid of but I have a plan.

Did you know if you mix baking soda and powdered sugar together and leave it out for our gross little nemesis', they will eat it and die. And cockroaches, being the cannibals that they are, will eat that dead one and pretty soon the problem is gone.

Or so I'm told. We'll see how well it works in a few days.

If this works, I will be ecstatic! Not only will the cockroaches be gone (reason enough to be excited!) but this is an easy, non-toxic (well non-toxic too HUMANS) way to get rid of these pests with stuff you just have in the house (or can get really easy) and you don't have to bug bomb the house.

If only I had known about this remedy when I lived in India!!!!!!
Thanks Jaime for the info/recipe!

Anybody else have any other Cockroach Destruction Methods? I'll try them out if this one doesn't work out!

The Rest of the Asia Pics

aka: how many random pics can I put in 1 post??

Sorry its taken so long to get the rest of them up- life is crazy right now!

You guys all know that when you get Kel, Gavin and I together- we can be a little weird. And with cameras around to document the insanity, you can feel like you were right there with us!
So here are the rest of the pics from Kel and Gavin's.

After I left Kel and Gavin's, I went back to stay with Jaime (a friend from college). We ended up getting TONS of snow the day I got back to her city- so fun!! Pretty much everyone else in the city was hating it but we LOVED it! Snow!!!

And there was this great mall with Christmas lights and displays all over- so fun!
So thanks Kel and Gavin and Jaime! I had a GREAT time visiting. Thanks for letting me crash with you, eat your food, hang out with your friends and get to experience your lives! Loved it!

Nakuru Pics

Here's some pics from our day safari to Nakuru with the team from the US that came to help us with the retreat. Great fun- the team is hilarious (because safari is only as fun as the people you have in the van with you!). But this was great. I'd never been to Nakuru before and its very different from my other safari. Nakuru park goes all the way around the lake and is so green! I love the drive to Nakuru- you go right through the Great Rift Valley. I love how you are in these massive Highland hills and all of a sudden it drops off into completely flat plains with 2 mountains in the middle of the flatness. So pretty!

Baboons in a tree

My favorite part of Kenya's terrain- the acacia tree!

Zebras

All the ladies (with flamingos in the background)

Cape Buffalo under the acacia trees

View of the park from Baboon Cliff (where said baboon broke into our safari van and stole our cookies. It then went through the open roof of another van WHILE the PEOPLE WERE IN IT!!! Too funny! I've never seen people jump out of vehicle so fast! And the screaming!!!!)

A rhino and her calf (and the Lion King like birds that eat the bugs on them and alert
them to danger)

Impala

Flamingos!!!

A colubus monkey

As we were leaving the park we saw a ton of flooding from all this abnormal rain. The lake in the park was WAY down (like hundreds of feet down) even after all this flooding and unusual rainfall. I can't imagine what it was like during the drought earlier this year.

a long long long week

I think this must have been one of the longest weeks of my life. I got back from my Christmas in Asia and hit the ground running (literally since there was a transportation strike when I got back- thanks a lot matatu drivers!). But I also hit the ground running figuratively because this was Retreat Week! I got back Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday I was in the office finalizing all the details for the retreat that started on Thursday and went to Sunday. Insanity. Retreat Week is always insane. There is a ton to do, all this stuff has to happen, there's a ridiculous amount of stress and I'm starting it off with a crazy case of jet lag. But I powered through. There were some amazing highs and some pretty deep lows throughout the weekend (refereeing fights is a regular part of my job and that gets pretty old when you have to do it 24/7 for 4 days) but overall it went well. I have practically no voice left and I haven't had a real nights sleep in more then a week so I'm sure I'm a REAL joy to be around! But God did some pretty amazing things.

But here is my battle scar! I was breaking up a brawl and one of the kids (who was totally old enough to know better) bit my arm! HARD! Here's the bruise after a few days!

Like I said it's been a VERY long week!

We had a short term team from the US visiting this week to help out with the retreat, so today we all went on a mini-safari to Nakuru. Super fun. I love just driving through the diversity that is Kenya. I'll post some pics tomorrow but I gotta get to bed while I can! Yay! My own bed!

Christmas in Asia

So here are some pictures from Christmas day. A friend of Kel and Gavin's asked us to come and tell the Christmas story at her daughter's Kindergarten Christmas Party. So fun. The kids sang songs, danced, played games and did a judo demonstration- too cute!!


Then we went out for Hot Pot for Christmas Dinner! Yummy!!

Then we had our own Christmas gift exchange:
Thanks for the thermal pants kel!! I love them! SOO warm!
Kelly's Swine Flu Safety Demonstration:
More pics and stories to come....

I'm BAAAACK!!!!

Most of you guys know that I got to go visit Kel and Gavin and Jaime (a great friend of mine from college!) in Asia this Christmas! I was going to have to travel right around Christmas anyways and it all worked out to spend Christmas with part of my fam!

There are TONS of stories (as there always are when Kel, Gavin and I get together- because we are crazy people!) and tons of pics so I figured I'd put up a few pics at a time and a few stories at a time. Plus my internet is really slow right now- it will take days to get the pictures uploaded at this rate!!

So since you guys haven't been there, here's a pic of Kel and Gavin's house:

Ok- this isn't even remotely similar to their house but it looks like a fun place to live!! Kelly and Gavin's place is great- super cute- just not this architecturally detailed. And a bit smaller! The day after Christmas, Kel and Gavin took me for a hike up the mountain behind their school and this place was on the way. We didn't get all the way up the mountain- it has snowed and as it started to melt the rocks got way too slippery! But I got to see great views of their city and explore a bit.


Also, we decided it would be fun to take some christmas pics for my mom in one of the many photo booths available. And we got some pretty great pictures. I think this one best captures our diverse personalities, don't ya think?

So come back for some more pics later this week- and possibly a few of the adventures we had! But right now I am tired, jet lagged and I have to get back to work tomorrow so I'm heading to bed!