Rwanda

So I spent the last few days visiting friends in Rwanda. It was amazing. It’s beautiful and green, with amazing hills- just gorgeous! I flew into Burundi first– also gorgeous!!! We only stopped for 45 minutes in Bujumbura to take on more passengers, but I have never seen such a beautiful airport- usually airports are in dusty fields on the outskirts of major cities, but Bujumbura is on the banks of a lake, surrounded my mountains and jungles! But back to Rwanda. I was able to go with one of my friends to some of her ministry sights- we helped cook food for about 200 street kids and chatted with some of the Mamas from the church as we cooked. We were able to visit some of the HIV/AIDS patients from the church support group. We got to see their homes, meet their families and hear their stories. Plus I did a lot of exploring! Rwanda is very different from Kenya- both are great, just so different! Plus the best way to get around the city of Kigali is by motorcycle taxies- super fun!

So here are a few pictures from Rwanda.

Here is the hotel from Hotel Rwanda. (it's the one near the top of the picture that is yellowish, to the left of the tall blue building).

Now I’m back and it’s back to school- although, my classmates and I figure we only have about 6 weeks of classes left!!

Christmas Beignets

Ok, this is for mom- I've managed to carry on the Christmas morning beinget tradition! They weren't as good as yours, but they weren't too bad. I was looking forward to the fact that I didn't have to share them with DJ or Gavin this year, but I ate enough that now I'm feeling a little sick. But they were still good!!

S0 here's the proof-

Frying the dough:

Look at those pretty beignets!

And the first batch that didn't turn out quite as well as the rest (I think I had the oil a LITTLE too hot- they turned golden brown the second I dropped them in- and then they burned after that!)
Hope you all have a very merry Christmas! I'm going over to a friend's house for the rest of the day to celebrate with their family!

PS: Mom, here is your Christmas present! I'm using it this year! My favorite part of the whole thing is that the donkey is twice as big as all of the people!

Christmas Baking

So part of the trick to celebrating holidays away from home is to take some of your old traditions and do those as well as creating your own new traditions (that way you still feel like you are connected to you family and what they are doing but you don't wallow in the fact that you aren't there too.)

So this year, I decided to try my hand at a little holiday baking (like we do at home) and then for my new tradition, sit down and listen to Stuart McLean read Vinyl Cafe Christmas Stories (Thanks Julia for letting me in on this Canadian tradition). If you have never heard Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe stories before, don't feel bad because I think it is a mostly Canadian thing but you have no idea what you are missing (seriously, you have to get your hands on "Dave Cooks the Turkey"- I have never laughed this hard in my entire life! Right now, it's on Stuart McLean's Itunes podcast so check it out) but back to baking.

Ok, for all of you who know me well, you know that baking is something I like to THINK I can do, I'm just not always able to pull it off. I mean I try hard and all that, but sometimes the things I bake just rebel. It may be due to the fact that I HATE to measure ingredients- I'd much rather just guess that there is enough. But this year, I really was wanting some good Christmas-y treats, so I am ATTEMPTING to bake (or maybe I'm cooking because I haven't used the oven at all yet). But the whole baking thing is even harder here- because it is all from scratch. I found this great recipe for chocolate fudge, looked yummy, sounded really yummy- but the only catch is that it requires marshmallow cream. That is just something you can't really find outside the US. But I found a recipe to make your own marshmallow cream. And me, being the adventurous sort of person that I am decided to give it a try. So here is a chronicle of my fudge-making attempts.

Making the marshmallow cream (from scratch):


Boiling milk and an obscene amount of sugar:

Melting in the chocolate:

The finished product:

Me licking the spoon! Yummy!!

I guess this baking attempt turned out pretty well!
Have a very merry Christmas Eve!
Love from blazing hot Kenya!

Christmas Parties

So this was a month of Christmas Parties! Last Sunday, we had a Christmas party for some of our kids. Then on this Saturday, we had a Christmas Party for some of our other kids in another area of town- so much fun. We played games, made crafts, sang songs and we even did a skit in Kiswahili. Some how, I was nominated to be the Angel Gabriel- that's all great except my Swahili isn't good enough to keep up with the story. and they gave me the role that had to keep coming on and off stage! But we made due. We have only one more kids' party left to go!

So here is our Christmas play and me being a somewhat confused Arch Angel Gabriel:

Here are the Wisemen bringing gifts to the baby Jesus in (my favorite part of the whole picture) a Nakumatt bag! (Nakumatt is kind of like a Wal-Mart-ish store). These are some of our kids playing with the gifts they recieved:

Then today, we had a team Christmas party with my team and all of our volunteers. It was a blast! We went out to this outdoor restaurant and we proceeded to eat one whole goat and one whole chicken. YUMMY!!!!! Nyama Choma (literally roasted meat) is one of the national dishes of Kenya, and boy was it good! I usually don't eat much meat here, but I have sure made up for that this week! But we all had such a good time just hanging out together. Usually when we are all together, we are planning lessons, or other work stuff. It was great to just to sit back and enjoy each other!

And here is our team:

Have a great, snowy holiday!

Jamhuri Day

So Wednesday was Jamhuri Day! It’s a lot like our Independence Day. So my team and I took this opportunity to do some of the more touristy things around Nairobi that I hadn’t done yet.

We went to see part of the Great Rift Valley (which runs really near to my house). The Great Rift Valley runs from Mozambique to Israel.

Then we went to the Giraffe Center, where you can feed and pet the giraffes.

And no trip to the Giraffe Center is complete without getting a giraffe kiss- it’s sort of a Kenya Team initiation thing. NASTY!!!!!! Really, all they do is lick your chin, but still. NASTY!!!! I washed my face really well after that! So kids, don't give into peer pressure! Otherwise you will end up getting your face licked by a giraffe!

After Giraffe Center, we went to Carnivore for lunch. Now I think I have dreamed of some place like Carnivore all my life!!! It is all you can eat, unlimited meat. All sorts of meat. Beef, lamb, pork and chicken and a few exotic meats like crocodile and ostrich. So you sit there and waiters bring huge skewers of meat around and cut of pieces for you until you finally surrender and can’t eat another thing! Amazing lamb chops, great cuts of beef, yummy spare ribs! It’s a wonderful place! I think I may have finally made up for my year in India where I hardly ate any meat at all!

So that was my Jamhuri Day! Now it’s back to school for another week- then I am free for 2 weeks! I can’t wait!

Decorating the Trees!

On Saturday, I went over to my friends’ house and helped them decorate their tree. These are some of my classmates from language school.

Then I came home and started to decorate my tree on Sunday night. It isn’t taking days to decorate because of the massive size or anything! I’m just waiting for some of the ornaments to dry! But I like my Charlie Brown Christmas tree! Some of my kids stopped by tonight and helped me make more ornaments, so there will be plenty!

Happy Thanksgving or Happy Siku kuu ya kuku mkuu!!

That means happy "great day of the big chicken"! We learned another way to say "happy holiday of thankfulness" but this one was just way too much fun!!!

Since Thanksgiving is kind of the kick-off for the Christmas season, I started thinking this week that while I have a tiny Christmas tree, I don’t have any ornaments to put on said tree. Now who would have thought that all those years in Girl Scouts would come in handy? I had this bright idea, that it would be a good plan to MAKE my own ornaments. Now you all know me and my extreme lack of creativity, but these actually turned out pretty good if I do say so myself! I made some of that salt dough stuff I used to play with as a kid, and added some food coloring. I finished my Nativity set this evening and I tried a few experimental ornaments, but I'm still trying to figure out how to make little crowns for the kings- maybe tin foil, I don't know. But I’m taking the rest of my dough to my friend’s house on Saturday (we are going to decorate their tree) and her kids are going to help me make the rest of the ornaments. So Mom and Mrs. V, thanks for all those Girls Scout crafty things we had to do- it paid off!