Mamma Peanut Butter

Mamma Peanut Butter stopped by the office again.  We love her.  She's a refugee from Southern Sudan who roasts her own peanuts, grinds her own fresh peanut butter (the traditional Sudanese way) and then sells it around town.  Everyone in our office compound loves her, so when she makes a new batch she heads our way first. Its AMAZING!!!

Sorry if you read my picture of the day blog- this was actually my pic of the day today but it has a fun story so it works for this blog too!

Clean- Clarification

Just so you know, my team and I ALL currently filter our water- we were getting a demo so we would have better options for the families we work with.  So don't worry.  My water is currently clean, even if I am considering changing to this new type of filter- its more cost effective, a better filter (bacteria wise), would save me a step (you don't have to boil the water before this filters it) and it lasts significantly longer then my current filters.  I just realized after i posted the last entry that it could sound like I didn't filter my water at all- but I do.  I promise!

Clean

We had a woman come into the office today to do a water filter demonstration.  We've tried different filtering methods with our families before but they haven't had any staying power.  Too many steps, too difficult, too whatever.  

But this method has some serious promise.  The technology is based on kidney dialysis machines.  We gave the lady MUD and she gave us back drinkable water in a few  minutes.  Look at the difference between the pitcher of dirty water (we had already strained out the floating particulate mater) and the filtered water in the water bottle. It gets rid of the viruses that cause cholera, typhoid, strep and bacterias like giardia and others. 

I tried the water first- it tasted like water should. No mud, no dirt, no metallic taste, no nasty filter taste like the filter I have at home. And its ridiculously portable- the lady brought all the pieces for the demo in her purse!  

Our plan is to put one of these at all of our work sites and let the women get used to using it. Then they can buy one for their own homes.  They could even start a home business filtering water and selling it in their communities.  The possibilities really are endless and hopefully we will see a huge health improvement with it!

Redemption!

Yesterday, pretty much every plan I had for the day was shot down- one after another.  Not a new concept here but it was annoying.

But today, redeemed at least a portion of yesterday.  One of the big things on my list yesterday was to go meat shopping but the rain made that next to impossible. 

I was out running errands with my boss and a coworker today when they decided to go to City Market.  I am ALWAYS up for a trip to City Market because it is a massive meat market (I am SOOO my father's daughter! And I'm also a huge carnivore- this place is wonderful!) 

City Market has everything that is wonderful about a meat market- the meat is super fresh, the market is packed with people buying meat so the meat never just sits there- new meat is always coming out, it has all types of meat that are locally available and it is CHEAP! 

City Market may have a few downsides to the faint of heart (or stomach)- I've had more then one friend walk in the door, turn a little green and run out (lucky for them there is a huge craft market right around the corner but I think the smell still gets in there too...)  Guys are walking through the crowed with huge sides of beef over their shoulders, other guys are filleting and de-scaling  fish in the middle, goat legs are hanging up all over and lets face it- the FDA isn't making any inspections.  But its clean (even if you have to wade through some fishy nastyness in the fish section).   Oh, and you can definitely smell the market before you can see it, but its still one of my favorite places.

I go to the same guys every time I shop- mostly because they always give me good meat at a fair price but also because we all become sort of  friends.  Today I bought chicken and fish- the chicken in the market is 3x cheaper then the chicken in the grocery store! It's ridiculous! I try to only buy from this market because its just to expensive otherwise (and it shouldn't be! No company needs to mark up their products by 300%).  Plus the chicken in the market is fresh, good and I know who to come back and yell at if its bad!

So now my freezer is full and I can check one more thing of of yesterday's doomed list! 

So as long as you don't mind meeting your fish before they fillet it for you, this is the place for you!

Plan G

Today was my day off and I had plans. 

Plan A was do laundry (not incredibly exciting but it needs to be done) but I woke up to cold pouring rain- which means even if I did my wash, it would never ever dry (or at least not before it started to stink) so that plan was out.

Plan B was to go to the Meat Market today but it was pouring down rain so hard that this was going to be a nightmare of a trip into town, around town and then back to my house- Meat Market was out. 



Plan C was edit photos- I took a ton of pictures this weekend and I had a whole day to play around with them- adjusting color, contrast, all that fun stuff.   But the power was out when I woke up.  I waited around for 2 hours but it didn't come back (which usually means its out for the day).



So I moved on to Plan D, go to a cafe that has internet AND power outlets to check my email and charge my computer.  I got to the cafe (walking in the rain most of the way) only to find it packed (I ended up running into my roommate and a friend who let me share their table) but the cafe had turned off their internet.  So I left.



Plan E was go check out a different cafe that also has power and internet (allegedly).  I got there, it was also full but I ran into another friend who had a table and she let me share the with her and another dude.  I thought I'd made it.  Electricity.  Internet.  Friends- great way to spend the day off.  15 minutes after I sat down, they turned off the internet (because it was lunch time and getting crowded). 5 minutes after that, they turned off the power outlets.  So now there's no point in staying there. Time to move on to Plan F.

Plan F- go see a movie and hope that the electricity will be working by the time I get back (because I am officially out of options at this point).  This one actually worked out partially.  The movie theater was in fact showing movies.  I was able to watch one.  But when I got home, still no electricity.  So I'm on to Plan G.


Plan G- Sit and stare at the ceiling until the power comes back on? or maybe I should cook a ton of stir-fry- then I won't have to cook lunch all week long.... hmmm that's a good plan. 


6:45pm power comes back on.  I have lunches made for the entire week.  At least I accomplished something today!  

I'm the Queen of All Gracefullness...

Or maybe not.  I swear I haven't always been this discoordinated and accident prone- it happened when I moved here.  Or maybe I just have more opportunities for discoordination now.   Regardless, I often feel like my purpose in life is to entertain those around me with all of my blunders.  

But for today's story- How I Managed to Fall Out of A Bus:

I was on my way to work (on my 3rd matatu of the trip) and we were nearing my stop so I gathered my bags, stood up, walked towards the front of the bus and told the conductor were I wanted to stop.  He hit the side of the bus to tell the driver to stop.  We swing off the road (well some of the way off the road) and I start down the steps (but you have to move fast because this bus is going to start moving again weather or not you are out).  As soon as my foot hit the huge pile of dust (not dirt, DUST its been DRY!!) my foot started to slip but its a hill so my foot is slipping down the hill while one foot is staying planted and I'm tumbling out of the bus.  

Needless to say, I landed flat on my butt in the dust and popped something in my leg.  I heard the conductor and the people on that side of the bus exclaiming but since my leg would still carry my weight, I got up and kept going- completely covered in red dust. 

The first thing my boss said when he saw me was  "Did you fall down AGAIN!" but that was better then my coworker, he asked "Did someone try to fight you for your bag??" pointing to my disgustingly dirty bag. Other then an achy leg and some bruised pride, I'm fine. 

But even with that unfortunate beginning, I had a WONDERFUL day at work today.  I love my job! Even if I fall out of buses to get there!

My Worth in Camels and Why I Love My Job

Today I got to finally catch up with some of my favorite people in East Africa.  We chatted about what I missed while I was gone, I showed pictures of my brother's wedding and snow.  We talked about a new school year starting and while giving a makeover to one of the younger girls, a girl turned to me and said "you know you're very tall- you'd be worth a lot of camels!"  Ooookay!  So I asked "like how many?"  They talked for a little while (apparently weighing out my good and bad traits) and landed on 36- which seems REALLY high to me but ok! 36 it is!

But this is why I love my job.  I love that we have hilarious conversations about how many camels we are worth. There are plenty of times when I have to be the "teacher" and I don't mind that but I love when I get to be the "friend" too. 

Gettin' Back in the Groove

I love an opportunity to go back the States, visit my family, see friends, eat at Chipotle, but there is definitely a cost (aside from the ticket price) and that cost is jetlag.  I hate jetlag.  Its horible.  But I guess its kind of mean of me to force my body to change so drastically all at once so I guess this is how it gets back at me. 

I have a theory that jetlag is worse when I fly East.  I don't know if that's true for everyone and I have no science to back it up but I have the hardest time when I fly East (either flying from the US to Europe/Africa or when I used to fly the Pacific route from Asia to the US)- I'm a mess. I have hardly any jetlag when I go West- but East just eats me up and spits me out.  Its been almost a week and I still can't get to sleep before 4am each night (which is still better then the days I couldn't get to sleep before 8am- that STUNK!).  But I guess the only way to beat it is to just jump into work and hopefully jetlag will sort itself out sooner or later (I'm praying for sooner though!)

But even with the jetlag, it's wonderful to be back! Its hot (this is our summer!! Think August in MI), the new school year is starting so we are trying to get our kids sorted out with schools and all that fun.  I'm hoping to start an additional class in a few weeks so I'm planning all that and there's also been a ton of social stuff to do.  It seems like all my friends  made a ton of new friends while I was gone- all week everyone is calling me saying "you need to meet my friend so-and-so, come out with us!"  So I've been making all sorts of new friends and having fun catching up with my old ones. 

So that's the news with me! Be praying for Southern Sudan as they are in their 5th day of voting on the referendum to secede from Sudan.  Pray for the peaceful voting process (there have been some problems, particularly with attacks on caravans of people traveling to vote), that the voting would be fair, the tallying of votes would be fair and that everyone would have patience as the votes are tallied (the results won't be announced for more then a month).  

New Blog

To make things simpler, and so everyone who checks my blog for updates on what I'm DOING and not what I'm taking pictures of, I'm splitting up my blogs.  This one (lindseys-life.blogspot.com) will stay with what I DO in East Africa. 

If you are interested in my year long photography challenge, check out my new blog: http://linds2011photochallenge.blogspot.com    I'm going to try to post a picture everyday.  Some are cool (like my snowflake pics), others aren't as cool.  But I'm learning how to use my camera and hopefully I'll see a lot of improvement over the course of a year.  The additional challenge is the fact I can't really carry my camera with me when I'm out and about so we'll see how this all turns out. 

I'll be updating both blogs regularly and I'll still be uploading some pics to this site- but only when they fit in with the story I'm telling.   

11: Beads

Not very exciting today but I was just playing around with my camera and how it focuses on beads (and my apparently very dirty window- things get SO dirty when you leave for 6 weeks!)

10:: Well, OK!

A billboard near my house: If you can't read it, the billboard says "Drink fruit yoghurt , drive safely this festive season".

*Anyone note the British spelling of "yogurt"? We add random vowels to tons of words here- talk about confusing the bad speller (me)!
**I took this on my phone, so the quality isn't great but you can't just whip a camera out on the streets of Nairobi and hope to still be in possession of that camera anytime after that.

9:: Jet Lag STINKS!!

This is me NOT sleeping. I was awake all night last night and finally fell asleep around 8am (which is around midnight US time). But I had to get up at a half way decent time or this backward sleep schedule will just keep going on.

HATE, HATE, HATE Jet Lag!

8:: The Jet Lag Antidote

Ah Pillow- how I've missed you!

14 straight hours of sleep and getting to bed at a good time tonight and I should beat this jet lag quickly- or that's the plan. I'm completely jealous of the people who jump on a intercontinental flight, get off the plan and are jet lag-less. Its just not fair to the rest of us.

7:: Me after 30+ Hours of Travel

(I told you not all these pics of the day would be pretty!)

6:: Ugh- luggage

I'm BACK!!!!

Well I made it back to Kenya last night. What a trip! No major issues (thank God!) but just a long trip. Its around 30 hours to come back this way(we have a better tail wind or something!).

But I made it. A friend of mine who owns a taxi company was going to pick me up from the airport but he forgot to get me. Thankfully, I called him when I was in line at immigration to remind him. I said "Paul where are you?" "I'm at home!" I said "Paul I'm at the airport, are you coming?" He said "I thought you were coming on Sunday!" But he had a friend in the area who was ready and waiting for me when I got through customs. I got to my house at 11pm on Friday, ate some supper that my roommate and some friends had made and went to sleep. I slept for 14 hours. I'm still tired but that's jet lag!

Its warm and gorgeous here! I'm in shorts and a tank and still hot. And my feet are SO happy to be back in my chacos (my feet had a really hard time with shoes while in the US)!

I have, however, found the major issue with my "pic of the day" plan: its electricity/internet access. I got home last night, we had power but no internet. I woke up this afternoon and found no power (and no internet by extension). Right now I'm at a restaurant that has internet access (and plugs so I can charge my battery) but I forgot to bring the SD card from my camera so there's no way to upload the pics. I'll keep taking pics and uploading them when possible.

I had such a blast back home in the US- I miss you all so much but its so great to be back.

Now off to clean up the insane amount of dust accumulated in my room and start unpacking.... or maybe just go back to bed! I'm gonna try to stay up till 7pm. We'll see how that goes!

5::Goodbye Snow!

4:: I'm Batman!

If you don't watch Big Bang Theory, I just sound ridiculous but if you are a fan of the show (as I am) this all makes perfect sense.

3:: An Army of Potstickers... Yummy!

2:: Snowflake(s) on a Hoodie

and a snowflake on the grill cover:

1:: Happy New Year... Time To Sleep

Ok, I've decided to try to upload a picture a day for the next year (internet and electricity providing that is- I do live in East Africa after all). I'm hoping to see my photos improve, learn more about all the stuff my camera is capable off and I'm interested to see what I think is important to share about my life in East Africa on a daily basis. The pics should get more interesting after I return to EA later this week but until then, I leave you with pics from my time in the States.

Here's how the whole family rang in the new year- napping on the couch and watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Hilarious.

Test Week 4: Kel Bowls A Strike

Test Week 3: Sami

Ok you get 2 Pictures of the Day today. Today was our family Christmas.

The Official Pic of the Day: Sami in the Presents


The Unofficial Pic of the Day: Sami Wants Communion Too. My family all took Communion together before we dove into the Christmas festivities. Sami wanted in too. She didn't get any but that didn't stop her from begging as Pastor Dad blessed the sacraments.

Test Week 2: Under the Tree

Hmmmmm

I'm intrigued. My mom was telling me about a guy who decided to post a photo a day of his life, every day over the course of a year. That sounds like fun. And a challenge. I love challenges. I also love to take pictures. And some of mine turn out halfway decent. I think it would be interesting to daily examine my life in East Africa and try to explain it in one picture each day. The question is can I commit to taking a half way decent picture EVERY SINGLE DAY for a year? Because if I start- I'll hate it if I quit half way through (I HATE quitting- I'm such a goody-two-shoes). The other major challenge is I can't post pics I take a work (which are some of my best). But I do love a challenge. And I do love to take pics. And it would be pretty cool to have 365 days of life in East Africa. Will they all be quality? Probably not. But it could be cool.

So I'm thinking. Maybe I'll try a pic a day for the week and see if I can manage to find a post-worthy pic each day this week.

To start the trial off, here's today's pic (obviously not in East Africa yet):
My Dad's famous Special Recipe Chex Mix for the masses (yummy!!!). You know its Christmas when this stuff appears!! By the way, I know that TECHNICALLY Christmas was a few days ago but my fam is celebrating it together later this week so we are dragging the whole season out.

Christmas Off-Road Snow Shoeing

I love love love snow shoeing!


My dad and I went out Christmas day- down their property to the river, along the river to the railroad crossing, over into some unknown property, fording the Roaring Brook (in snow shoes) and back home.


I love this pic- its like winter and spring in the same picture- the left bank is snowy and wintery, the right bank is green and not very winter-like at all.


We came across this random kiddie chair in the woods under a tree. Maybe someone hunts from it. Or they just like to hide in a tree. Regardless, it wasn't as strange as the old school chair/desk combo that we found farther up that hill. THAT was just strange!

I HEART Snow Shoeing

The lunar eclipse on the night of the winter solstice wasn't as exciting as I anticipated. It was so cloudy that you could hardly see the moon at all. I went out a few times to check it out but it if I didn't KNOW there was an eclipse, I wouldn't have noticed a thing.


But today I went snow shoeing and I LOVED it!!! I didn't go far- just around my parent's property but it was a blast! I don't think that I've ever been snow shoeing before- I used to cross country ski but I never did snow shoeing.


I miss snow! And fun snow stuff!!

Eclipse Tonight!

We'll see if the clouds will hold off for some cool eclipse viewing but even if we miss the eclipse, the rising moon tonight was amazing!!

The Wedding!!!!

The Big Day was this weekend! And it was wonderful. It was full of fun, family, hilarity.

It was beautiful.

Here's some shots from the rehearsal dinner:




Pastor Dad conducted the ceremony- gotta love the sermon when you're dad is the pastor- you never know WHAT'S going to come back to haunt you!
I love it- they are so happy!

Ok this was one of my favorite parts of the wedding reception: DJ and his buddies have a tradition of serenading any military bride with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" - just like Goose and Maverick in Top Gun. The video is hilarious but too long to upload :(

The newest Mr. and Mrs. Dan Clise:

DJ and Kel dancin'

And of us kids

There were so many great moments- when someone, who shall remain nameless, busted out some serious 90's Boy Band moves on the dance floor! Spending time with so much of our family and friends. And even though the storm of the century blew in late that night- we all had a blast.

A Weekend in Indiana

This weekend I got to go down and spend time with 2 of my greatest friends. We went to college together, lived together in India. These are the friends who literally know everything about you and still like you- so you know you will be friends for life.

It was a great time of talking, laughing, playing with 2 of the cutest kids in the world and just catching up on life now that we are scattered all over the globe.

We ended up driving through Amish country on one of the snowiest days I've seen in a while.


This sure looks like one cold ride!!


Now I'm off again for the wedding!! Lots to do but it will be a great day!!!

Home in MI

I'm back in MI. And back in the freezing cold. Complete with snow and everything!!!


Right now we are all a flurry of wedding prep, and I'm visiting friends, eating all my local favorite foods (Schubergs Caesar Chicken Salad Burger= amazing!!!! SOOOOO miss that!) and enjoying the fact that I'm on vacation.

Oh and making about 40 lbs of rock candy!


Tomorrow I'm off to spend the weekend with some friends from college!!! And meet the newest addition to my friends' family!!