Homemade Spring Rolls

Ok I miss Asian food here- a lot. I've really REALLY been wanting to make spring rolls or dumplings or pot stickers or anything like that but you can't buy the skins/wrappers in the stores here like you can in the US. My Filipina co-worker has been craving spring rolls too so we decided to set out on the adventure of making spring rolls from scratch- and by scratch I mean making the wrappers, making the inside stuff, assembling them, frying and eating. And this week we had a public holiday- the perfect day for cooking experiments! Ami found the recipe for the spring roll wrapper. My problem with this entire endever was that I would never have the patience to roll out dough that thin. Its just not going to happen. But Ami found a recipe where you make a really oozy, goopy dough that you wipe on a hot pan creating a thin film that cooks into the spring roll wrapper and you just peel it off the pan. Sounds great in theory!

So Attempt (Day) 1: made the dough the night before (as per recipe instructions- I hate when you have to make something ahead of time and let it sit- it leaves no room for error and quick correction while you are trying to cook). Flour, water, little bit of corn starch- this is easy! I watched the nifty how-to video online again and started to try to make the wrappers. NOT as easy as it looks on the video! The dough is like ooze and you have to keep it contained in one hand and try to get the cooking wrapper peeled off the hot pan with your non-dominant hand. This might be easier if I were ambidextrous! And you really do need a non-stick pan! The first pan I tried was non-stick but the wrapper wouldn't come off. Tried a few other pans (and a cookie sheet) but it wasn't working.

Attempt 2: The next day, I tried a different pan (recommended by a friend) and that actually worked!! It still took some coordination to get the dough in the pan, the excess dough out of the pan and then peel the finished wrapper out but it was working!! I had things remotely resembling spring roll wrapper!! Cool! But I had used up so much dough trying to figure this entire process out, I only ended up with about 5 usable wrappers. So I decided to try this again with new dough the next day.Attempt 3: Ok new dough, a pan that works- this should be easy!!! After I figured out that the dough was too thick, it went pretty well. I still tore quite a few of the wrappers but it was working out! After cooking all the wrappers, I filled, rolled, fried and then we ate them!! SOOOO good. WAY better then Chinese take out! Slightly more labor intensive but really really yummy!! I think next time I need to make a ton of them and then freeze them. It should be easier now that I have all the kinks worked out!

So that was my adventure for this public holiday. Good thing we had a long weekend- 1 day off was not enough to figure this one out!!

New Skills

I love acquiring new skills. The world is huge and there are about a bazillion things I don't know and I love learning new things! There is new food to cook, new languages to learn, there's always something new. So this week's new skill: web design!!

A couple months ago, my boss asked me to start working on a web page for a group of women who are making purses, bags, jewlery, etc. I was intriged but told him I'd never even attempted to design a web page. Never. Nada.I know literally nothing about it. I post this blog but that requires no real computer skills (type in the box, add the pictures, hit the "publish" button and you're done!). This project seemed slightly more involved (considering that it involves multiple linked pages, a scary html portion, etc) but I told him I'd give it a try.

But life got busy. My friend didn't get the pictures to me right away, I procrastinated, Theresa came (look at how I'm throwing you under the bus for my lack of planning Therese!) but today I was finally in possession of the needed pictures, didn't have a guest, was ahead with my regular work and acutally had some time to play around with this program.

It's REALLY fun!! I love it! It's not nearly as complicated as I imagined (although my site is pretty basic). I got the bulk of it done today but I still have some work to do on it before it goes live but I'll post the link when I get it up! I love learning something new!

SAD!!!!

Theresa's on her way home. Its been so fun to have a friend from home visit!! Its fun to show someone else around. We've had a blast and a bunch of random adventures. So everyone at Good Shepherd, get ready for some hilarious stories and great pictures!! Be sure to ask her what her favorite meat at Carnivore was...

Thanks for coming Theres!! Its been great!

Yesterday

So yesterday (monday) was a really fun day for me. Theresa really wanted to see tea fields (tea is one of our biggest exports) and what better place to see them then my old home! My first house in Kenya was in the middle of the tea fields! So we grabbed a friend of mine and left for the fields. Its quite a trek out to my old place (it takes around 2 hours to get there by matatus- thus the reason we moved to Town) but there is great scenery on the way.

We ended up going up to my old compound, seeing tons of old friends, then we went for a hike in the fields. I love how the tea just goes on forever- the hills are massive but the ladies are climbing up and down them harvesting the tea. Its great.

Then we went into the town where I used to shop/buy veggies and spend my time. I even ran into some of my ladies in the market. I used to buy from these women twice a week every week for a year but I hadn't been back for almost 2 years so I wasn't sure they'd know me. But they sure did!! We chatted and caught up and they kept telling me how fat I was (don't worry- its a complement!) One of my ladies even gave me a big bag of oranges for free. So sweet!!

It was so fun to see my old places and my old people- I don't get out there as much as I should but its fun to know I still have friends out there!

More of the safari

I forgot to put this pic in with the rest. Its a view of the lake from this massive overlook- all the little dots in the water are flamingos and you can see waterbucks in the shallows near the shore.
Click on this pic (or any of my pics) for a bigger picture.

Lake Naivasha and Lake Nakuru Safari

 So Theresa and I went on Safari to Lakes Nakuru and Naivasha (both are in the middle of the Rift Valley).  It was great.  I LOVE safari- there are always new things to see (this time it was hippos and hyrax) but even the stuff I've seen is so much fun to see again!! We ended up going on safari with this youth group from the UK (friends of some friends of mine- its always cheaper to do safari in a group!)  So we had a blast with these teens and their leaders (we even passed for university students! HAHAHAHA!!)  and here are the pics:

 Hippos in Lake Naivasha- gotta love boating in a lake 15 yards from hippos.  Lots and lots of hippos!  They would randomly resurface until we realized there were at least 14 in this  big group!!

 Flamingos in Lake Nakuru- thousands and thousands of flamingos.  The entire lake shore looked hot pink from a distance.

 Baby warthogs

 Zebra

 Baboons (lots of babies on this safari!)

 Giraffe

 Thompson Gazelle and Zebra

 Lions- chillin' by the road- 10 yards from our car. 

 Waterbuck

 For perspective- this is how close we were to the waterbuck

 Baby monkey

More monkeys

So in the end- Lakes Naivasha and Nakuru were amazing.  Hippos, lions, tons of flamingos.  

2 days well spent. 

A Tourist In My Own City

Ok, I'm loving having Theresa visit. Not only is it incredibly fun to hang out with a friend from WAY back in the day, its also fun to be pushed out of my usual boundaries in my own city. I live here. I work here. But I don't get to do all the touristy things around here- mostly because I LIVE here. But I have a guest who doesn't live here and doesn't have the opportunity to feed giraffes every day if she wanted to! So I get to do all the cool stuff in my city now too! Its kinda fun to be a tourist every once in a while!

Today we decided to go to the Animal Orphanage and the Giraffe Center. I'd never done the animal orphanage before- its in the Nairobi National Park (where we had our ill-fated safari adventure last week with the broken down bus, the hippos and the lion!) So we headed back- it was a bit of an adventure to find this place but we got there just as they were letting everyone in for the orphaned elephants' mud bath. So cute!!
For those who are wondering (KELLY) the elephant orphanage is where young (often TINY) elephants are brought when they have been separated from their herd or their mother has been poached or otherwise dies. They each have a handler who lives with them 24/7 to care for them and when they are 4 or so they are taken to another facility inside on of the game reserves where they will be slowly re-released into the wild. They also have some young rhinos.

Then it was off to the giraffe center to feed the giraffes. Its kinda cheesy but where else can you hand feed a giraffe?

Best Safari EVER!!

Let's just preface this story by saying, when Theresa came to visit, I promised adventure and animals. And today I sure delivered.

We had heard rumors and seen guidebooks that said Nairobi National Park had a bus from town that would pick you up in town, take you to the game park, give a guided tour and drive back to town. Sounds like a great deal. Nairobi National Park is the only national park in the world this close to a major city and I wanted pictures of animals with the city scape in the background. (like this) The only problem was we couldn't get a consistent departure time. Everything we checked said different times (and places). So we went for the earliest time.Left the house at 7:45- got to town in PLENTY of time so we stopped for coffee. At 8:30 we were waiting at the pick up point (that has no sign, no office or anything that would make you think a bus could possibly come here to take people to the game park.) I talked to some watchmen who said there was a bus, it would come today but it wouldn't come until 11am. Ok well its 9 now- we went to eat some brunch and came back. I talked to a guy selling magazines who said that there was a bus, it would come today. Great. So we waited. And waited. And waited. We noticed another family waiting so I asked them about the bus- they were waiting for it too. So we all waited. And waited. At noon, the mom went to ask another watchman who said the bus would come at 1pm. We decided to go, get some iced tea, use a bathroom and come back at 1. We came back and there was the bus! We get on.... and wait. I told Theresa I bet it wouldn't leave until 2 (b/c one guide book said 2pm). So we wait- and wait- and at 1:50 we go. Good thing we didn't wait and come at 2!

So off we go for our day safari. Its supposed to be a couple hours and a nice tour through the park. We get to the park, the bus fills up, we pay and off we go. Saw some giraffes up close, and some rhinos, some heart beasts, etc. Over all, a fun afternoon.

We come around a corner and see a watering hole with 2 hippos heads sticking out- very cool. But as the bus tries to drive around the tight corner of the watering hole, the back tire slips off the road. We are now at a precarious angle, angling down into the watering hole with the hippos we just saw. Fun. The driver starts trying to back up and move forward- great plan except we get more stuck and we are leaning at an even more precarious angle. We are STUCK stuck- and we all have to get out.

Now safari rule #1 is NEVER get out of your vehicle! ESPECIALLY when you are less then 50 yards from a hippo! (Hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa- they kill more people here every year then every other animal). But the bus is going to tip, so out we go. Kids, adults, everybody. And that's when we find out that the reason we were going on this particular rout was because someone had just seen a lion there (its pretty rare to see a lion at that time of day). So we are standing in the grass with reeds separating us from a known hippo and somewhere ahead is a lion.

Theresa's First Safari: The stuck bus, the reeds separating us from the hippos and somewhere ahead are the lions.

The men decide to try to push the bus out- but only ended up tipping it even more. That bus isn't going anywhere- and neither are we. Can't get back on the bus because it will tip now and we are trying to keep all the kids close because of the lion and the hippo.

So what now? We wait for alternate transportation. I saw the guide calling someone, explaining our situation so I figured the main gate would send a new bus and we'd be on our way. We wait about an hour and a half with no word from anyone and I decide to go talk to the guide to see what the plan is. I'm looking, and looking- I don't see the guide. Or the driver for that matter. Or the other guide! Then I remembered seeing a few men taking off down the road a while before. Yup- that was them. So we wait. I went over to see if the hippo had resurfaced- couldn't see it anymore but you could see it bubble every once in a while and watch its back start to resurface. Cool but it would have been cooler from inside a vehicle!

Now, its coming up on dusk- and what do animals need at dusk?? Water. And where are we? Standing between the animals and their only water source. We are watching a group of giraffes getting closer, a herd of zebras, and we're still keeping an eye out for the lion.

But here comes a big truck!! Yay!! Wait- that's not a truck we can ride in- that's a truck with a winch to pull out the bus. And who's driving it??? The driver who got us stuck to begin with!! Oh this is going to go well. The guys hook up the chains and the winch, a tractor shows up to help (not sure how but that's my call). And now other safari cars are stopping to take pictures of us- from a distance of course- so Theresa and I are the newest attraction at Nairobi Game Park!! After about an hour they get the bus out- but who knows how safe the axels are now?? This bus was sitting at a 45 degree angle for 3 hours. But there aren't a lot of options. Its now almost full dark and we want out of the park. So we load in the bus.

I was talking the driver, he said that he and the guides had gone back for the truck and help but they were so scared of the lion and the hippos that were around. He said "we were very afraid- so we ran. We ran fast." too funny.

You'd think the adventure stops here right?? Nope. We take off down this road on the axles of unknown stability only to find these huge piles of dirt along one side the path. And I mean HUGE- they are 3 or 4 feet high and take up half of the path. Getting around one of these piles was was got us stuck to begin with. Avoiding the piles didn't work before so what do we do now? Drive straight through. The bus is tipping at ridiculous angles, at one point Theresa looks out her window (which was basically pointing at the ground) and says "Linds! there's a huge HOLE under me!!!". But we made it out to a more main road in the park. And now everyone is laughing hysterically (because stress will do that to you!). Everyone starts singing and then started mocking the guide's presentation saying "Bwana George, what type of ecosystem is this?" "What type of tree has the wide leaves?"

So we finally get to the main gate and start heading towards town- but its DARK dark now and I don't go out after dark but there aren't a whole lot of options. The bus drops us in town and Theresa and I make our way home.

So we are fine. Safe and sound and had one ridiculously hilarious safari!!! I'm soooo going back again!! So come visit everyone!!! I'll get you stuck in a safari park at dusk standing in between hippos, a lion and all the animals coming to drink!! Fun times!!!

My Traditional Kenyan Birthday Suprise

So we have this tradition here, I have no idea where it came from, but on your birthday your friends get to throw water on you. I wasn't in the office on my actual birthday but my teammates decided to take care of it today.

I really only got hit with a little bit but my team leader and a few team mates all hit me with water from their water bottles. I don't really get what the symbolism is but I do know enough to try to dodge water bottles and buckets all day on your birthday!!

At least it was warm today. I'm not so sure it would have been so funny if it was as chilly as it was a few days ago.

I don't think Theresa believed they would do it until the water started to fly!

Wildlife in Nairobi...

I woke up this morning, went into the kitchen for some juice and found this:

Yup. A gecko in a coffee cup.

Yeah, that was a first. And kinda strange.

I think it was probably warm when the sun was shining on it but then the sun shifted and the gecko was stuck. Regardless, this was the first gecko I've found in my morning coffee cup...

Theresa's Here! Theresa's Here!!!

I'm so excited! A friend of mine from home is here to visit!! She is the first person from home to see my life here. So for all of you from Good Shepherd, Theresa made it here safely! I'm giving her a few days to get past the jet lag before we jump into life here. Its so fun to have a friend who knows me from my life in the US, come and see my life here. Because my friends here know me only in this context, and my people back home only know me in that context, but in reality I'm a combo of both worlds and no one ever gets the full pictures.

Happy 4th of July!

Today, I went to one hilarious 4th of July party. It was great. There was all this great American food- potato salad, coleslaw, honey glazed chicken, grilled everything and strawberries on the chocolate cake. I know that sounds pretty usual 4th of July fare for the US but this was all a treat!

Today I learned some new skills. My friend was throwing the party and asked me to help man the grills. At home in the US, I rarely get to grill because my dad and brother always do the grilling but I know HOW to grill! I'm just not used to grilling on a not-what-I'm-used-to grill called a jiko. I'm used to lighting a gas grill or charcoal with lighter fluid. I'm not used to tiny, mystery, charcoal grills with no lighter fluid or anything. I worked for 40 minutes and finally got it going... sort of. But it wasn't going enough because it went out completely. So we started again. A friend of mine took pity on me and taught me the secrets of the jiko- ie the secret door in the base where you put the newspaper to light the charcoal. It went SOOOO much better after that! Jikos are tiny grills that are the traditional cook stoves of Kenya. Lots of people still use them. Just not me before today. Then the grilling marathon was on. Jikos are tiny- you can fit about 3 hamburgers on each one- so we had 2 jikos going. We were grilling burgers, hotdogs, chicken, you name it we grilled it! I really wanted some marshmallows to roast on the coals when we were done- but no s'mores today :( It was really funny to have 2 girls grilling- there were tons of guys and dad's around-usually they are the grill masters.

At one point I was standing outside and everyone inside was singing Happy Birthday to one of the little girls. When they got to the girl's name, my friend (who's not American) turned to me and said "I thought they were singing Happy Birthday to America!"


But it was a fun day. I've never shared the 4th of July with so much cultural diversity. We had Caucasian Americans, African Americans, Kenyan Americans, adopted Americans who don't live in America but are US passport holders, Canadians, Kenyans, Brits and about 20 some kids running around. So much food. So many friends. Such a good time.

Time to watch some 1776 "Someone's gotta OOOOOOPen up a window!" Such a great movie!

My New Guard Lizards

Ok, so back when I was in language school, I caught a lizard at school , scared my teachers to death with it and kept it as a pet. I know, I sound like I was 6 years old but there wasn't a whole lot to do in language school. His name was Mng'unikaji (or Sid) and he died soon after I caught him. Some people keep guard dogs, I kept a guard lizard. He was a tiny little skink by the way, I wasn't keeping a komodo dragon or anything.

Over the last few months, I've been seeing more geckos in the house. Now geckos are great to have around- they eat the bugs! People say that when you have geckos around where you can see them in the house, you are cockroach free (because they would be in all the deep dark recesses of the house eating their fill of cockroaches if the roaches were around). YAY for being cockroach free!
I think we may have a whole family of geckos around though because they've been appearing in various sizes and colors. But lately, they have taken to jumping out of the craziest places. Usually they just hang out in the kitchen or in the pantry. Yesterday I almost had a heart attack when one jumped out at me from my dirty clothes hamper (ok "jumped out at me" might be a bit of an exaggeration but I wasn't expecting anything to move or come out of the hamper!) But regardless, I'm now shaking out my clothes really well before I put stuff on!

The Up-Side of Power Outages...

At least when the power goes out I get to see more of my neighbors. I have some great neighbors and some are really good friends. But life is busy for everyone and we don't all hang out that much.

But when the power is out in the evenings, there's nothing else to do but sit on our balconies and catch up.

World Cup: Stuff I Like

- I like that the clock doesn’t stop. No commercial breaks until halftime. I love it. Sure, they add the additional time for penalties and such at the end but it goes WAY faster than American Football where those last 20 seconds on the clock can drag out for an hour.

- Listening to the announcers try to pronounce all the names. Too funny guys. Especially when they have to go between West African and Scandinavian names in the same game. Umlauts and glottal stops- it’s tough stuff.

- The announcers’ colloquialisms “He’s got ‘is shootin’ boots on!”

- During the big games, I can tell the score by how loud (and often) all the people in my apartment building cheer or boo.

- World Cup is the top story on most international news sites.

- Even if the electricity goes out during the day (like today) , you know it will be back on by game time. Guaranteed. I don't even want to think about what would happen if the power stayed off for a big game! We can’t always be sure to get electricity back so soon.

- Vuvuzela. They are controversial. Some people love them. Most people hate them. I think they are great. Sure the incessant droning of thousands of vuvuzela can get old. But they are hilarious! I want one for Youth Group! Vuvuzela were around here even before the World Cup (people had them at football and rugby games). They are ridiculously loud and probably annoying in mass quantities but I’m in. Its Africa’s unique mark on Global Football.

So that's it so far! We'll see how the next round goes!

Papers and World Refugee Day

It’s something I take for granted pretty much every day of my life. I have a State issued Drivers License. I have a federally issued Passport. I have a county issued birth certificate. I had a school ID and a work ID. I have a Soc number, a phone number, an address. I have multiple documents that say “This is Linds. It’s her. We guarantee it. She is who she says she is.” The county, State and Federal Governments of the United States back up my claim that I am who I say I am. I have an identity.

This identity gives me access to government services. Because I can prove who I am, I can do almost anything. My passport gives me easy access to countries that other passport holders have to struggle to enter. My Soc number means I can be legally employed. My Soc number meant that I could take the ACT and SAT’s and go to college.

But what if you don’t have an identity- at least a legally documented identity? No county, State or Federal Government stands behind your claim that you are who you say you are? You can’t even prove your country of origin.

What happens when you are paper-less? When you have no identity? When no one but yourself knows that you are who you say you are. You can’t be employed. You can’t travel. A paper-less refugee can’t be resettled in a new country. You have no access to government services or aid. You can’t even take your Grade 8 exams so that you can go on to finish your education.

Identity is everything.

Without an identity, how do you change your circumstances? You can’t continue your education. You can’t be employed. You can’t leave. And you can’t stay. You are in a continual state of limbo. Even if you want to change things- you can’t. You lack the essential tools to change anything. Because you aren’t even seen as a person.

Everyone has the right to identity.

This weekend, we are celebrating World Refugee Day. UNHCR's latest stats say that 43.3 million people in the world have been forcefully displaced from their homes because of violence or persecution. 43.3 million people. That is the highest number in decades. 15.2 million are refugees (they have fled their home country for a new country). 27.1 million are Internally Displaced (they have fled their home area but have found relative safety in another area of the country). Roughly 1 million more are awaiting status verification. And these are the people who have been counted. Not all of them are paper-less (or stateless) . But many are.

Water-less No More.... I hope!!

So the water issue is fixed. Not a clue what was wrong. That's kinda the way it goes- if I'm not here to ask the repairman, we will never get an actual answer to what the problem was.

But who cares! I can get a shower! And wash the dishes! And cook something that you need to add water to (like pretty much any meal- pasta, curry, rice, you name it!)

I got home first today, saw there was water and jumped in the shower. I heard my roommate come in and I yelled that there was water- she replied "I could smell Herbal Essence- I figured it was back!"

I mean a few days without water isn't the end of the world. It feels like it could be- but its not. At least I don't have to carry all my water from a central location back to my home like many of the families I work with. Running water really is a luxury that I take for granted. And HEATED water. Wow. We are blessed!