Kenyan Habits

As in every culture, there are certain habits that most individuals have.  Whether its a certain way to greet someone or a saying, everyone seems to do it from the large cities to the rural villages.  Kenya is no different.  Lately I've found that I've developed or taken on a few of these.  They aren't necessarily good or bad but may cause a few stares next time we're back in the states.

1. Shaking hands-Its really rude to not shake everyone's hand in the room here.  Everyday, every room I shake hands with EVERYONE.  Now I find myself enjoying the ritual and purposefully extending my hand even before some Kenyans.  I even feel a little weird when someone doesn't shake my hand....

2. Invading Personal Space-Kenyan's have a different idea of personal space than most Americans.  Many will literally stand right behind you or even next to you while you are in line (I always notice it most when I'm in a line).  It took me a long time to get used to this.  I just felt uncomfortable with some basically in my lap most of the time.  Now I'm right there with everyone, making sure I have secured my place in line or vehicle.  I noticed how bad I do this one when I went back to the states in July.  I got a few dirty looks from people when I was standing just a bit too close.

3. British Speak-British English and American English are just a bit different.  There is still a lot of British influence here in Kenya and the language is definitly one area affected.  We say "holiday" instead of "vacation", "Que" instead of "line", "take away" instead of "carry out", "pick" instead of "go pick up", etc.  Not to mention all the Kenyan versions of English...."kindly do this", "way forward", "assist please", etc.

4. Kenyan Time-Kenyans have an unspoken rule of "Kenyan time".  This means that you can wait up to an hour or so past the designated time set to meet up.  Josh and I tend to embrace this to a degree.  We're more the people who start to get ready to leave when we should have been there making us about 10 to 15 minutes late most days.  (Don't get me wrong, we're perfectly capable of arriving on time)  I found that as time goes on we get more lazy with this.  No one wants to wait an hour for someone to show up so you take your time getting there in order to wait less.  Personally I'm ok with this when it comes to most social situations.  I get pretty angry when this starts to apply to work.  If I schedule a meeting with you for noon, be there at noon!  My time is valuable :)

2 Months till The Big Day

2 more months till I marry my best friend!  I can't believe how fast the time has flown by.  I feel like it was just yesterday that we were in Zanzibar and Josh proposed.  (More on the story here)  I think the best part of our engagement was being able to enjoy it for the remainder of our vacation before announcing it to family and friends.  Don't get me wrong, I was really excited to tell everyone, but there was something awesome about Josh and I getting to focus on our future life together for those few days.

I mention this because I think all to often we tend to focus more on the celebration rather than what we're actually celebrating.  You get swept away in colors, dresses, flowers and linen colors and sometimes fail to focus on the marriage.  Sure I'll admit, and Josh can attest to this, I've gone a little crazy over a few minor decisions but I think for the most part we've been able to think about the day for what it is.  A celebration of our marriage.

We are so really excited to start this new chapter in our lives and to also have the chance to visit with family and friends.  We don't make it to the states often and when we do, its hard to see everyone.  Josh and I are getting married at Starved Rock Lodge, a beautiful, rustic lodge in a state park near my hometown.  Its got a great cabin feel without being over the top.  The best park about the location is the 12+ miles of hiking trails around the lodge.  Starved Rock State park has a series of gorgeous canyons carved out by the nearby Illinois River.  We were lucky to be able to do some hiking in July when we were in the U.S. and are hoping to go back in November before the wedding.  The winter is a great time to hike at the park as all the waterfalls are frozen over and the colder temperatures make the hundreds of stairs in the park bearable.

Another thing I like about the venue is its ability to host both the ceremony and reception.  Josh's pastor is flying in to marry us in front of the fireplace in the Great Hall then we will simply walk into the next room for cocktail hour.  Following a quick turn around, its back to the Great Hall for dinner and back into the next room for dancing.  You really can't beat that!

Currently I'd have to say we're not doing much of anything for the day.  Crazy right?! We have amazing family and a VERY organized wedding planner who are taking care of the details.  This has been such a blessing as I think its really just allowed Josh and I to focus on the marriage rather than sorting through all the details of the day.  We've been involved yes, including a crazy, hectic few weeks in the states running from vendor to vendor, but now its just "yes I like that" "no I don't" decisions.


2 months!  Its just going to fly. I know it, especially with the amount of traveling both of us have been doing for work.  Praying that we can enjoy every minute and keep focusing on reason behind the celebration.

The Workout Journey

Its been about a month since I first wrote about plans to change the way I eat and workout here. I started off strong, setting a goal to workout six days a week.  I'm happy to report that for the most part I have stuck with that plan.  Sure its been hard when we've been traveling or I am in Nairobi for work but even then I made sure I was walking to where I needed to go or doing a few lunges in the hotel room when I had the chance.

Changing the way I eat has been a process.  I knew it wouldn't be easy with all the carbs (hidden sugar) there is in everything here.  Overall though I am really happy with my progress.  I've cut back on all the rice and chapatis and replaced them with veggies.  I've also noticed that my ability to portion control has increased.  Normally I wouldn't think too much about how big my portion was on my plate and just finish it.  Now I notice myself consciously looking as I serve myself.  The end result is the same!  I'm definitely not starving and don't have that stuffed feeling after every meal.

I also have been doing really good on drinking more water.  The original goal of 3 liters of day has only increased.  I find myself just craving the stuff which is kind of cool.  I'm most excited about how it is replacing soda in my daily routine.  I don't find myself craving that sugar/caffeine.  More so, I want the water more.

As I said before, actually loosing weight was never the goal.  Sure I expected some results just from the change of diet and increase in activity, but nothing major.  Josh recently downloaded this program from Jillian Michaels for me called "The 30 Day Shred".  I love it!  Before I was dedicated to working out but it was hard to justify a whole hour to a video or the treadmill.  Now I set up my laptop and in 20 short minutes I'm finished!  Don't get me wrong, its tough.  You couldn't do a workout and see results in 20 minutes if it wasn't.      The small differences I've noticed in 3 days just blow my mind.  I'm sore but I see the results.  I last longer on the jumping jacks.  I'm not cheating on the push-ups.  Its really motivating for me!  The best thing about this DVD though is its ability to make me want to do more.  Sure I would feel satisfied and proud of myself if I just did the video (and some days I do) but it makes be want to be like ok now lets go run for a bit.

Overall I feel great.  I have more energy and I feel better about myself since starting to work out.  I'm loving the new motivation I have due to the video and hope I don't get sick and tired of it too quickly!

From Garden to Table Phase 2

This weekend I decided to break into the pumpkin again and see what else I could make.  I was craving soups again so I thought I would give a pumpkin soup a try.  I've never made pumpkin soup before and have rarely eaten them as well so you could say it was kind of a shot in the dark.  I knew pumpkin and ginger go together well but I didn't want to stick to the norm.  Instead I found a great spicy pumpkin soup recipe online.

To increase the heat, I added curry powder, cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper.  In the end it just wasn't spicy enough for me so I continued to add cayenne pepper till it met my standards.  I haven't sat down to a bowl of it yet but am excited to break into it with a great piece of bread.

As Josh is away for a few weeks, I'll save the majority of it for when he comes back!  I'm already still thinking about the next pumpkin treat.  I just saw recipes for scones and snicker doodles....these may have to happen soon!

A Work Update

I realize that I don't write a lot about my work here on the blog.  Its not that I don't like what I do or don't find it interesting.  Its more that it has become the everyday to me and doesn't seem like the most relevant thing to update you on.  Recently we have begun taking steps to expand our project to another hospital in Kenya.  This time we are headed to a more urban site near our headquarters in Nairobi.

I have been busy coordinating with MOH staff at the hospital and hiring personnel to staff the project.  Recently I went to Nairobi to meet with hospital staff and also to take our lab chief to visit the hospital.  Our main goal was to get an idea of the feasibility of the MOH lab to perform the necessary tests and then to speak to the medical supervisor about the timeline for roll out of the project.  As most things go here, our plans were altered slightly and we were only able to tour the lab.

In the end it was probably best that we didn't get to speak to the medical supervisor.  Our visit to the lab raised questions that we didn't have the answers too.  I think its probably best that we take a step back and find these answers before moving forward with the staff.  Overall it will make the transition smoother.

So in the meantime, I'm waiting.  Waiting on data to come in from the data team so I can finish the third quarter report.  Waiting on the new study coordinator to start next week so I can begin to show her what I do on a day to day basis.  Waiting on the programming team to set up the new module on the netbooks so we can collect data at Mbagathi.  Waiting on HR to make decisions about new staff.  Waiting on procurement to obtain the new computers.

I understand the time needed to complete these tasks.  I really do, but I am concerned with the overall timing.  Its late September.  I will be in the states pretty much the entire month of November and December, well nothing really gets done in Kenya in December.  All of a sudden its the end of the year and my contract is over.  I have faith that I am leaving it in capable hands but that doesn't stop me from wanting to see this expansion finished before I leave.

So I will keep pushing.  Keep being that annoying American who keeps popping in day in and day out asking, "Is it done yet?"

Nairobi for the weekend

Earlier this week I flew to Nairobi for work.  In the next few months we hope to expand our project to another hospital in the city and I needed to meet with some key collaborators.  Overall our meetings went all right and we were able to take a few steps forward in terms of being ready to start.

mmmmm I love hot chocolate on a chilly Nairobi morning

Long before I set up meetings for work, I had planned on visiting Nairobi this weekend to spend some time with a good friend.  Rachel was my supervisor back when I was working on my masters thesis in 2010.  We had kept in touch over the years and have become really close.  I was excited to spend some time with her and her family.  She had also planned a trip to the spa to celebrate our engagement and enjoy some relaxation.

It was great!  We were able to spend a lot of time catching up.  I also got to go with her to her daughter, Serabi's play.  I had a blast chasing after her youngest as he took his first steps.  The spa was amazing as well.  We started out with a full body scrub, followed by some time in the steam room, and finally back for a full-body massage.  Talk about relaxing!  I definitely needed it.

Serabi as Mrs. Vain

Stephen, notice he's the only one who can't keep still

Cutie Shaun

Overall time in Nairobi is precious and usually much needed.  I got to enjoy great food and some quality time with a dear friend.  Hopefully next time it won't take me so long to get back!

From Garden to Table

After six long months we finally harvested four extremely large pumpkins from the garden.  I was shocked by the size of them and wasn't really quite sure what we were going to do with them.  I had never baked with real pumpkin.  Normally I'm the girl who will make almost everything from scratch because hey it just tastes better that way, but to be honest, a whole pumpkin was just a bit intimidating.

One of the four that came out of the Garden.  Trust me they were all this huge!

I imagined a lot of cutting and boiling followed by even more straining and then finally pureeing, but after a little research I was surprised to find there's a much simpler way.  I carefully cut the pumpkin in half and set it on a baking pan.  (As we don't have the best stocked kitchen this was a grilling drip pan)  I added about a 1/4 inch of water to the bottom and baked it at 350 degrees for an hour and a half.  The pumpkin comes out literally falling off of the skin.  Its not soaked and is ready to be thrown in a blender!

From the blender it went into plastic baggies carefully labeled with the amount and the expiration date.  2 pumpkins and 16 cups later, I thought we might just have enough to tie us over.  (We ended up giving the other two away).

Now the question was what to make. Pumpkin bars, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie....the choices seem endless.  Josh is a huge fan of pumpkin and I just love how it makes you think of fall.  With fall non-existent here in Kenya, I figured this would help a bit!  

Last night I decided to break into the stockpile and start creating some delicious treats.  First recipe, was this awesome pumpkin bread.  It isn't quite a bread as I had to substitute a cake pan for a bread pan.  This also caused the bread to sink a bit in a few places where the cheesecake topping collected.  All in all, its amazing.  Its super moist and has those great spiced flavors of pumpkin pie but in a different texture.  Josh compared it to a pumpkin cheesecake which works for me because that sounds just absolutely delicious.  Hmmm maybe that should be the next thing I make....

The delicious "bread" I made.  We couldn't wait to try it before taking a piicture.

Samburu

As I wrote about earlier, Josh and I headed up to Samburu National Reserve over Labor Day.  We had never been there before and were excited to experience the different landscape and animal life.

A map of the park

Samburu National Reserve is located northeast of Nairobi about three hours "above" the equator.  The drive up there is beautiful as you pass the lush green highlands around Mt. Kenya and Nanyuki.  The landscape abruptly changes into a harsh desert-like environment with short shrubs and rocky soils.  What is really interesting to us was the change in the houses and basic structures.  Normally we see houses made out of mud and thatch but here these building materials are not available.  Homes were pieced together with sticks and had rice sacks for roofs.

The reticulated giraffe

Inside the park the landscape was just as interesting as it changed from dense shrubs around the river to rassland near the large hills.  The changing greenery provide a wide array of animal life as well.  Our first day in the park we saw the reticulated giraffe.  Like I said before, this giraffe is unique to this area as it is only found north of the equator.  A few days later we even got to see two of these tall creatures fight.  It was a dance of swinging heads and feet as they tried to trip each other and ram their horns into one another.

These guys walked right by our van

We were able to check off the rest of the unusual animals off our list as well.  We saw the gernuk, ornyx and Grevy's zebra.  All, minus the zebra, were pretty common sites throughout the park.  The last day we even got to see a gernuk family standing up on their hind legs feeding on an acacia branch.  These skinny antelope look so weird up on two legs! Also unique to the park we saw dik dik, small rabbit-size antelope, and birds of all colors and sizes.

Josh's first safari in a pop up van

Although our main reason for coming to Samburu was these unique animals, the biggest highlight of our trip where spotting the large cats.  Over the course of two days we saw 2 cheetahs and 2 lepords!  The leopard sightings were the most exciting because both times the cats were not in trees.  This is really rare for a leopard as they are pretty reclusive animals and like to hide when not out hunting.  Luckily we caught both of these guys while they were on the prowl.  Our second sighting was the most special as Josh caught the leopard just as we were ready to pull away.  Anyone who has been on a safari knows a leopard is a big deal and there is usually a huge crowd of vans around it.  This time we were all alone.  It was awesome!

The first leopard we saw

Overall it was a great trip.  We stayed at a really nice hotel and enjoyed cooling off in the pool between morning and evening game drives (it gets really hot in Samburu during the day).  Even though it was last minute I am really glad we were able to make this trip.  We had a blast and got to see some creatures we don't get to on a regular basis.  So that's one thing crossed off the list.  What's next? :-)

Our friend Tom got to come with us too!  

Kakamega

A few weekends ago, Josh and I went to Kakamega forest with a few friends from work to explore a little bit more of the rain forest.  Both of us had been there multiple times but were excited for a little exercise.

The falls

We decided to go into the actual forest instead of the reserve we had always visited before.  I'm glad we decided to change it up as the usual paths were getting a little old.  From the gate we headed down to the falls and took a few photographs before heading back up the trail.  The sky was starting to look a little dark but we had hopes of getting to the look out point and decided to test our luck.

The forest canopy

I was amazed how the forest transformed instantly when we hit the higher area.  Dense rain forest opened up to conifer forests with large rocky out crops.  I felt like I was in the US!  After a steep climb up the stairs we enjoyed the spectacular view of the forest canopy. The clouds seemed to be at bay so we spent some time up there relaxing and taking photographs.

Josh on his way up the long flight of stairs

The hike back to the vehicle was uneventful and we managed to make it before the rain started.  Overall it was a fun day.  We didn't do anything too exciting but got to spend a few hours hiking and enjoying the amazing scenery this country has to offer.    

A Bucket List of Sorts Part 2

Besides the list of things we haven't seen, there is a few trips that I wouldn't mind repeating before our time here ends.  We have been on so many great adventures that its hard to narrow down to a few!

1. Kweisos House

Kweisos House is a small rental house up in the highlands near Kericho.  Its a great little weekend escape.  There you can ride horses, swim in the pool or just relax at the house.  We have been there twice and have loved it.  Both times we went with friends and enjoyed the quiet of the place.  

2. Nairobi sites

In general Josh and I avoid Nairobi.  Sure we enjoy the wide variety of stores and eating options but we really dislike the heavy traffic and commotion.  Besides the shopping and eating, Nairobi has a lot to offer in terms of attractions.  In the past I have been to the Elephant orphanage, Giraffe center, and Kitengella glass.  I would love to also visit the national park and the Kazuri bead factory.  Josh hasn't been able to see any of these, except for Kitengella, so I would love to spend a weekend touring the less hectic parts of the city.  Getting to Nairobi has become an expensive endeavor.  I think if we're able to do these we will have to plan it around a business trip...or two!   

3. The Mara

This one is self explanatory.  The mara is iconic Kenya and even after visiting twice (Josh 4 times), it doesn't really get old.  The last time we went was my favorite as we got to camp.  It was a different type of safari to have control over your own game drives as well as your meals and lodging.  It was more relaxing in a way to not be on a set schedule. If we make it back I'd love to camp again and test out our new tent!