What I Miss About Kenya

trantoday — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:31:32 +0000

Thank you for following my blog about my Kenya experiences. This is my last post about my Kenya trip. I’m happy to be back home in Virginia, but I want to show some of the things I miss about Kenya….

I miss working at Imani Workshops and trying to help bring solutions to their business processes.

I miss interacting with the kids. This is 4-year-old Grace, daughter of one of the workers at Imani Workshops. Like many very young Kenyans, she doesn't understand English, but she likes to hang around with me because I bring her candies and other treats. She says she wants to follow me home, probably because she imagines my house is chock full of "sweets," as they call candy there.

I miss shopping at the market for fruits, vegetables, nuts, and eggs. The prices for local produce there are cheap compared to American prices, but I haggle with the vendors anyway.

I miss having lunch at an eatery across the street from Imani Workshops.

This is a partial view inside the eatery.

I miss ugali and sukuma wiki. A typical lunch for Kenyans who eat at this eatery is ugali (maize flour paste) and sukuma wiki (collard greens) and sometimes beef stew. This meal costs me 60 shillings (approximately 75 cents). Without the beef, the meal costs 30 shillings. Sometimes I order rice, greens, and fried whole tilapia for 150 shillings (approximately $2.25).

I miss taking tea around 10:00 AM with Kenyans. For Imani Workshops workers, tea usually consists of chai (tea, milk, and sugar) and chapati. A vendor (far left in the photo) comes by Imani Workshops around 10:00 to sell chapati (10 shillings each), tea, and porridge (made with brown millet).

She keeps chai in the thermos, the chapati inside a bag in the orange bucket, and the porridge in the white containers. Inside the yellow bucket she carries the cups she provides for the chai and porridge.

I really, really miss roasted maize, which is sold here at a street corner in Nairobi. This boy is keeping shop while his mother has gone off to get more fresh maize for roasting.

I miss seeing things in Kenya that crack me up or make me smile, like a convenience store by the side of the road. I call it a Kenyan 7-Eleven. At lunchtime it also sells githeri (a type of succotash of maize and beans). Notice the field of maize behind the store. They also grow sukuma wiki (collard greens).

Sharing the road with cattle makes me smile.

A mile-long line-up of trucks filled with wheat waiting to unload at a granary. What cracks me up about this situation is that these trucks have lined up here for days already.

A dilapidated looking Barclays bank in the middle of nowhere cracks me up.

This boy's antics make me smile.

He scrambles down when I start snapping photos of him.

These Kenyans' method of moving makes me smile.

Elizabeth sarcastically says that I will miss the Hadada Ibis. Not! These are large birds that are constant fixtures in Kenya. They have the most obnoxious call, which rudely wakes one up at 5:00 in the morning.

This website has a recording of the Hadada Ibis call, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is totally obnoxious. It scared the heck out of me on my first morning in Kenya.

A close-up of a Hadida Ibis on the lawn at River House.

However, I do miss Kenya's large variety of birds, some of which look very interesting to me. This bird couple makes love on this particular spot on a hedge outside River House nearly everyday.

I don't know what type of bird this is, but it occasionally parks itself on a basketball stand at IU House.

I've mentioned this yellow bird before in the post, "Interesting Things." These birds perch on River House's window grill and tap against the window, sounding disconcertingly like someone knocking at the door.

This tiny, neon-blue color bird is commonly found in Eldoret. What fascinates me about it is the intense, deep red dot on both sides of its head. Sorry about the poor quality of the photo -- I can't get close enough to these creatures to take a decent photo with my compact camera.

Remember this stork from my post, "Lake Bogoria"? This is a humongous bird -- probably the size of a turkey. And, look at that neck....

Posted in chapati, children, Food, Kenya, maize, People, Practices Tagged: Kenya

Tran Today

What I Miss About Kenya