2-16-2010
Alright, I'm kind of forcing this one so bear with me. Ashley (my sister, for any of you who may not know) said to me in an e-mail the other day that “I hope you're keeping good records.” Well, I'm not. The only journaling I've done are the – How many? Two? – blogs that I've shared with you all. I guess something about the fact that this is my life for now, and not a vacation is the reason that I haven't kept any kind of a written journal. That has always been something I've done when I'm on vacation (or out of the country, let's say), but never in “real life”. Therefore, I haven't done any day-to-day writing, or even week to week. However, I seriously love going back and reading the things I've written on past trips, because inevitably I forget the details, and it's the details that really make up the memories. So, this is me making a mini-resolution to write at least something small most nights. Even if it's 2 sentences. I think it'll annoy me, but in the end I'll thank myself. Maybe you will, too. :)
So it's Tuesday, February 16th. I'm sitting here in the living room, and Elisabeth is at the dining room table practicing her Swahili on Ginger's computer because she has Rosetta Stone. Awesome. I can also vaguely hear Kelsey and Ginger across the way studying for their GRE's. They're supposed to be studying, anyway, but I can see the TV from here and it's been changing channels. Later we're all going to Kelsey's so we can finish watching Inglourious Basterds. Ginger had bought it for 100/= (the /= is the Kenyan Shillings equivalent for our $ – Also, $1 is about 75/=) in Nairobi, and we watched it last week, but just when it was getting really good, the DVD crapped out on us. Normally you'd be out your 100 bob (“bob” is slang for “shillings”) but Ginger's in good with the guy she bought it from, so he exchanged it for her. Anyway, Elizabeth and I are making some Ramen Noodles to take over and eat while we're watching it. Speaking of Ramen, I know it doesn't seem like these thoughts would go together, but we all eat really well here. As far as the Ramen goes, I just plain love Ramen Noodles. We used to get the big Costco boxes of it that had like 24 packets of it, so I kind of lived on it occasionally as a kid. So here's something I'd like to share.... my delicious Peanut Sauce Ramen recipe: Drain your Ramen but leave just a little water. Add your Chicken Flavour packet (or veggie or beef, but I don't think this would work well with the shrimp flavor...). If you have teriyaki sauce, add a couple tablespoons of that, and a nice big spoonfull of peanut butter. Chunky's best. If you don't have teriyaki, use about a tablespoon of soy sauce, plus some ground ginger, and a little honey. Sounds funny, but that's a simple recipe for teriyaki anyway. The peanut butter will melt, and I swear this will be one of the most delicious ghetto-gourmet recipes you've ever had. So that's it: Ramen with not-too-much water, PB, and some teriyaki. DE-LISH. Seriously. That's obviously not all I meant by “eating well”. We really eat a bit fancier than that most of the time, but Ramen is just so good. First of all, I eat avocado pretty much every day. I know it's fatty, but Ginger was a nutrition major and she says it's good fat, like for your hair and nails, not the kind of fat that makes you fat. I've definitely gained some weight, however (speaking of eating well...). The best part about the avocado (besides the fact that there's constantly delicious guacamole in our fridge) is that I've been getting 6 avocados for 50/=. That's right. SIXTY EIGHT CENTS. For SIX of them. Not those sad little ones you get for 2 bucks at the grocery store. Big ones. Big, delicious, ripe ones. I guess delicious is the word of the day. More about cheap fruit: An average sized pineapple will run you about 70/= when they're in season, and still only about 110/= when they're not in season. Mangoes are a bit expensive, but not $3 like at home. About 20/= on average. Tomatoes are about 4 for 20/=. Nice Roma-type ones. And it's literally a hothouse here, so they grow big and bright red all the time. Perfect. Onions are about the same, and green bell peppers, too. Small ones, anyway. A big pepper might cost you about 10 bob. When the fam was in Kenya the last time, and living in Mbita, we got damn good at making fresh pasta sauce. For those of you who weren't aware of the blog my dad was writing the last time, you can check it out MaiersInAfrica.blogspot.com. But to catch you up briefly, Mbita is a small fishing village on Lake Victoria where we had a hard time getting peanut butter. Let alone any Ramen or cheese or anything packaged, really. However, we still had access to spectacular vegetables, hence the pasta sauce. I guess we could get packaged spaghetti. Weird that that was literally one of the only things. Kenyans do love their starches. Sorry this is so stream-of-consciousness, but that's pretty much how I tell stories in real life anyway.... I feel the need to throw on lots of background information so you get why I'm telling the story, then background information on the background information, and before I know it I forgot where I started. Lucky for me, I typed it out here, so I can go back and look. Anyway, I was going to mention (in the starches category) how I'm pretty sure the average Kenyan breakfast consists of tea with a ridiculous amount of sugar (also with milk), and what Kelsey calls an “air sandwich” – meaning 2-8 slices of bread with nothing in between. Her boyfriend Ted's favorite. (Ted's Kenyan.) I guess most people would probably have a BlueBand sandwich, actually. BlueBand is margarine, and it definitely has a monopoly on the margarine market. I can only think of one other brand, but it doesn't have it's own isle in the grocery store like BlueBand does. Maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but not a big one. Okay, so the starch tangent was my explanation as to why we could hardly find anything else in Mbita that was packaged, besides the spaghetti. And from the spaghetti, we go back to the pasta sauce, which by the end of our time there, we had pretty much mastered. We had a couple friends over here the other night, and I made some amazing sauce of I do say so myself. And with the spectacular veggie prices here, it probably cost us about a dollar to make enough sauce for like 6 people. Hmm, I feel like I've rambled a little... imagine that. :) I guess the point of this page-long paragraph was how well we're eating. It's really fun having roommates, especially girls, because part of our unwinding at the end of the day is making dinner together. It's usually really fresh... I swear I've cut more vegetables in the last month than I did the whole time I was home.
Alright, sorry, I'm losing my drive to write now... thinking too much about the Ramen and the movie, I guess. Plus everyone's done studying, so I'm a little distracted......... I'm going to go make Peanut Sauce Ramen for Ginger and I now. Peace. :)
Oh, and Elizabeth made Cookie Dough earlier. Thank you Elisabeth's mom for sending those just-add-an-egg cookie dough bags!!!
…....... second thwarted attempt at watching Inglourious Basterds. Copy #2 was a bum as well. Got about another 40 minutes into it. I guess that's what we get for buying bootleg movies. Sorry Quentin Tarantino.
2-17-2010
Ginger, Kelsey and I just worked out to a Billy Blanks Super Fat Blasting Cardio DVD. For those of you who don't know me well, I'm not really a person that “works out”. Walking to the Tusky's instead of taking a bodaboda is about as good as it gets for me. But I survived Billy Blanks! Super proud of myself. I was going to give up snacking for Lent, but if I keep this up, I might just be giving up being a lazy-ass for Lent instead. Think that sounds like a fair trade. I was trying to come up with something to give up that related to my unhealthy lifestyle, so I think this might do it. Now it's dinner time at Kelsey's.
3-10-2010
Well it's been a while, huh? No one probably ever expected to hear another blog again. A lot of you have at least gotten a phone call in the meantime, though. Many of you haven't. :) Pole. I'm all writing this like there are hundreds of people reading it. Last I saw, I think I had 4 people “following” me. It's a heckofa lot easier to address a large audience than a small one, though. Anyway, anyway, I'm forcing myself to write again.... but look how hard it is! This is the first time in like 3 weeks I've written anything. I started once before, but couldn't bear to do it. That was about a week ago, I think. Anyway, I just had a kind of funny little experience, and the power's out, (but thank goodness for my laptop battery!!) so I don't know, I guess I thought I'd share. So........ I was going down to Hunter's Pub (located on the ground floor of Ted & Kelsey's building – but you have to pronounce it Huntahs if you want your tuktuk of piki driver to know the place.... same with the Yacht Club. You have to say Yatch club.... but that's because the sign on the road was spelled that way for forever...) to get myself a cold Tusker, and there were 3 young boys wandering around together doing what I assumed was hunting for scrap metals. The only reason I'm aware of this is because of Mavine, our Mbita Monkey Boy. He was about 7? 8? last year when we lived in Mbita, and he was kind of like a tiny, monkey-esque, cheeky cartoon character. He'd climb billboard posts, or you'd see him down the street darting between alleyways. He frequently breaks into dance, however, it's not something one can really describe, so I will insert a small taste of a video clip whenever I get around to posting this. Anyway, he would also collect scrap metals like a tiny little hunter. Mowgli. You all've seen the old school Jungle Book, yeah? Mavine is Mowgli. Or like Abu the monkey in Aladdin. Cheeky, but not hurtful. Well Mavine would take said scrap metals to the scrap metal yard (in Mbita this was a shack in the market just stuffed with scrap metal) where they paid him 10 bob for 1kg, I believe. He allegedly collected some of the neighbor's roof at one point. But back to the original story, I passed these 3 boys with polythene bags (they call them paper bags here, as in “give me that paper bag,”... can't get used to that one) on my way down to Huntahs, and one of the smaller 2 held out his hand and just said “5 bob,” to me. I has just said hello, and I could barely hear him, so I didn't really react. On the way back (with my cold beer) I passed them again, and the boy put out his hand again and whispered “5 bob”. I paused and said “what?” and and he said it louder. So I smiled and put out my hand and said “give me 5 bob,” and he kinda looked in my hand where he expected to see 5 bob but saw nothing, and looked at me confused, so I said again “you give me 5 bob,” to which he responded with a very Kenyan “Eh!,” and walked on. So I go inside and start to feel bad about here I am with my 90 shilling beer, but I didn't even want to give this kid a nickel. You just get kind of used to hearing it, and you get sarcastic about it. So I look outside and see him picking up some coil of wire, and decide to make him and the other two some sandwiches. I made peanutbutter, BlueBand, and honey sandwiches super quick, and grabbed a packet of milk (Like a little bladder of milk. You can get cardboard-y ones in big ketchup-packet shaped deals, or in my case, a square one of a similar ketchup-y style, but made of thin, metallic-lined plastic.) and some bendy straws with the sharp end that come in cellophane along with juice boxes (We freeze our juice boxes so we don't need the straw... have I mentioned that? Delish.) and went downstairs and out our gate just as they were coming back my way. The same little boy sees me and sticks out his hand. Geez. So I say “You hungry?” or something, and hand him the packet of milk, while handing the baggie of sandwiches to the biggest boy, which turns out to be a girl (they all shave their heads for school). A girl in an Oregon State polo shirt. Straight up black and orange with the little OSU logo embroidered on the chest. I got all excited and told her that was my university, but I was starting to realize that I didn't know how much they were understanding. She said Thank You, and they walked off. I think I also told the little boy to say “tafadali,” (sp?) which is please in swahili when I handed him the milk. I'm kind of into making the kids say “please,” at the nursery school. So ha ha, Oregon State shirt. Good story. Sorry Grandpa 'n Boobers. :) Okay, I'll try and force myself to write another kind of funny story, but I'm going to pee and get a snack.
Maybe finish the last 10 pages of my book. :)
