Food, Kenya

From now on I’m going to be roasting MASSIVE amounts of peanuts! They are so freakin’ cheap, delicious, and nutritious that it’s a no-brainer. Do you want to know what the secret is? PILI PILI (pepper)! Oh, and salt of course. They’re just as delicious as potato chips but way more natural and as a bonus they’re homemade. Just say, “No!” to preservatives!

I buy the raw nuts from the market and then roast them by the cup every few days. It takes about an hour once I’ve diced the peppers, added the oil to the pot, and stirred on and off heat to keep them from burning. I let them cool a bit and finish cooking when I notice they start getting dry and crunchy (you have to taste them every few minutes to know!). Half a kilogram is about 45 shillings, which is almost enough to last a whole week. I might buy one kilogram and then roast a whole bunch and take them as a treat to the staff room, because they are really hurting for some variety in the food in there!

Tomorrow’s a big market day so just know that while you’re sleeping in America I will be wheeling, dealing, and then ROASTING! I know it’s no substitute for leafy greens, Sara, so I’ll keep forcing myself to eat those every once in a while too!

Adios!

Kenya, Miscellaneous

I live next to nowhere in Kenya, so Internet access is pretty limited. I am able to access it at work, but it’s slow and only available during the day. Luckily Safaricom, one of the local cell phone companies, just rolled out 3G technology across Kenya. My cell phone isn’t very fancy so I picked up the USB modem instead. When the Safaricom employee asked if I had brought my laptop for them to configure I replied, “Um… no. I’ll do it myself…” So this is the culmination of my ensuing research.

Using a Huawei e220 With Safaricom Under Linux


Safaricom\'s Huawei e220The Huawei e220 is a USB HSDPA modem capable of some crazy speeds like 7.2 megabits per second, though Safaricom advertises the max on its network as being around 3.6. If you look around on the internet you’ll find a dearth of information about using the Huawei e220 under Linux, as lots of mobile phone companies all over the world have been providing these units for a few years. The software required to use these under Linux has changed a lot of the years, and it’s actually pretty easy to get working once you piece together the information from several blogs, forums, and man pages. If you also live in Kenya, use Linux, and have one of these modems, keep reading.
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