Hujambo!

How hilarious is this? I found these old badges of mine while looking through boxes in my mom’s garage:

2002

2005

2010

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It’s a terrible feeling to get caught in a lie. Today I told a small fib, then was glad I hadn’t flat out lied when the lady ended up sort of calling my bluff.

I was in San Marcos with a few hours to kill in between meeting some friends, and decided to go walk around Fry’s Electronics. As I was playing with one of the fancy new computers a lady came and introduced herself to me. It was obvious from her introduction that she wanted something. I began to mentally prepare my “let her down easily” strategy, and then she fell right into my trap when she asked, “Are you from around here?” I told her that I live in Kenya, I’m a volunteer, and I’m just home visiting family briefly.
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I’ve been visiting the USA for a few weeks now. Home is San Diego, California, but my twin sister Randi lives in Portland, Oregon. I have a bunch of old friends strewn along the California coast, so it seemed like a good idea to drive up to Oregon instead of flying. California and Oregon are both beautiful states, so the 1,095 mile (1,762 kilometers) drive is quite enjoyable. The weather was great, so we could see Mount Shasta, Mount Hood, and Mount St. Helens very clearly.  It kinda reminded me of all the times I’ve seen mountains in East Africa, but without the annoying tour guides!

I think Portland (and Oregon as a whole) really has their stuff together; recycling is easy and efficient, public transit is pervasive and cheap (sometimes free), bicycle commuting is encouraged and bikers have lanes all over the city. Portland’s motto is, after all, “the city that works” (a google search for that reveals that Chicago is too…).  Social services for the unemployed seem to be pretty good too: I hear it’s pretty easy to get on food stamps, and the state does fairly intuitive things to give people work.  For instance, you’re not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon.

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I cracked up this morning when I heard on the news that San Diego Zoo’s “Wild Animal Park” is going to change its name to the San Diego Zoo “Safari Park.” It’s hilarious to me because in Swahili a “safari” is a journey; sure, driving around looking at animals is technically a journey, but really any old road trip qualifies (even if there are no lions). Hopefully they left all the annoying guys handing out safari pamphlets back in Nairobi!

I don’t know when the word “safari” entered the American lexicon, but the Beach Boys definitely went on a Surfin’ Safari in 1962. Americans are apparently good at integrating words from other languages into English, though. Off the top of my head, we have kindergarten from the Germans and smörgåsbord from the Swedes, and hakuna matata! You did know that’s Swahili too, right?

On a semi-related note, I just went on a surfin’ safari in Pacific Beach. The water was freezing and the waves were small and blown out, but I managed to get twenty minutes of good body surfing in before my body was numb and I was tired of floating around out there. I had to take a walk down the boardwalk to warm up afterwards. Brrr!

My mom’s husband was telling me the other day how, sometimes, he feels like he’s surrounded by idiots. I felt the same way today when, as I was merging onto the freeway, some guy cut in front of me. After he swerved over from the “going straight” lane, he slowed down to yield to an obviously empty on ramp which joined ours. I found myself yelling, “WHY ARE YOU BRAKING?!” out of nowhere. I haven’t driven in two and a half years, but hellooo? So I’m visiting California for a few weeks… welcome to CA!

Last week, when I was still in Kenya, my mom asked what I would want in the fridge when I got home, something I missed; the only thing I could think of was strawberries. Not that we can’t get strawberries in Kenya, I guess they’re just expensive or something, so I never eat them. Anyways, I’ve been eating strawberries and blueberries every morning in my Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with almond milk and I’m officially addicted to breakfast again.

Don’t get me wrong, I love mandazi and chapati, but this tastes good and is actually good FOR you! The almond milk isn’t a must, and could be substituted with soy milk or even the kawaida moo juice. Try it out, you won’t be disappointed!