Depending on how you count, either today or yesterday marks four years since I’ve been in Kenya; I left the United States on October 25th, 2007, and arrived on the 26th. In those four years I’ve taught computer science classes, learned Swahili, traveled Eastern Africa, fainted and whacked my head on the floor, became a small-scale farmer, and bought a flat screen TV—what an adventure.
Here are some photo highlights (in no particular order):
Prayer flags at my house in Tala, Kenya
Wedding in Naivasha
“Vuvuzela” in Southern Tanzania
Randi at the Tanzania/Malawi border
Randi at the Kilimanjaro in Dar
Alan in Dar es Salaam
Turbi, Northern Kenya
Cappuccino in the Swiss Alps
Alan teaching git at ILRI
Car broke down in Ethiopia
Alan in the Taita Hills, Kenya
Alan in Watamu, Kenya
Alan in Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda
Dropping Randi off at Jomo Kenyatta airport
On the shore of Lake Manyara, Tanzania
Drinking banana beer in Tanzania
Looking back at it all makes me want to do it all over again…
Kenyans always want to know what the staple food is in America. Maybe I’m not a typical American, but I always say that we don’t have one. A typical Kenyan meal revolves around ugali (a thick maize porridge), usually accompanied by some sort of greens like spinach or kale, and roasted, boiled, or fried meat. While a case could be made that hamburgers are America’s staple, I generally just say, “In American people eat whatever they feel like eating.”
It is true that we/I eat a lot of fast food, but home-cooked meals made from store-bought ingredients also vary in shape, size, and ethnicity. Here’s a photo diary of a few things I ate while I was home for about a week in California (in no particular order):
Lucious strawberries
Mongolian BBQ
Rubio’s fish tacos
McFlurry with Peanut Butter Cups
Asparagus and white beans at Piatti’s
Starbucks coffee
“OMG Burrito” at the Tabe BBQ truck
Life-time supply of Oreos
Quesadilla at Maritza’s
Cold Stone ice cream
Waffle, sausage, bacon, eggs, and coffee
Cheeseburger from In N Out
Keep in mind that I’ve been out of the States for a year and only home for a very short time, so I was on a bit of a fast food bender. So when you see me back in Kenya and I look a little chubby… be nice. I’m looking forward to getting back to my rice-and-beans diet when I return to Kenya.
We spent the night at Rolf’s Place, a beautiful mansion and bed-and-breakfast getaway located in Nairobi National Park. It’s situated on a cliff over some sort of a gorge, and there’s this wooden bridge spanning the ravine from the parking lot to the property—quite breathtaking!
Rolf’s Place on the gorge
We ate a few meals in the restaurant which overlooks the gorge, and we could see giraffes wandering around munching on trees just across the way. There’s not much else to do besides eat, but you can swim, play paintball, and ride horses.
