Keeping up with the emerging tradition, I'll start by apologizing for it being so long since my last entry. I promise this is a HEARTY entry full of pictures (remember, to see the photo bigger and/or save it, right click and choose "open in a new window/tab") and stories about my life and that I'll be better in the future. And you've only heard part of that before. Also, there are some links to delicious recipes, which will show up in green font.
So before I wasn't writing too much because I didn't feel like I had all that much to say. I was basically just going too and from work...with not much exciting on the side. While I wasn't depressed or anything, I also wasn't particularly happy for the last two months. Moving abroad and starting a new job is (obviously) a major adjustment, and there are always some growing pains as you try to figure out a new place, new people, and a new life. I knew I needed to get out of my work-home-sleep-repeat rut, so I jumped at using St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to invite some people from work over to the apartment and really get to know some of the great people we have at our office.
March 16 was full of a lot of running around to get supplies (Worcestershire Sauce is...maybe not surprisingly...not so easy to find in Nairobi), baking, and dicing ingredients to facilitate faster cooking on Sunday. The menu was as follows:
Shepherd's Pie/Technically Cottage Pie If You're A Purist |
| We finished these two (one beef and one vegetarian) that night, and then my co-workers ate an entire left-over tray of the beef pie the next day. |
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| Patriotic Shepherd's Pie ingredients. |
Colcannon  |
| Mashed potatoes with kale and loads of butter |
High Altitude Irish Soda Bread
There were, of course, also plenty of green beverages.
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| Nuru and Peris, two of my Kenyan co-workers, enjoying their first green drinks. |
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| Cheers to St. Patrick giving us an excuse to hang out outside of work! |
Overall it was just a lot of fun to eat good food and connect with some people I'd only really socialized with in an office setting.
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| Mmm, delicious food! |
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| Elaine, Peris, TJ, Connor, Amanda, Brittney, Nuru, Peris, Chris, and Theresa all enjoying the night. |
I ended the night just feeling really happy. Feeling, for the first time since I got to Nairobi, that I could make a life here (don't freak out, Mom, just for the next few years!!). That night I also chatted with Elaine and Chris (who both work at our company) and Connor (their roommate who does not) late into the night, and it was just great to hang out and talk about a ridiculously wide spectrum of topics. One of those topics was Korean food, and how much I miss it, which led to the decision to check out a new Korean restaurant in our neck of the woods that Friday.
Work was tough that week because I was working against some deadlines and the lack of sleep from Sunday night definitely made it a challenge. But, I powered through, and on Friday I was rewarded with a trip to a great Korean restaurant at the Eagles' Nest Hotel, just off Ngong Road. A group of about 12 of us went together, people from work and friends of Chris and Elaine's, and my half of the table (six of us) let me do all the ordering. SO MUCH DELICIOUS FOOD. Kimchi jjigae, haemul pajeon, dolsot bibimbap, bulgogi, soju...I was in heaven. I also need to go back on a Saturday because they have gimbap and ramyeon specials that I sorely want to check out. Dinner also came with a lot of great conversation, as I was sitting with Chris, Sunil, and Amanda from work, Zach, an Episcopalian priest who runs an education NGO in Western Kenya, and Kelly, a super fun Kenyan friend of Chris and Elaine's. After dinner we moved to Yaya Centre and went to the rooftop bar, where we enjoyed some drinks before I was dropped off at home. It was a very good end to the week.
On Saturday, I came over and checked out my new apartment, meeting the landlady for the first time and outlining some things I wanted done before I moved in (adding a deadbolt to the door, putting an adapter out on the porch so I could hook up my washer, etc). Then I headed over to Junction where Nairobi Expat Social (a networking group for expats on Facebook) was having one of their coffee and conversation meet-ups. Now, those of you who know me well (or talked me to during my year at Harvard/job search process) know that I H.A.T.E. networking. I have gotten a lot shyer since I've gotten older, and I just hate going to events where I don't know anyone. But I also hate living alone in Nairobi without friends, so I sucked it up. It ended up being surprisingly not horrible! I spent about an hour and a half chatting with really interesting expats from multiple countries, who are all here doing really cool things. And, because this huge world is ridiculously small, I even met a woman who lives in the very building was preparing to move to! And she's been here for 4 years, so you know that it can't be a total shit place to live. After the event I loaded up on my last set of groceries from Junction, and went home to video chat with Renee (and virtually meet her boo and his dog).
The next week the only day that stood out was Thursday, when I went out to one of our schools to do a photo shoot for two ECD books I wrote. The books were about things you find in a school (books, pencils, desks) and things you do in a school (writing, reading, etc), and I had been unable to find any photos online that even SLIGHTLY resembled the context in which these kids are living. So, after clearing it with legal, I headed out to a school to take some pictures of the little ones doing things. So. Cute.
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| School yard on a sunny day. |
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| Writing so carefully! |
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| Playing during break time. |
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| Heading into class. |
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| Scrambling up the dirt slide they made. |
The rest of the week was really just a blur of four days of somewhat frantic preparing and packing. Thankfully, Jamila (our house help) was able to come two of the days, and she went a long way towards making my life easier. She packed a lot of stuff...granted sometimes she packed huge boxes with no regard to weight and I had to repack them (not exaggerating, one cardboard box had 30 bottles of wine/Tusker/soda in it...) but it was still super helpful. Paul (my driver) also coordinated all of the moving prep: renting a truck, coordinating guys to come help, etc. In the end, this was the breakdown.
Moving truck: 7,000 shillings ($82.00)
5 movers: going rate is 500 shillings each, though I paid them 1,000 each because they were indispensable ($59.00 total)
Paul: 3,000 shillings for coordinating everything and driving me back and forth twice ($35.00)
Jamila: 1,500 shillings for her extra work helping me clean and unpack ($17.00)
TOTAL: About $193 and worth every. single. penny.Jamila arrived around 8:00am and helped me do the final packing of stuff like drapes and little things I had needed up until the last minute. Paul and the five guys arrived around 8:30am, and after loading up Paul's car with some valuables and breakables, he, Jamila and I headed over to the new apartment while the guys went about disassembling furniture and bringing stuff downstairs. I picked up my new keys from the askari and Jamila set about doing a little cleaning in the new place while Paul and I went back to the old apartment.
We happened to arrive back at Sohail City just as the truck was trying to enter. However the guards would not let the truck into the parking lot because they said (all of a sudden) that I had a four-month unpaid streak on our management fee, and that I owed them 20,000Ksh ($235.00) before I was allowed to pack my stuff.
Cue: RAGE. I took a deep breath and explained that, no, that wasn't right, we paid every month. He then proceeded to ask me if I had receipts. I think I actually laughed as I gestured at my piles of boxes and said "Are you joking? Even if I did, they would be lost in one of those boxes and I have NO idea where they are." Eventually I persuaded them to actually call the management company and check, and we were given the go-ahead to pack the truck. I went up to the apartment and supervised the final packing and watched as the truck was loaded up.
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| Cramming everything into the truck. |
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| All packed and ready to take off! |
Then, we piled into Paul's car and headed to the new apartment. I went up first, directed incoming boxes to the correct rooms, and began unpacking the kitchen stuff. The guys did an amazing job, and though there were some minor scrapes and dings to our furniture, I can't imagine how it would have been possible to get it from there to here without that happening. I know that they were EXTREMELY thankful that my new place has an elevator, because carrying all our crap
down four flights of stairs was plenty of work, without having to carry it
up four flights of stairs as well! They reassembled all of my furniture and headed out, most likely sore and exhausted. Jamila stayed a while longer and helped unpack some stuff, and truly, by Friday evening it really looked like I was moved in. There are a few little things that need to be fixed and adjusted, and we have been working on them, but for the most part I'm just so happy to be here. Even though I was exhausted, I rallied, showered, and joined Chris and Elaine for an evening outing. They checked out my new digs, and then we dropped Elaine off to get ready at their apartment and Chris and I had a DELICIOUS dinner at
Phoenician (a Lebanese/Japanese restaurant at Junction...so random). I had gotten sushi there before and not been impressed but the three rolls we got that night were phenomenal (and I was starving) so it really hit the spot.
We swung back and picked up Elaine and have a beer, and then headed over to
Sankara, a posh hotel in Westlands with a pretty rooftop bar. Now, we may not have chosen the BEST night for Sankara. It was raining, the band played SUPER loud jazzy/fusiony music, and there was a 500ksh cover, but it was still a fun time. Farah, one of the lawyers at our office who I had seen around but never met, came as well as a friend of Chris and Elaine's and a friend of his. It was nice to just chat, enjoy drinks and a hookah, and hang out. And then all of a sudden it was 2:30am. Long day.
Chris and I headed back to our neck of the woods and the others continued their fun, and we settled on the time for my morning pick-up for my first trip out of Nairobi since I got here! A single exclamation point does not quite convey my excitement at getting out of this dirty, congested city, nor would a thousand. I was PUMPED. We had decided to go
Lake Naivasha because it is only about an hour-and-a-half away (and a world apart) from Nairobi. Though we'd had some trouble finding accommodations (go figure, as we were booking last minute for a holiday weekend) Elaine had managed to find us a room for a reasonable price, so we met at Yaya to get supplies, and then set off to enjoy the weekend.
The drive to Naivasha is pretty decent. Waiyaki Way (which runs through Nairobi) becomes Nairobi-Nakuru Highway and pretty much drops you right in town. The road is a little bumpy/potholey at the beginning, but it smooths out as you approach the Great Rift Valley, and it is a pretty pleasant ride. It is the exact same route we took to Nakuru while I was here on SAS (Nakuru is the next lake after Naivasha) and as we passed the overlook where the Great Rift Valley spreads out as far as you can see, I couldn't help but think of one of the girls in my (BUS FIVE!) safari van involuntarily gasping and saying "Isn't this where
Land Before Time was filmed?!" when she saw it. Love.
Our plan was to go directly to
Crescent Island, a gamepark/sanctuary where
Out of Africa was filmed. Crescent Island is free of predators, so you get to actually walk around instead of being cooped up in a safari van. It came highly recommended, so we decided to check it out. We turned off the highway, and on to Moi South Lake Road, and kept a look out for signs for Sanctuary Farm, as instructed. We spotted the sign, on a post between two driveways. As we turned, we tried to determine which driveway would take us where we were going. And, in a matter of a second or two, BAM, the SUV flips. We were not driving erratically or at a high speed at all, but it really happened SO fast. I remember starting to feel us tip and thinking "UH OH" and the impact occurred before I even hit "oh".
This is what we saw when driving in (we were turning right off that main road, onto the gravel path next to the grass):
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| An unassuming little patch of grass. |
This is that SAME patch of grass (note rock) from the other direction:
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| Huge, gaping, drainage ditch. |
As we turned right into the driveway, the left front tire had slipped off the side of the road, into the ditch, and the entire SUV flipped. Elaine and I were on the passenger side, which was now firmly pressed against the ground, and Chris was dangling in the air. Thankfully, we were all wearing our seat belts and only sustained very very minor injuries. IMMEDIATELY cars full of Kenyans began pulling off the road and getting out to help us. Chris's door was jammed (even though it was up in the air), but thankfully his car has a big sunroof that we were able to open. Elaine got out first, then me, and then Chris. We all handled our shock in different ways, and I chatted with a lovely Kenyan woman as I watched about 25 Kenyan men (who seemed to have materialized out of almost no where) work together to push/lift the car back up onto all fours.
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| The incredibly kind men who helped right our car after the flip. (Photo credit: Elaine Dang) |
As they were righting the car, a brownish liquid started to leak out of the front, and our immediate concern was that it was fuel or something. Nope. It was Chris and Elaine's iced coffee, that had been sent hurtling towards me (along with Elaine's banana peel) as we flipped. Some what surprisingly, there was no major damage to the car at all, merely some small cosmetic things that will be fixed at a later date. Chris' door was still unlocked, so he hopped up on the bonnet and in through the sunroof like a CHAMP, and after making sure the car worked okay, we profusely thanked our Kenyan saviours and headed on our way.
You know, at one point when talking to the Kenyan women as the men worked on the car, I told them (100% truthfully) that I could not think of a single place in the US where so many people would have selflessly stopped to help. Surely one or two people might stop, might call for help, but these guys used brute strength and teamwork to lift a freaking SUV for complete strangers! That is incredible. She was shocked and said "Here, people will ALWAYS stop to help. Sometimes, some of your stuff might go missing...but they'll always help." I had to laugh.
We paid our 200Ksh to the guard at the gate of Sanctuary Farm (who had watched the whole debacle from about 20 meters away), and drove down the bumpy path to Crescent Island. Once we arrived, we checked the car over once more, and ate a hasty (but totally delicious) picnic lunch composed of brie, two types of chorizo, sliced ham, a fresh baguette, and cashews out of the back of the car.
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| Road to Crescent Island. |
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| Less than 20 minutes earlier, this side had been flush against the ground, and three wazungu were trapped inside. Amazing. |
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| Doing picnics right. |
Around this time we noticed that the parking lot was EMPTY. Like totally deserted. Not even a guard. I called the owner, a lovely older woman, who told me that we could try, but the rains were about to start and it wasn't looking good. We hiked up to her house, and she met us to tell us that she was watching the rains move across the lake and it would be a waste of our money to try and see the animals that day. We decided to come back the next day, and headed back to the car, arriving just as the first, big, fat raindrops began to fall.
And then the heavens opened. Driving out of Crescent Island, with rivers running down what used to be the road, was...stressful...to say the least.
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| So glad we got to see this giraffe mama and her two week old (!!!) baby before the rains started. |
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| Or they would have looked like blurry wildebeest. |
We briefly toyed with the idea of stopping at a restaurant, but then the rain started to let up and we figured we might as well head straight to
Kigio Wildlife Camp, where we had booked a room for the night. And thank GOD we did. The exit for Kigio is about 20 minutes up the highway from Crescent Island, but then it is quite a distance into the bush before you reach the lodge. And there are lots of forks in the road. And pretty much no signage. So, even though we LISTENED to the directions at the front gate, we got lost. We called and called, and eventually waved down a passing safari truck. We listened to the directions again, and forged onward...until we got lost...again. And then our cell reception started to give out. It was the perfect beginning for a horror movie. Finally, they sent someone out in a truck to lead us in. And...yeah...we NEVER would have found our way.
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| We finally made it! |
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| Fun roof architecture. |
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| View of the river from the main lodge. |
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| Celebratory group photo! |
After relaxing for just a bit, we headed to our room, which was actually our own little cabin/hut. It was a hut, but bigger than what you are thinking, which is why I am struggling to come up with an accurate name for it. The walls were concrete, and the roof was thatched. It was huge inside, with four single beds, a nice big shower and toilet area, a balcony, and sitting area.
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| Our cabin/hut/lodge. |
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| It was named after a doofy bird called...you guessed it...a hamerkop. |
We jumped into our beds and watched
Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (in the words of Marky Mark Wahlberg at the Oscars, "No BS." Why oh why has no one made a gif of that yet?!) because nothing takes the edge off of a stressful day like laughing really hard, and then made our way back to the main lodge for dinner.
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| Kitchen on the left, dining room in the middle, bathrooms in the twee little hut on the right. |
Dinner was delicious. Ginger tomato soup (you know it must be REALLY good if I am praising a mainly tomato dish), lamb chops with mint gravy, veggies, and a lemon tart for dessert. Before, during, and after dinner, we played games and drank, and just generally had a hilarious time (sooooooo many good quotes from such a short period of time). We ended up heading back to the room fairly early (it had been a late night the evening before, and a very long day).
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| NOOOOO! We forgot to take a picture of the lambchops!! |
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| Circle of Death, Ring of Fire, Kings, whatever you want to call it. |
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| I learned lots of things about these two over our bonding weekend. Including that Elaine makes the WORST RULES EVER in Circle of Death. Aigh. |
Elaine wasn't feeling well, so Chris and I took care of her for a bit (and by "took care of her" I mean watched How to Train Your Dragon...and had a Disney/show tunes sing-a-long....no judgement). Then it started to rain. Now, when it rains here (during the rainy season) it pretty much goes from nothing to TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR in a matter of seconds. At first I was excited, I mean, who doesn't love falling asleep to the sound of rain? And then I felt a drip. And another. And a tiny waterfall opened over my bed. And Elaine's. And the desk with our electronics. I sprinted around the room, collecting stuff that couldn't get wet, shoving it into a protective cubby. Then we moved all of our beds to the center of the room and Chris fell asleep while Elaine and I bonded a bit before hitting the sheets ourselves. The next morning, the room was a WRECK (and, of course, I didn't take any pictures when it looked nice), but there wasn't really much we could do about that. We told them what had happened in the lodge, you know, so they didn't think we had destroyed the room in a bout of reckless partying. Then we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast before settling our tab. The stay, including three meals and all alcohol, was about $135. Not too shabby for last minute on a holiday weekend.
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| The room from near the door. |
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| The room from the corner where the bathrooms were. |
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| Our cute little (wet) balcony. |
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| View from our cabin. |
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| So many delicious breakfast options they needed a flow map! |
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| Our lovely morning table on the balcony. |
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| Complete with monkeys begging. |
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| This SERIOUSLY hit the spot. |
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| The adventure continues! |
Though our motto for the whole weekend was "well, that could have been worse," I was a little concerned about what would be thrown at us next. I jested that we were definitely going to get stuck in the mud on the way out, and laughs quickly gave way to dread. When we went over to the main lodge for breakfast, we asked/demanded that someone in a safari truck lead us out and make sure we didn't get stuck. Um...thank god. We got stuck the first time about 20 meters from the camp, but with some deep breaths and reversing, we were able to get out. There is not a single chance in hell that we could have found our way out of that place and onto the main road. It was also EXTREMELY muddy, and the car (even in 4WD) slipped and slid all over the place. It was unnerving, to say the least. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you know your tires aren't in your control. Imagine roughly 40 minutes of that. I was just thankful we weren't in a little four-door sedan like the people behind us! Plus, we were rewarded with ZEBRAS, so it was totes worth it.
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| Follow the leader |
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| This was after the road turned back into a road instead of a mud pit. |
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| All roads lead to zebra. |
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| I loved April's comment on Facebook: "How do they keep their whites so white?!" Torrential downpours might help. |
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| Oh sweet lord. That is a baby zebra. |
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| Squee! Look at him with those little nobby knees and adorable mohawk! |
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| Bye Kigio! |
Eventually we made it back to the main road, and made our way back to Crescent Island. Successfully navigating the driveway was a good sign, and we got to do a little splashing through mud puddles on our way through Sanctuary Farm. We were once again greeted by the owner and chatted with her for a bit. She is a badass, fascinating woman, who said awesome things in her British accent like "I found this hippo dead in my garden." and "I was so excited to see the python." We paid our entry fee (700Ksh or $8.25 for residents) and headed out into the park with our water bottles, cameras, and packed lunches from the lodge.
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| Fording the puddles. (That streak across the top of photo is where a single drop of Java traveled across the sideways window.) |
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| XxX ENTER IF YOU DARE XxX |
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| Path up to the owner's house, complete with Dr. Seuss trees. |
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| This hut is adorable...yet threatening. |
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| This is the hippo that died in her garden after suffering severe injuries in a fight. |
The park was quite lovely, and we had a great time just relaxing and walking around. I almost forgot what clean air and quiet felt like! We saw giraffes, buffalo,
waterbuck,
wildebeest, two kinds of
gazelles,
bushbuck, and
springhares. It was also different from your average safari, because you just walk out amongst the animals. While they still move away from you, they aren't as easily startled as when you are in a car, so you can sometimes get a little closer. It was very cool.
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| Hiking to the top of the crater. |
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| Perfect spot for a picnic lunch. |
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| Overlooking Lake Naivasha. |
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| It was a GORGEOUS morning, and I ended up with a bit of a sunburn. |
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| Beautiful views. |
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| We made it to the top! Woo! |
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| Hahaha, I love. There are no words. |
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| The gentle plains on one side of the island/peninsula. |
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| Masai giraffe! |
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| Wildebeest hanging out. |
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| We followed these two giraffes for a solid hour. |
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| Africa tree. |
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| Stunning. |
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| Giraffes on the left, teeeeeeensie tiny Chris on the right. |
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| Whatchu lookin' at? |
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| Can we just take a moment to marvel at the ridiculous set of animal adaptations that led to this animal? |
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| Such a randomly diverse herd. Wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, and horse. |
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| A tourist spooked the wildebeest and they took off running. This was only a small fraction of the great migration and it was still awesome to watch. |
As the morning progressed, clouds started to sweep across the lake and we decided it was probably time to head back to Nairobi. Along the way we saw some the darkest clouds I've ever seen in my life, but managed to JUUUUUST avoid getting caught in a downpour. Slowly but surely, the roads became more congested, the trees were replaced by buildings, the air quality declined, and the roads started disintegrating. We were back in Nairobi.
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| Heading out of Crescent Island, Day 2: Incident free for...1 day. |
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| Scary black hell cloud. |
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| Well I don't need gas, but I WOULD like to hang out with a parrot, a pizza, and a terrifying ice cream cone. |
I basically vegetated on Sunday evening, editing some photos, video chatting with my family who were in PA celebrating Easter, etc. On Monday, I went food shopping (SO FREAKING CONVENIENT) and enjoyed the goodies Yaya has to offer, like Alexander's Bakery. I had a phenomenal chicken salad sandwich on a fresh baked baguette, and a fantastic mixed fruit tart. Then I came home and started preparing for my Easter baking challenge:
homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs. I made the inside and chopped the chocolate, and then took a break when Chris and Elaine came over to watch the first episode of Game of Thrones, Season 3. It was super fun to watch it with them, because Elaine is only like 4 episodes into the first season so Chris and I got to nerd out and confuse her with all the plot lines and story development that she's missed. My favourite part was when she later descried Melisandre (very aptly) as "Vagina Magic" thanks to that whole "
birthing the smoke monster from Lost" scene last season. After we were done, they hung out and did some work, and I finished the eggs. I must say, they came out pretty well. My only real gripe is that Kenyan brown sugar is a lot coarser than the brown sugar we have at home, so they were crunchier than a regular Reese's. BUT, about 36 eggs were DEMOLISHED over the last two days at work by the expats alone, so...I think people could overlook it.
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| So pretty AND delicious. |
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| Peanut buttery goodness on the inside. |
And that pretty much brings us right up to present. This week has been busy as Theresa and I finish up planning a totally out-of-the-box camp for our kids (the first of its kind), so that has been fun, but hectic. OH, the other big thing that happened this weekend was the supreme court deciding that the elections were fair and Uhuru Kenyatta is officially the new president of Kenya. He gets sworn in next Tuesday, so we get a free day off! (Seriously, Kenya needs to get better about scheduling holidays. None of this mid-week-when-we-could-have-a-3-day-weekend or no-days-off-because-it-falls-on-a-Saturday bullshit.) Anyway, it will be nice to ease back into a full week, haha. That will be our third four-day work week in a row, and I could definitely get used to it.
Next post will be a tour of my new apartment, so get psyched!
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