Hangover Hotel & the Mystery Dish

Earlier today, my managers decided to go out for lunch, and they decided to take me to more of a "local" restaurant than I am accustomed to . . . Hangover Hotel, here we come!

 Now, I had previously assumed that Hangover Hotel was some type of bar, but I learned that the restaurant started out as a place people went for soup after a night of drinking (the Kenyan equivalent of Denny's, I guess), and the food was so good that they expanded to serve food at all hours.

 One of the cool things about the Hangover Hotel is that the kitchen is open to the dining area.  You can see the sides of beef and goat ready for the grill!  Yummy!!!

 The restaurant was packed when we arrived at 1:00 PM.  Most Kenyans eat lunch much later than Americans, because they usually take tea at 10:00 AM.  Check out the tree growing through the middle of the room.

Five of my six managers: Ted (Home Dept), Winfred (Supply & Program Mgt), Johnstone (Head Teacher), Njeri (Office, Kitchen & Accounting), and Lebaus (Government & Graduate Relations).  John Mwalo (Reintegration) was sitting next to me and didn't make the picture.

Lunch was delicious!  The main course was nyama choma (beef barbecue), ugali (ground corn meal), kachumbari (tomatoes, onions, & cilantro).  When ordering the beef, John told me to make sure to ask for "anti-theft."  Otherwise, the kitchen will keep some of your beef to sell at the local butchery.

Last, but not least, the soup-looking dish in the upper left-hand corner was a new one called "ojuri."  My managers told me to try it, but that they wanted to wait for two more days before they divulged its contents.  They encouraged me to try it, saying that it was very good for my digestion!  So, I was a good sport, and ate some ojuri.  It had a very sharp taste and tasted somewhat fermented.  I encouraged my managers to share ojuri's contents after I had eaten my portion:  onions and tomatoes cooked in . . . . COW'S BILE!!!

After thinking about it some more, I realized that ojuri tastes just like . . . bile mixed with tomatoes and onions.  Not sure, but I don't think I'll order ojuri next time!

Getting Kisumu'ed and Other Randomness

When we moved to Kenya back in 2011, I quickly found that no task was ever completed in the time that I originally planned.  Let's say I had a list of five things that I needed to accomplish in Kisumu in an afternoon.  I would drive from one side of town to the other, from shop to shop, and before I knew it, the clock would read 5 PM, and only two of my tasks would have been completed!  Hence, the term "Getting Kisumu'ed" was coined.  Things just take a whole lot longer to complete in Kenya; there is no other way to explain it!  The best way to approach errand running in Kisumu, though, is to expect things to take a long time, then if they go really quickly, you are pleasantly surprised!

Kisumu'ed at Kenya Power:  In Kisumu, you have to prepay for your electricity, meaning that you go to Kenya Power, pay for your electricity up front, and they give you a code to punch into a box at your house.  That code provides you with a certain number of kilowatt hours of electricity.   Well, our power ran out at about 4 AM yesterday morning, so I went to Kenya Power to purchase more electricity.  I waited in line for about 15 minutes to pre-pay for electricity at our house (not a bad wait for Kenya Power).  When I arrived at the window, they informed me that the one computer that operated pre-pay electricity was broken and asked that I have a seat while they fixed the computer.  After sitting for another 15 minutes, a young man walked by with the broken CPU and returned about 10 minutes later.  After 20 minutes of rehooking and rebooting, the computer was finally operational again, and I was able to purchase electricity.  So, in the Kenya Power example, a 15-minute visit turned into an hour visit - Classic Kisumu'ing!

 Kisumu'ed at Safaricom:  When I was back in the US, I purchased a phone from my dad, but I've had a little trouble getting it to work correctly in Kenya.  So, I went by the local Safaricom offices to see if they could help.  Safaricom is Kenya's leading cell phone service provider, and overall they are a pretty good company.  But, they have some long lines!  I was prepared, though, for the Safaricom Kisumu'ing, and had purchased a newspaper ahead of time.  Unfortunately, though, the newspaper only lasted for half of the full hour it took to work my way through the queue (yes, I said queue; we are very British here). 

 Randomness #1:  I thought this mama did a great job of presenting her produce.  Check out the cool way she stacked her oranges.  I asked her if I could take the photo, then she insisted that I buy 100 Kenyan Shillings worth (about $1.25).  The picture was worth it!

 Randomness #2:  Hungry, but on the run?  No problem!  There are people all over town like this man selling food.  You can purchase hot dogs, sausages, samosas . . . . the list could go on!  I've never had one of the hot dogs before, but I'll have to try one (if I get hungry enough).

Randomness #3:  This is Oginga Odinga Street, the equivalent of Main Street, Kisumu.  This is where most of the banks reside in town, as well as a number of supermarkets, hardware stores, and electronic stores.  They keep the road pretty clean, and tuk-tuk's, bicycles, and motorcycle taxis are not allowed to keep traffic flowing (even though there is a tuk-tuk on the right side of the photo).  It's a fun road to walk down and to check out the shops and hawkers wares who work in the area.

Kenyan Road Aftermath

Here's a small example of what Kenyan roads can do to a tire!  Tires aren't cheap either . . . the cheapest replacement I've found for our truck is $300.  Ouch!!!

Restocking the Shelves - A Trip to Nakumatt

After being gone for 3 months, we had to restock the shelves as the cupboards were bare.  So, a trip to Nakumatt (Kenyan Wal-Mart) was in order.  Here are a few photos (yes, I'm posting pictures of our visit to the grocery store):

 Shopping for light bulbs . . . again.  The box says that they should last 6 years, but must of our bulbs last about 6 days.  It could be the power surges in Kisumu or it might be the scary wiring in the attic of our house. 

Seth & Lyla check out the cakes in the bakery.  Amazingly enough these same cakes have been in the display for the past year!

I love the toy section of Nakumatt, because of all of the Chinese-made toys.  This is a Spiderman Skateboard knock-off.  Infringing on Marvel Comics' copyright wasn't enough, so they added copyright infringement for Element Skateboards in the upper left-hand corner.   The best part is the inscription on the box:  "Function:  Move forward the skateboard will be raised at back when the skateboard will turn back."

 

Patra:  I don't know what it is, but I know that I don't want it.

Mother's Recipe?  What, your Mom never made Lotus Roots?

Connor & Seth model the different varieties of shelf stable milk.  Yum!

Middle Eastern Capri-Sun!  Woo-Hoo!!!

This photo was taken right before I had to tell Seth and Lyla to stop playing with the dead flies.

 Tammy looking for samosa pastries to fashion into shells for chicken pot pie.

Sutton wants to try Honey Melon Pudding.

 Tammy shopping for hohos (peppers) to make homemade salsa.

 The entrance to Nakumatt - if you look closely, there is a Muslim man praying in the parking lot.

Road Work

Upon our arrival back home in Kisumu yesterday, we realized that we won't be driving to our house for a few weeks.  Thankfully, the reason is because the road is being paved in front of our compound.  Here are a few photos of the time-consuming process of Kenyan road construction!

Our view upon returning home yesterday.  Our gate is just behind the C-Meda sign on the right.  Note the big pile of rocks at the bottom of the picture.

The big rocks are dumped at the work site.  Workers then use hammers to break up the rocks to the appropriate size for the foundation of the road.

The rocks are then placed in the road like its a big puzzle!

Back Home In Kenya!

After 3 months back in the US with friends and family, we are finally back in Kenya!

We had an exhausting trip on the way back. We started out in Savannah on Sunday evening where our first flight to Charlotte was delayed. The delay resulted in us missing our connecting flight to Washington, DC (Dulles). The airlines were kind enough to give us two free hotel rooms, but we were only able to get 3-hours of sleep prior to heading back to the airport to catch our flights.

To get us to Washington, DC in time to catch our 11 AM flight to Ethiopia, four of us flew to Dulles, while two of us (Seth and Chris)had to fly to Regan International and catch a 1-hour cab ride to Dulles. It was a little stressful, but thankfully we were reunited around 9:30 AM on Monday morning and made it onto our flight to Ethiopia. After our 13-hour flight to Ethiopia and a 2-hour flight to Nairobi, we arrived into Kenya only to find out that none of our 14 checked bags made it to Nairobi with us.

We took one more flight to our home in Kisumu, arriving around 6 PM (11 AM, Eastern Time). Our fellow Agape missionaries picked us up at the airport and welcomed us back with a big spaghetti dinner. Exhausted we all went to sleep around 8 or 9 PM last night and then slept for 16 hours straight! We woke up to a text from the airline telling us that all of our bags had arrived at the Kisumu airport. Praise the Lord!!!!

Three sleepy kids enjoying cold Cokes in the Nairobi Airpot.

Grace Community Church - Rincon, GA

Two Sundays ago, Grace Community Church, one of our supporting churches, invited Chris to come and speak during the Sunday service.  Here's a video of the sermon.  Enjoy!!!