Finally, success!

During April we have a break from school, so I have had considerably more time to mess around with some domestic projects. This post doesn’t really have anything to do with the culture in Kenya or our work, but it might give you a feel for how creative we have to be while living here. I realize the amount of pride I have in accomplishing these things is completely out of proportion to their importance in life, but just bear with me – it’s the little things that make you happy when you live in rural Africa!

Project 1: Display photos

I have been working on this for months and months, never finding a decent way to display photos of family and friends on the wall over our desk. We don’t exactly have bulletin boards or a big magnetic fridge, and even if we made something like a French message board we couldn’t hammer into our wall. The house is built from coral blocks covered in plaster and then painted … pretty much the enemy to hanging anything.

Last December, after much thought and internal debate, I figured we could put up 3M-type sticky hooks a few feet apart, hang some string between them, and then clip the pictures and cards to it with clothespins. It looked really cute, but fell down less than 12 hours later, ripping huge chunks of paint off the wall. I was rather discouraged after that and of course got busy with school, so we have just been staring at a splotchy wall for the last few months.

Finally, with more time on my hands and a little internet research, I realized we needed a picture rail. I figured since we can't attach a rail to the wall, we could hang one from the ceiling. Thankfully we actually have a ceiling in our room, which is not standard in Kenyan houses. I was just going to nail into the ceiling and tie string to it, but Chris suggested nailing into the side of the ceiling frame so the string would stay better. Then we tied the string to a big stick, tied more string and ribbon hanging down from the stick, and clipped the photos to the hanging pieces. It worked perfectly, so here is our nice new contraption and display, made entirely of items found around the house and yard:





Project 2: Make cookies

Without an oven, it is rather difficult to make cookies. Though I have managed to make a decent cornbread and coffeecake on the charcoal stove, the cookies were never quite cutting it. So I explored no-bake cookies, and found a great recipe that uses ingredients I could actually get (including cocoa powder rather than actual chocolate, which is harder to come by). But for a while I didn’t have measuring cups and I sometimes can only access certain kinds of butter or peanut butter, so it took a few attempts to get it right:

Attempt #1: Margarine + not enough oatmeal = too soft. We ate it with a spoon out of the saucepan, and it tasted like fudge. Pretty good.
Attempt #2: Real butter + full amount oatmeal = too hard. We crumbled it over homemade yogurt and it tasted like chocolate chips. Also pretty good.
Attempt #3: Margarine + full amount oatmeal = darn close to perfect. We spooned it into balls like you’re supposed to, and it tastes like cookies. Very good.



Overall I don’t think anyone minded that I had to make this recipe 3 times lately … and I’m thankful that no matter the consistency, we can find some way to eat it!

Houseguests

We have spent the last part of March and the beginning of April alternating between having houseguests and being houseguests! A few weeks ago, Tito’s mother passed away (see newsletter) and his family members came from all over the country (and even his brother came from the US). Some of them stayed a few days, some a week, and Tito’s youngest brother, Shakespeare (goes by “Speare”) and his family stayed at the house here for about 3 weeks. It was actually really fun to have them here – they are about our age, and they normally live in Nairobi so we were able to communicate easily and probably had more in common with them than we do with folks in Ribe. Speare and his wife Kate have a daughter Betty, who just turned 3, and she provided constant entertainment with her singing, dancing, and favorite game “atanishika!” (“you can’t catch me!”).





One weekend while everyone was at our house we escaped for a bit to visit our missionary friends Josh and Maggie and their young boys. It was Maggie’s birthday, so the four adults went out to SUSHI (wow! first time having sushi since we’ve been here!) and then hung out the rest of the weekend at their house. We played a lot of Settlers of Catan and along with their oldest son Matthew (who’s almost 4, I think?) made a birthday cake for Maggie. You can see Matthew and Caleb loved the chocolate cake! :-)







The next weekend was Easter, and in order to make the trip to church more relaxing we stayed overnight with another missionary couple, the head pastor of the church. If we haven’t mentioned it here, it takes about 2 hours to get to church, so we like to stay overnight either before or after so we can maximize the time we have in the area to do grocery shopping, errands, etc. Easter itself was very relaxing – Chris and I went out to lunch, then spent the afternoon swimming and reading by the pool. The next day we headed to town for a variety of errands and had a fairly successful but hectic day.

Kate, Speare, and Betty just left to go back to Nairobi, but we are getting ready to have another houseguest in Ribe … my best friend Katie!! Her trip was planned rather last-minute when she found a cheap flight and realized she would have a couple weeks free between her med school classes and graduation. I think it’s been a little crazy for her to get travel arrangements, shots, and pack within the last few days, but I hope it’s all worth it! She’ll be volunteering at a local hospital for a week and then spending the rest of the time hanging out with us and seeing a bit of the country.

101* Uses for a Kanga

*More like 33, but it’s still a lot!

The ubiquitous piece of rectangular cloth used by Kenyan women for EVERYTHING … the kanga, or “leso” (lay-so) in some locations, usually features a 2-color design (plus black and white) that is either geometric or organic, or both. There is always an inner rectangle that has one pattern, then a border that has a different pattern with the same colors. Kangas also always have a saying or proverb on them in Swahili, which can be an expression of joy, sorrow, religious fervor, personal values, or social commentary.


[women wearing kangas at a wedding]

Kangas are sold in sets of two (uncut and un-hemmed), because women usually use one to wrap around their waist and the other to wrap around their shoulders/hold their baby/wrap around their head. However, the majority of women combine their clothing and kangas without any worry of matching – it’s a great cacophony of color! We have learned that kangas are much more common in rural/village areas – people who live in the city and working women do not wear kangas outside of the house.


[women wearing kangas at a burial]

Kangas can be used to show solidarity in significant life events – engagements, weddings, funerals, etc. Typically the main people involved decide on a pattern (sometimes specific colors, other times you can choose any color with the same pattern) and then spread the word to others who are closely involved or will attend the event. Then each person purchases her own from any various kanga shop and then can make an outfit from it or just wear it wrapped over her clothes. Kangas are identified by their sayings, so you can’t just go ask for “the red and yellow one with the pin-wheel looking design,” as I found out the hard way!


[women wearing kangas at work]

Wrapping a kanga around your waist or making clothes from it are definitely the most common uses, but you aren’t limited to wearing a kanga! I have either personally used or witnessed a kanga being used for each of these things – and I’m sure you could come up with many more ideas!

Wearable:
1. wrap skirt
2. sarong
3. mini skirt
4. shawl
5. girl’s dress
6. head wrap
7. head band

8. hijab (Muslim head scarf)
9. nightgown
10. robe
11. apron

Around the house:
12. bath towel
13. dish towel
14. rug/mat
15. mop
16. oven mitt
17. trivet
18. picnic blanket
19. sheet
20. curtain

21. table cloth
22. laundry bag
23. appliance cover
24. couch cover
25. throw blanket

Other uses:
26. baby holder/ one of the original “Bjorns”

27. handkerchief
28. water filter
29. basket/bag
30. purse/money holder
31. ipod holder
32. cloth for sewing anything
33. “carpet” laid down for bride to walk on at wedding

ps. So the men don’t feel left out, there is a man’s version, called a kikoi. This is definitely limited to around the house (though a few old men in Mombasa wear them around the streets), and they don’t usually have cool patterns and sayings. But they are very useful for keeping off the mosquitoes in the evening!

Happy Easter!

He is risen! ...


...He is risen indeed!


Our update letter about March can be found here.

God Bless