Kenya: Blogs, Blooms, and Bites

We are absolutely LOVING our time here in Kenya!  We had no idea how beautiful Kenya is. Where we are here in Machakos, about an hour from Nairobi, is green and in bloom. Look at the sheer quantity of purple blooms below. (Also note Tori's African-print skirt, loaned to us by our missionary neighbors, because we girls have to wear skirts each day outside of the house.)

Near our house here on the Scott Christian University campus.

The weather has been between 75°-80° with no humidity every day with few mosquitos (we are at an altitude of almost 5500 ft.), so we keep the windows open all day and all night.  It is a delight to hear all the sounds of Kenya as we awaken-- roosters crowing, birds chirping, dogs barking, machetes swishing, and people happily chatting as they go along the nearby roads.

View from our house.

The road near our house.

We are enjoying the food here, especially pastries called mandazi bites, plus a flat tortilla-type bread made with butternut squash called butternut chapatis, and a fried, meat-filled, triangular wonder called samosas. Mmmm...

You can see a bit of the beautiful wood floors and our den in the background.

We mostly prepare our own meals here at home, in a house which used to be the president of the university's house, so it is spacious, soundly built, and has beautiful wood floors and handiwork thruout.   But back to preparing our meals...food preparation is a much more tedious process here, as all the water to be used in any capacity has to first be filtered, all the fruits and vegetables have to be soaked, we do not have a microwave, and the electricity goes out frequently.  Twice we have eaten dinner at 9:45pm because I did not start making it until 4:30pm, which is WAAAY too late to begin.  Just yesterday I gleaned an eat-dinner-at-a-normal-time tip from my neighbor, who, when I popped over just after 9am, was already(!) working on supper.

A view of our house and front yard, and of me blogging.  Under this tree is the best place for internet, when we have it.

The Kenyans themselves are very warm and friendly.  Tori is making a hit with the girls around here, both with the missionaries' kids and also the locals, as she brought over a dozen or so bottles of fingernail polish, and daily goes over to a nearby soccer field, where the boys play pick-up soccer or frisbee with some of the college guys (plus a few little guys from the village), and she sets up salon.  She is like the pied-piper of polish.

This little guy is sporting his school uniform.  Note the sweater.  Kenyans dress very warmly, even though it is Summer here.