Flashback Friday: Kenya

Summer of 2004, I was in a small village in Kenya working with Empowering Lives International with two friends. I lived in a hut, bathed with a washcloth and a bucket of hot water (and washed my clothes the same way), and had no running water or electricity for two months. I also had to wear skirts every day until we got back to the big city, and when we left we got to go on safari. It had its ups and downs, but there were some very good times. I found the disk with all my pictures on it the other day, so we’re flashing back to Kenya.

Joel taught me how to make chapati. They’re awesome. Yep, we’re frying those up in lard. Most food in Kenya is fried in lard.

Except ugali. Ugali is basically like… boiled cornmeal that sits until it solidifies and then you scoop it up with your fingers and use it grab up spinach and stuff. It was surprisingly addictive.

Our luxury huts.

We got sent to the market (the market that’s “right down the road”) to buy chicken for dinner. We walked the 3 miles back to our village with a live chicken…lol. Since I was a vegetarian at the time, I didn’t partake in the chicken or watch them kill it. Jonathan did, and he almost passed out.

This is the market. That corn that they’re roasting was amazing. It doesn’t taste the same as American corn. Plus it only cost like 5 cents.

The little kids thought it was hilarious when we washed our clothes. They sat and laughed at us, and then they showed us how to do it more effectively.

And they LOVED Jonathan. As soon as we opened the door of the hut in the morning, the kids were all over him. They’re taught a tribal language and Swahili, but start learning English as soon as they start school. They were so excited to speak english to the wageni that they would run up shouting, “HELLOHOWAREYOUIAMFINE!” LOL. It was the cutest thing ever.

The place where we safari’d. I wish I had pictures of the animals, but I took those with an actual non-digital camera so they’re not on my computer. We saw leopards, hyenas, elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, lions, zebras… everything. it was so cool. (And yes, my jeans were on as soon as we left the village.)