Fast Food, Patience & the Beach

When I arrived I was given some advice. I was told to take pictures of everything that seemed strange to me because after a while they wouldn't seem so strange. Sure enough, I got used to things. I thought of that advice this week when my lunch arrived. In little black bags. This is how our lunch arrives each day. It seemed so strange when I got here to rip open the bags and pour out my lunch. But these days it's just business, er lunch, as usual. And so I give you Kenyan fast food...

Speaking of fast, Kenyans just aren't. Nor are they even on time. I've made several appointments where I rushed to be on time only to find myself waiting. And waiting some more. One time I was told the person would be there in 3 minutes. Later I learned that you add ten minutes for every one that they tell you to wait. Sure enough, it took them 30 minutes to arrive. And if it's church related, it's even worse. Mormon Standard Time + Kenyan Standard Time=Don't hold your breath. Just yesterday Judy and I went to Nyali beach. The plan was to meet at 10. Yeah, we finally made it there around 11:30.

Anyway, it was amazing. The beach is only a 20 minute walk from my apartment and this is the view. I really am living in paradise.

Judy and I had so much fun. She doesn't know how to swim and asked me to teach her. Since I never really took swimming lessons it was more like the blind leading the blind. But apparently her definition of a good swimmer is someone who can keep their head above water. That I can do. So, I decided to teach her the reliable back float. I figured I couldn't really lead her that far astray with a back float. This attracted three other girls who insisted we teach them too. Then a group of 10 boys came with their soccer ball and we had our own world cup at sea. Then we packed up and rushed home to change so we could still make it to institute. Overall it was a great day, even if it started late.

Please don't judge the hair. It's windy and I've just been swimming in the ocean :)

The World Cup 2010!

I realize that the World Cup is well under way and this entry is somewhat belated. Everywhere I go there is talk about who was defeated the night before and what matches are lined up for the coming days. I hopped in a matatu after church on Sunday to have the man next to me comment that it must be such a sad day to be an American. We had recently lost a match and he felt quite badly for us. Sadly I have no television to tune in to all of the excitement but I peek over the shoulders of people reading the newspaper, which is all World Cup these days, and I'm constantly listening for updates at work or in the matatus.

For several weeks now the sounds of Shakira and K'naan (below) can be heard everywhere you go. And I mean everywhere. Just last night I heard the 4 year old upstairs singing "Wavin Flag" as they were eating dinner. I love love love "Wavin Flag." I'm not ashamed to admit that I get emotional when I listen to it.

But today Juma greeted me with a head hung low. He informed me that it seems as if not a single African team will make it past the first round of the World Cup. Hosting the event is now like salt on an open wound of defeat. Still, it doesn't seem to stop the crowds from gathering around small 13" TVs at cafes and hotels around the city to watch every last minute of it.

Eat Dessert First

Yesterday we had a Relief Society activity. I was asked to teach the sisters how to make some American desserts. I went with the classics, Banana Bread and Apple Crisp. The plan was to meet at the church at 10am. At 9am I packed up a ridiculous amount of dishes and ingredients and made my trek to Changamwe. This consists of two matatu rides and a mile walk. Caroline calls me at 10:20 to tell me that they decided to move it to her house but not to worry because she was sending someone to pick me up. An hour later 5 more women showed up to her house. Then we all waited another hour while they finished fixing the oven.

During the wait, we had a great time chatting and watching funniest home videos and part of a random Nigerian film. During one segment of home videos with various people falling and/or doing stupid stunts, Caroline turns to me and says "Americans are funny." She didn't mean we were witty, she meant we do crazy things that they don't understand. I had no defense.

We finally made the bread and apple crisp. Both were a big hit. After we all ate our share of dessert Caroline pulled out a huge pot of rice and another of beans. Lunch! We were so full already but what can you do. Overall it was a great activity.

I sure do love these women!

Eaten Alive by Mbu

Mbu is what we back home like to call a mosquito. Death by mbu is slow and painful, I tell you. Every morning I come into the office wondering if it will be my last. I sit at a large and rather old wooden desk which provides just enough dark space for mosquitoes to set their trap. When I arrive they all pull out their dinner knives and attack. And they have their favorite parts, too. Just like so many people prefer drumsticks, these blood sucking creatures prefer ankles. But they don't stop there, they work around the leg and feet until either I manage to smack them or there's too much daylight and they run to hide. Oh yes, they hate the sun. As if there weren't enough similarities between these guys and vampires, they only come out at dusk and dawn. So, I pop my anti-maleria pill every morning while I smack the air like a crazed mad woman. But after coming face to face with so many of these guys I think I've now developed a sense of those mbus that are carrying the dreaded maleria and those that are just driving me nuts. There's a certain look in their eyes and you just know.

Melinda Must Be Crazy

So, if you haven't seen The Gods Must Be Crazy then stop reading right now and go watch it. Seriously. I'll wait.

This movie came up the other day when everyone began fighting over my external drive. I bought a small netbook for this trip since I didn't want to fry my mac or run the risk of having it stolen while I'm down here. Since netbooks don't have a CD/DVD drive, I purchased an external drive to run software and watch movies. Once they found out at work about my device the word spread like fire.

There are a few netbooks in the office but no one has been able to print from them because they couldn't run the printer software on the computer. As a result, they always have to switch computers when they need to print. Not so convenient or efficient. So, my little drive has been passed around the head office countless times and has even made multiple trips to the branches.

The other day I had 3 people all want to use it at the same time. We had to schedule time slots so that everyone could have a turn. That's when Omar jumped in and said it reminded him of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy. He told me that everyone was content before I brought my external drive into the office and now everyone is fighting over it. I asked if he would be the volunteer to take it to the edge of the Earth and get rid of it, then. He shut up.

Mahambri - A Bite O' Heaven

I may have mentioned mahambri in passing but I just can't fully express how divine these things are. They're essentially scones but so much better. Now, I've always liked scones so the fact that someone discovered a way to make them taste even better just blows my mind.

Everyone here just buys them from street vendors and most mornings Mama Rose brings an extra one for me, it is the highlight of my morning. Omar and Juma soon discovered how much I love them. They sometimes offer me other things that they bring in to eat which I kindly turn down. But they know that when they pull out the mahambri I just can't say no.

Mama Rose made some over the weekend so I asked her to tell me the secret to making them. I already knew they added some sugar to the dough but I also learned that they also add coconut milk (of course!) and you have to have just the right balance of baking soda and yeast. Priority #1 when I get home is to figure out how to make these things on my own! During this discussion Omar came in and teased that I could eat 100 mahambri if they let me. The truth is, I totally could! Needless to say, it's a good thing I walk so much after all these mahambri!

1/2 Way There

I'm officially half way through my four months in Mombasa. I'm not saying this because I'm anxious to get to the end, I'm actually quite shocked at how fast time is moving. It's making me nervous that there are so few days to finish this project, go to the beach, explore the city and take pictures of it all.

The Sniffles

I think I'm getting sick (she says with a somewhat stuffy nose). Brenton had a pretty bad cold the last 4 days he was here and proceeded to pass it on to his fellow colleagues at Choice Humanitarian. I thought I had sidestepped the illness until my throat started hurting last night. Today it's the sniffles. Not sure what tomorrow will be.

The weeks are beginning to fly by like days and the days like weeks. Brenton left on Tuesday so I now have the place to myself. Another intern is supposed to be coming in July and I'll be glad for the company again. Judy (from the branch) came over on Friday. We picked up some Indian food on the way and watched Ocean's Eleven on my itsy netbook. Not exactly a scintillating Friday night but we had fun.

This last Thursday was the monthly Branch Manager meeting at the head office. The six BMs come for a full day of what I assume to be reporting and coaching. Once a month the whole office goes crazy in preparation for the meeting and keeping it running throughout the day. BUT this is the day that I get milk in my hot chocolate and a plate of mahambri (scones). I'm not exactly sure why their meeting results in a round of mahambri for the whole office but I'm not complaining. The office assistant's son has been sick with maleria so they were short handed on an already busy day. As a result I got to help carry several thermoses of tea, collect empty glasses and later serve lunch. Did I mention that the meeting was on the third floor?? It was perfect, by the time I ran up and down the stairs all day I had worked off all the extra mahambri I had eaten.


On Friday everyone was quite excited for the World Cup. Since the anticipation was a bit distracting, I thought it was a good excuse to try to get Omar to organize the office where we work. I would make Juma help but 1. his desk is clean and 2. he wasn't in the office on Friday. So, I had Omar move all his papers from his desk and separate them into four piles: Do now, Do later, Trash and File. I think I have found my new calling in life, professional organizer. We ran out of time before he could get through his stacks but he threw away at least one ream's worth of old papers. He kept shaking his head at the amount of junk he had kept. I may not have done much on the project on Friday but I'd say it was still a successful day.

President Taylor, the mission president, came to church today for branch conference and to reorganize the branch presidency. The Changamwe branch was organized just 1 1/2 years ago. President Kenneth, who was just released, is an incredible leader. He has been a member for nearly 20 years. A few years ago his work transferred him to Mombasa when there were no other members and he was still single. He traveled to Nairobi every weekend for church (about a 6-7 hour drive each way). Because of his missionary work there are now three branches in the Mombasa area. His first counselor is the new branch president. During the sustainings there were a couple of people that raised their hand to oppose. It was a unique meeting and for most of the members it was the first time to attend a branch conference and/or have any of their leaders released. I'm constantly made aware of how much I take for granted back home. The branch is strong and I know they'll adjust.

So, there goes another week.

The Weekend

I didn't think I did that much this weekend but as I sit down to write this I realize a lot happened. First, my poor shoe started falling apart on Friday. I caught the toe on a rock and the sole started flapping. Since I walk almost 2 miles a day, I have wondered how long my shoes would last. Omar and Juma sent me down to the corner hut they call a shop and said to ask for the lady who fixes shoes. I did as they said but only got some confused expressions in return. When I took off my shoe and demonstrated the problem I got a much better response. A guy quickly grabbed it and pulled out this yellow sticky junk and started to swab it between the shoe and sole. After that dried then he pulled out the super glue. That's when I knew this was legit. 2 minutes and 20 shillings later (about $.25), I was back in business.

Friday night Brenton and I decided to go to a restaurant that serves authentic African food. Since I had already eaten the ever popular Pilau for lunch, I opted for some seafood. I ordered the large Tilapia fish. However, I forgot to mention that I only wanted the fillet. I was only somewhat surprised when my plate arrived with an entire fish on it. The saddest part wasn't that I now had to mess with the skin, bones, head and fins on this fish but that I didn't have my camera with me! However, I was quite impressed with my work in the end. It was so good that I'm pretty sure I'll be making a return visit, this time with my camera.

On Saturday we went to a school for the deaf to give them some pencils and erasers that Brenton had brought with him from home. Mama Rose arranged for us to meet up with her daughter, Rukiya, who would then take us to the school. Mama Rose later explained to me that her daughter had been using her own money to buy candy for the kids at the school. She had been doing it for awhile but they only found out about it recently. It just goes to show how amazing Mama Rose is when you hear of her daughter doing something like that. The kids were really cute and kept saying hi and thank you using sign (the only two things I understood, anyway). All of the primary schools having paintings on their walls with maps, the alphabet and numbers. Brenton stopped to take a picture of one of the maps and the kids all ran over to show their pencils. So cute!


I ran off to institute from there. We had 4 come again this week. I think we are going to combine institute and seminary. There is only one seminary student and they are all on the same level anyway. Maybe that's against the rules but we're going to try it. We're going to tackle Jacob 5 this week, at their request. Cross your fingers for me.

After Institute I went grocery shopping. Brenton and I have talked about trying some new fruits and/or vegetables that are here. Since he was leaving soon, I picked up a few that the produce guy suggested. Here's the array. I'll go clockwise from the top left. On the outside we have a pomelo, mango (just because they're good), paw paw, tree tomatoes and turpa. On the inside we have limes (to cover any gross tastes), green tangerine and golden passion fruit.


Here's what I decided: I love pamelo, mango was overripe, didn't like the paw paw (even with lime juice), tree tomatoes are weird tasting but look pretty, we never figured out how to prepare the turpa (it's a vegetable that should be cooked), love limes, tangerines were a bit tart and the passion fruit almost made me puke (the texture, not the taste- think I'll stick with the juice).

So, in other news...we have a cat.

Brenton is an animal lover and came across this stray kitty last week. It's back legs and right eye had been hurt. He not only brought her home and fed her but he also found a local vet and got some medicine for her eye. Nice of him since he has now gone and left me with the cat and the remaining prescription to put in her eye. He's found her another home so her new owners will be picking her up on Sunday (I hope). We named her Mombasa and she's actually grown on me a bit. She and I had a girls movie night last night :) This is what my social life has come to- watching movies with a cat!

June??

I can't believe how time is flying. Since going to Samburu nothing too exciting has happened. In fact, I'm struggling to remember what I've been doing. The project continues to have its ups and downs. I don't get to do much during the week since it gets dark so soon. Last weekend I went to the market. This place is amazing. It's street after street of shops with spices, used clothing, shoes, live poultry, scarves and fabrics. I walked and walked through all the little streets. I got pretty good at bargaining and splurged on a scarf and beaded sandals. I then found my way to Fort Jesus where there are more shops for the tourists. I exhausted the shops and myself so I headed home before Institute/Seminary.

Last Saturday I had 2 members come to Institute. Judy and Joseph are brother and sister and both quite amazing. We read 1 Nephi 8 and talked about Lehi's dream. It was new to both of them but they loved the entire discussion. We also talked about their conversion. Joseph (the younger brother) actually introduced Judy to the church before he was baptized. She then got baptized before he did. They are both incredibly strong and kept expressing how much the gospel has changed them. There has been some recruiting going on so I'm hoping more come tomorrow.

On Sunday I met more members of the Pope family. Their son, Eric, and son-in-law, Troy, are both in town with some of their kids. Their daughter Natalie flew in later that night. Louis invited me down to their new house after church. That turned into a three day visit. They had just moved in on Saturday and were still working out some of the bugs ie electricity and water. So, Monday we all helped unpack things and got the house mostly in order. The plumbing was all over the place which resulted in water all over the place. Electricity was still somewhat unstable when I left on Tuesday. BUT I have to say that they have a really beautiful house and a really beautiful location. It was fun just spending time with their family, they are a very inspiring group of people. Ned and Claralyn Hill also came to visit the family. Ned was rather excited to learn that I was starting my MBA at BYU in the fall. I loved talking with Claralyn about Yehu and other similar ventures as we tried to decide what really is the most effective way to help the most people.

I was pretty excited to be back in the office on Wednesday. I never knew how much I need routine in my life, kind of sad. Today I went to another branch that is located in Likoni which is south of Mombasa. I crossed the ferry on foot and have to say that the experience is always fascinating. As you wait for the ferry, they play advertisements and short safety videos. The first video showed what happens to those who stand on the ramp that moves up and down on either end. Apparently you will experience a horrible fall before you slip forever into the water. The next film was a bit ambiguous. It showed a lone person waiting for the ferry as a large man approached and then knocked the first man down. At first I thought the warning was to stay away from big scary people but then the large man was suddenly hit by a truck and run over. So, I guess the point is that there's always a bigger fish? The third and final film warned us to not sit on the rails. It showed a girl sitting on the rail (what NOT to do) when a rat showed up and jumped on her. This of course caused her to lose her grip and she fell back into the black water. Moral of the story? Take care of the rat problem. The whole experience was topped off on the way home when a man on a horse rode the ferry. There's just something so crazy and entertaining about that image that I will forever treasure.