Late for lunch

So, today I went for lunch at the hospital cafeteria...

But today I was busy until about 3pm, so I had a late lunch. I thought, well, at least there won't be a long line. But the flip side of "no long line" is "no food". They had only chapatis and samosas. So I had 3 of each, and made a giant sandwich out of it, filled with hot sauce. It wasn't that bad an idea in the end.

So, the quotes going with this entry are:

Necessity is the mother of invention.

and

Hunger is the best seasoning.

Food Photos

I've added another facebook album of pictures! mostly things I've cooked or eaten while I've been here.

The link: Facebook food photos!

But for you, loyal blog reader, I've attached a special picture of my swahili teacher Edward.

Happy birthday to Joe

This entry gets dedicated to my friend Joe Kobalka, who shares my birthday, and helped to send me a bunch of data dvds in the mail.

Ah, a birthday, and my gift to you is an entry filled with pictures!

This is Dr. Hannu Lintula, my old Finnish roommate. He's gone back to Finland, where this time of year, it's light outside 24 hours a day.

This is Scott Talon, my new roommate and medical student from Texas, who just got here a couple of days ago, to replace the hole in my heart that Hannu left. He's an all around good guy.

So, what did I do for my birthday? Well, I caught a ride into Nairobi with an accountant and his wife I know here (they were just going in to buy some things, so it worked out great), and we went to a bunch of places in the shopping district of Nairobi. Some of these places are very beautiful, and hopefully I'll get some pictures of them before I leave.

Then we went downtown, and ate at this Hong Kong resturant. It was pretty good, also, I bought a piece of chocolate cake at a Java house, to enjoy later! (as shown in the first picture of this entry, and as to be shown in the last picture as well!)

After returning, I juggled for some of the kids around here, and then we ended up hiding all my juggling balls and looking around for them. Then a family who lives near us, the Davis's invited Scott (my roommate) and I over for dinner. So we ate chili with them, and had some good conversation. Mr. Davis let me borrow some books, which I'm anxious to read. Then Scott and I headed off for indoor soccer. Soccer was a blast, it always is. Now I'm back here writing this entry and letting you guys know what's up!

And as promised, one more picture of this piece of cake!

virology

So... today I had to take care of a virus that they had down in the virology lab.

I'm sure it won't be funny the 20th time I have to do it, but right now, it's hilarious.

Odd happenings today

So, here are just some tidbits from today that I thought I'd share.

I was walking down to the SupaDuka, to buy some flour and milk and stuff. And when I'm checking out, the lady who runs the place (who usually has a small calculator to sum up my purchases) whips out a TI-83plus calculator. I mean, this thing can do graphing and everything. I didn't buy near enough to be able to use the functions of this calculator. She told me that a student at Kijabe boy's school was taking a test today, and had traded her calculators for the day, because he wasn't allowed to use that fancy one on the test.

As I was walking back to my flat, I did a little accidental time travelling. Something about walking back with groceries took me back to when I was a little kid. I'd visit my grandmother maybe once a week, and we'd walk to the grocery store, buy lunch, and head back. I'm not sure what it was, but something about walking back triggered those old memories. Maybe because after I was done buying regular things at the grocery, I let myself pick out a treat (an ice cold coke). It was just an odd thought, I'm pretty sure my grandmother never imagined that I'd be getting groceries in Africa.

I plan on having an entry about the books I've been reading soon, but I'll share this short story first. I've been reading a lot of science fiction. I stole a book of Heinlein's short stories from my friend Noah before I left. So... a lot of them are about space travel, and such. 

Anyway, today I was cooking dinner for myself, and the thought just hit me, "I can't believe I'm in outer space." Now, I'm sure my mind started that off with thinking "I can't believe I'm in africa." but I guess unconcious desire gets the best of all of us.

Finland

So, new things always happening in africa. I have a roommate. (He's actually been here about 5 days, and in leaving in another 5) He's a 45 year old doctor from Finland, and I've had some interesting conversations with him. His name is Hannu.

Basically, talking to him has been like a Finland history 501 class (I know, high level). I think I know most everything about Finland's history, and I'm just ready to meet another Finnish person, so that I can wow them with all my knowledge.

Hannu told me a story about how he went to the cafeteria and just ordered Ugali, and he hated it. Now, ugali is delicious, just not by itself, so basically, he just ate a big pile of corn-flour and water, with nothing else. at least the meal only set him back $0.30.

Also, my next entry will be a great one, about my adventure-filled trip into nairobi.

Sports (Not related to Huey Lewis)

So... I've taken to playing a number of sports here in Kijabe. I'll give you the list.

Tuesday: Touch Rugby, I've never played rugby before, but I'm getting the hang out it. It seems easy enough, pass the ball, run around. It'd probably help if I had cleats, I might buy a cheap pair in nairobi.

Thursday: Indoor Soccer. This is probably my favorite, soccer in the gym at RVA, they've got small goals to play with, and it's usually 6 on 6. Very intense, very active, and my lack of cleats doesn't hinder.

Sunday: Basketball. There's a group of Kenyan guys who I've started playing basketball with. My basketball career starts about 5 months ago, playing with carl or john liberatore. But let me tell you, in Kenya, I'm great. I sink every shot, I put up pretty good defense, I can even dunk, and once I torn down the basketball rim, a la Shaq. (Those last 2 aren't true, but I'm not that bad)

Also, on Sunday I found some people who play Ultimate. It's not exactly a high quality game that they play, but at least I've found somewhere to throw a disc around.

Also, last weekend I went mountain biking. My neighbor is big into mountain biking, and has an extra bike, so he let me ride it as we went down some trails around kijabe. It was great, I'll go and take a picture and post it sometime. I never knew mountain biking was such a blast. We biked to a nearby village (called Old Kijabe Town) and the kids would run after us, for up to 2 kilometers practically. Anyway, we took a break, and one of the kids was a young girl, probably like 12 years old, wearing a hand-me-down shirt, in the middle of this poor town, and the shirt said "Nothing's better than shopping."

Kinda makes you wonder about the life of clothes huh? Talking with my neighbor he said you also see a lot of t-shirts for the teams that didn't win the big games. (Since T-shirt guys make "winning team" shirts for both sides so they can sell them right after the game) Maybe all those Ohio State College championship shirts are around here somewhere.

An addition

Also crazy,

a pack of ramen noodles costs like $0.60. One single serving, can you believe it?

For that same price I could go down to the hospital's cafeteria and get a huge plate of ugali and vegetables, and that would take me about the same 2 minutes it would take to cook the noodles.

oh what a world!