“Hey Meredith! A little less food, a little more Nairobi”

My mom left me this comment on my last post:

“Hey Honey, I know your blog is supposed to be focused around food and drink but don’t you think your readers would like to hear/see more about your work there? Just a thought, of course it’s up to you. Love, Mom”

Now, my mother is a wise lady and if she is wondering about my work and life in Nairobi there are probably a few more people who are as well. Maybe residents in Lougheed have asked her what I have been up to… or my Grandma is getting sick of all the recipes? I gave the issue some deep thought this morning and I have come up with a few reasons why food has been a constant for me in Nairobi.

1. Food Culture is HUGE here! My social life revolves around food and restaurants. Feeling like going out? We might as well make an evening of it and go for dinner and then drinks at a nearby bar/nightclub. Kenyan people love to gather and chat over some great food and drink. Nairobi has a fun food culture that is very accessible for visitors. The food restaurant website Eat Out Kenya provides the location and reviews of many, many restaurants. Most special events held in the city have an area dedicated to buy food and drink, sit at picnic table and relax in the sunshine. There is a wonderful event, that I haven’t had a chance to attend yet, called Blankets and Wine, where people bring their blankets to an outdoor park, watch live performances of Kenya’s rich music scene and enjoy a few glasses of wine while showing off their hippest clothes. Football is HUGE here, and it is common to go to local sport’s club (our’s is K1) to watch the game, drink some Tuskers, and eat some Nyama Choma or chicken wings.

Or, if I am looking for a quiet Sunday morning, I hop in a matatu or taxi with the girls and head up to a mall to have a quiet Sunday tea or Vanilla Latte in the sunshine on the patio of ArtCafé.

2. Too Tired to Go Out? This happens fairly often. I keep pretty busy at AKUH working on the redesign of the Pediatrics’ print media and by the time Friday comes around I want to stay in the house, do some yoga, make something sweet & yummy and watch a movie. Or, there are days where I really don’t feel like putting in the effort of getting beautiful, calling a cab, and then rejecting the advances of men at the bar who want to buy me for 5 goats… kidding! That doesn’t happen.

3. No Power? Muffins are the solution. There are days when we wake up in the morning and there is no power. This means no tea (because our oven is electric… wait, everything in our house is electric!), no toast, and lukewarm juice or yogurt. As result our house is full grumpy girls who don’t want to go to work. My solution is to make muffins almost once a week. Now, the girls and I can each grab a yummy banana muffin, then go to work and enjoy a tea with warm milk there. Problem solved!

Work is going really well though. I am well on my way to accomplishing the goals I laid out for myself and I have met a lot of very nice and fun people who are teaching me a lot about Communications as well as life in Kenya.

I realized this week I only have 5 weekends left in Kenya! It seems a lot shorter when I think about it in terms of weekends as opposed to weeks. So I sat down and made a list of things I NEED to do before I leave: see flamingo’s and rhinos, climb Mt. Kenya and Mt. Longonot, ride a bicycle through Hell’s Gate National Park, and have a beach holiday on the South Coast. After doing some research and arranging, all of my weekends are booked up from now until I leave on December 22. It’s going to be a whirlwind! And this means that my dear friends and family are going to get a break from reading recipes ;)

On another note, a giant beetle bug flew into our house Sunday morning. Of course I documented it.