Baking, Bars, and Babies

Seeing as I've burdened you all with seemingly never-ending posts, I have decided to express the past two weeks of my life through pictures.

Background: The majority of my time was spent in class in Nairobi, so most (just kidding, all) of my pictures are from our two weekends at the compound.

After more than two months without a single chocolate chip cookie, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands. Nairobi is like a barren desert when it comes to cookies. Want mandazi? You got it. Craving vanilla ice cream that has the faint aftertaste of bubble gum? No problem. But to ask for chocolate chip cookies? Good luck. THEY ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! I have yet to discover a single store that even sells chocolate chips. So last Sunday I finally got my act together and decided to bake them myself...from scratch...for the entire group.  Luckily Isaiah had all of the ingredients I needed, including a 5 pound brick of dark chocolate which he so kindly helped me cut up into bite-sized chunks.

I felt like I was baking for the US Army. The recipe that I found online (courtesy of the Food Network, of course) had to be tripled in order to feed the 22 of us who had been deprived of this childhood favorite for so long.  In addition, I got to use this industrial size whisk that looked more like a medieval torture device than a cooking instrument.

Last weekend I also had the pleasure of meeting a fellow WashU alumni who studied abroad on the St. Lawrence Kenya Semester Program his junior year and is now working in Nairobi.  John and I have many mutual friends at school but surprisingly never met.  Fortunately we hit it off and he had some very valuable words of wisdom to share with me.  I wish him all the best and perhaps a few years down the road we can meet up again in Nairobi and grab a Tusker.

Note: The matching shirts were just a coincidence 

and I didn't even realize I was wearing a WashU

shirt until John walked in the door.

One highlight from this past week was going back to my urban host family's house for dinner. Ruth and I gave each other a huge hug and I got to play with the adorable little puppies (who aren't so little anymore). I talked politics with my dad as per usual, and my sister and I watched Skyfall together over a home cooked meal of chapate, beef stew, kitheri, and rice.  Well, it was more like I enjoyed the meal while my sister ate spoonfuls of icing as her dinner.

Yesterday Kiswahili was cancelled due to it being Good Friday. That in itself made for a great start to the weekend. Abby and I made the most of our free day by going to the Junction (a local shopping mall) for froyo and a movie.  We took one of the public buses to the mall and immediately headed to Planet Yogurt where I proceeded to pile toppings on toppings on toppings onto my hefty pile of creamy deliciousness. For those of you who are wondering, this is real, Pinkberry quality yogurt.  You ain't gonna find none of that bubble gum shit here. It was heavenly to say the least.

Then we saw The Impossible, a movie starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.  It tells the true story of a family on vacation in Thailand during the 2004 tsunami. I thought it would be a fun treat to go to the movies. 

I. WAS. WRONG.

This movie was sad. Really sad. Don't get me wrong, it was very well done. But it was sad! When the actors cried, I cried. When the actors smiled, I cried. I was a pathetic, blubbering mess in the middle of the theater.

Not to worry. My mood was lightened with a glass of wine at dinner, followed by velvety tiramisu shared between the two of us.  We came home to a house full of friends ready to spend a night on the town.  We ended up at our favorite local bar where we took over the dance floor, shared a few drinks, and had a genuinely good time letting loose.

Today was perhaps the best day of all. Wairimu took a group of us to the New Life Home Trust in Nairobi. It is an orphanage for abandoned babies 0-3 months old. They are taken in by the home and raised until they are old enough to be tested for HIV. Those babies who test negative for the disease are put up for adoption, while the others are treated with ARVs until they are healthy enough to be adopted. The center welcomes volunteers and encourages them to play with the babies and toddlers. That's right. We were welcomed with open arms and instructed to play with any and all babies in the center.  It was like being a kid in a candy store except that the children might have been even more excited to see us than we were to see them (if that's even possible).  It was utter bliss and certainly an afternoon to remember. I shall return very very soon.

Peace, Love, and JOSEPH!

Our day concluded with take-out Indian food delivered straight to the compound from our favorite restaurant. We sat in sweatpants, listening to the rainstorm outside, and dined on curry and naan. 

All of that food wasn't for us

(I'm a foodie but not a gluttonous ogre) 

 Homemade nacho crew

 The biggest piece of naan Julia has ever seen

While classes are always hard to wake up for in the morning, the fun weekends that I've had in Nairobi keep me motivated to push through to the end of the week.

Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Amboseli where we'll spend a week going on safari and living amongst the Maasai.  I hope to indulge you with even more interesting stories when I return. Thanks for reading up until this point.  I realize now that my initial idea for a photo blog might have gone astray. 

Until next time...

Kwaheri ya kuonana!