Lately…
I’ve been eating a lot of radishes…
pickling everything…
and making Heidi Swanson’s Coriander Soba Noodles, with the addition of puffed tofu…
I’ve also been editing photos from Ethiopia…
and Uganda…
and Kenya…
Lately
August 12, 2013 by 46 Comments
Montreal, Amsterdam, Nairobi
June 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
May was a whirlwind month for me, in part because I was finishing up my final semester of grad school and in part because we were traveling every weekend. Then, of course, there was that looming trip to East Africa to plan for…
Which brings me to the here and now. It’s a lovely, sunny day in Nairobi and rooming with a British engineer, even for only a few days, already has me saying things like “it’s a wee bit wonky” and “do you fancy a drink?”. Louisa, the Brit, leaves in a few days and will soon be replaced by an American, so I’m sure the expiration date for these phrases is coming up soon.
I’ve reunited with all the KDI Kenya staff and enjoyed my first few versions of “How Are You”, as sung by Kiberan children. Perhaps the coolest part about returning to Nairobi is seeing the project that I worked on last summer in it’s nearly-completed form.
Before we get to that stuff, though, I want to share just a few pictures from some recent excursions. The Auerbach clan was busy graduating in May – Eric with his second masters and Ben with a PhD. Then of course there was me with my (first) masters and Ben’s wife, Sam, graduated with her NP. To celebrate, we all made our way to Montreal to eat and explore.
And now for the story about getting to Kenya… Upon trying to check into my flight on KLM, I realized that I had booked my flight out of JFK for Thursday, May 30, at 11pm. However, I booked a flight from Chicago to New York to catch this flight on Wednesday, May 29, in the afternoon. That meant I had a full day and a half to bum around New York. This was annoying in that I really could have used that extra day at home; nonetheless, I enjoyed my day in New York fitting in some last minute exercise prior to sitting in a narrow airplane seat for the next 20 hours.
BUT THEN… upon actually checking into my flight on KLM, I also discovered that I had a 9-hour layover in Amsterdam. Score one for me! This meant I had plenty of time to explore, which is exactly what I did. See below.
And now, of course, I am in Nairobi, half-settled into a fully-furnished and serviced apartment and jumping straight into my mile-long to-do list. The apartment is cleaned everyday. They even do our dishes – quite a luxury! And my first few visits to Kibera were met with lots of adorable children.
The Island of Lamu
December 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Back when I was in Kenya over the summer, my family came to visit and we took a little trip to the island of Lamu, a small island near the border with Somalia. It’s a traditional Swahili island with no cars (only donkeys!) and beautiful hand-carved door frames. The residents are primarily Muslim, so the whole island has such a unique historic, Arab feel to it. What a cool place.
The second we arrived, a man walking down the street tried to coax us into buying some fresh lobster. At first, we resisted. We were friendly, but I am pretty sure none of us thought we’d buy the lobster. But this man was smart. By the time reached the door to our accommodations for the weekend, I was negotiating a price for these three beauties. I believe we agreed to around $30 USD, which our “chef-cooker” cooked up for the evening. We had a delicious meal of garlicky kale, coconut rice, and lobster in a tomato sauce.
the lobsters we ate for dinner
We rented an entire house for the weekend. It was a gorgeous, three-story swahili-style house that came complete with its own caretaker, Katana. Katana arranged for the “chef-cooker” to come prepare the lobster dinner, and he also hooked us up with a pretty awesome dhow captain, Baji. Katana himself was a pretty sweet guy who enjoyed beers with us on the roof with the views seen below.
views from the apendalo house, our residence for the weekend
The architecture in Lamu is old, and there is a giant, old castle in the center of town. Housed inside the castle is the Lamu market, which is full of fresh fruit and vegetables.
castle in the middle of lamu town
the main square in lamu town
Of course, the main form of transportation on the island is the donkey. I believe the only two motorized vehicles on Lamu are an ambulance and firetruck, though both are more like golf carts than the large trucks you’d see in the US. Lamu is just incredibly charming, and the people who live there are so, so friendly. They’re used to tourists, but I would say it is not incredibly touristy. Much less touristy than Zanzibar, anyway, which Eric and I visited in June.
donkeys on the beach
Forty-five minutes away (walking), Shela Beach is the more touristy part of the island. Its historic, white-washed buildings are more pristine, and there seems to be more hotels than residences. Nonetheless, the beach was great, and the buildings, as seen below, were easy on the eyes.
lamu architecture
The picture below is just cute. Henna on a little girl’s feet.
a little girl’s henna feet
A popular activity on the island is a dhow cruise. Any dhow (a traditional swahili boat) captain will be happy to take you for a cruise. They offer all kinds of trips, including fishing and a myriad of other things, but we opted for a sunset dinner cruise, an option only offered by Baji. As all the other boats were heading to shore, we dropped anchor and Baji’s crew cooked us an incredible dinner on the boat – fresh fish, coconut rice, and curry. What to do with fish bones? Just toss them overboard, of course. We were treated with a pretty sweet sunset that evening, also.
sunsets from a dhow (traditional boats) cruise
not a bad sunset at all
Lamu – what a cool place!
Ngong Hills
August 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Last week, on a rare day off, we hired our trusty taxi driver, Wyckliff (yes, he spells his name that way), to drive us to Ngong Hills Forest Reserve for a little fresh air. There are four or five hills that you can hike up, each with progressively better views. To the east, you can see Nairobi and other small towns, while the Great Rift Valley expands to the west. On the way up the first hill, there are a few windmills that generate electricity.
We mistakenly stopped at the forest reserve office prior to hiking. This proved to be a mistake, as the rangers proceeded to try to get us to hire two armed rangers for the walk. These rangers come at a price of 1,500 KES each, or just under $20. We found this to be rather unreasonable, especially since the guy at the forest reserve did not seem to have any good reason for having two people come with us. “Anytime you have someone with a gun, you need two people. All around the world this is the standard.” Noting our skepticism at his logic, he quickly added, “There are buffalo. And a lion.”
ha. There were definitely no lions in the hills. And eventually we just left the office and did the walk without the armed rangers. Instead of lions and buffalo, which would have been quite exciting, we ran into a group of school children who were there on a field trip. Very dangerous, indeed.
After the walk, we stopped by Brew Bistro for some well-deserved beers. Happy hour runs from 5-7pm, during which time you get two-for-one brews. You don’t even need to ask… they automatically bring you two beers of whatever you order. Not a bad end to the day.
[photo by Jack]
Kibera Photo Walk
August 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Last week, a fellow intern and I, along with two KDI staff members – Amos and Abdallah – spent an afternoon walking around Kibera, cameras in tow. The point was to capture water quality at different points along the river, but it was also a great excuse to capture some of the things we experience daily in Kibera. Amos and Abdallah are both awesome photographers, so I have included several of their photos below (as noted). It was a fun day.
photo by Abdallah: construction workers taking a break
children playing in their parents’ vegetable stand
colorful fences
photo by Abdallah: the makings of a flavorful stock
photo by Abdallah: fish for sale
Amos taking pictures
Wilson is always hard at work in the KDI office
cute kids everywhere
the railroad tracks in Kibera
photo by Abdallah: charcoal for sale
“take a picture of me being free” – man smoking a joint
photo by Amos: children chanting – probably something between “take my picture” or “give me sweets”
puppy in a trash pile
Jack, fellow intern
Kenyan Recipes: Pilau + Kachumbari
July 18, 2012 by 5 Comments
Pilau is a spiced rice dish that is found all along the Swahili coast of Africa. Often it is made with shredded chicken or bits of beef, but this version is vegetarian. It is a dish that is heavily influenced by Indian cuisine, and it tastes great alongside another Kenyan specialty: kachumbari. Kachumbari is basically the African version of pico de gallo, except you make it a bit spicier and the chiles are of a different variety (unknown to me) that is not jalapeño.
Here in Nairobi, you can find the pilau spice mixture at practically any grocery store or market, but you can make it at home as well. A standard recipe is here.
Also, here are a few pictures from our little trip to the suburb of Karen to visit the elephant orphanage and giraffe sanctuary last weekend.
check out those eyelashes!
this guy is such a douche
that tongue – wow!
Pilau
1 cups basmati or jasmine rice (I used brown basmati rice)
1 medium red onion, diced
1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter or cooking oil
1 1/2 tablespoon pilau masala
salt and pepper
Cook the rice per package directions.
In a large pan, sauté the onions, garlic, and ginger in oil. Once the onions are transparent, add the pilau masala and stir around until fragrant. Add the cooked rice and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for an additional two minutes or so, until the rice is warmed and the ingredients are mixed well.
Serve with kachumbari on the side (recipe below).
Kachumbari
3 large tomatoes (the variety I find in Nairobi is similar to a roma tomato, so that is what I use), diced
1/2 medium red onion
2 small hot chiles (serrano would work well), minced
1 clove raw garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
drizzle of olive oil
drizzle of lemon juice, lime juice, or red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients together well and refrigerate.
My Work in Kibera
July 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It occurred to me today that many of you probably have no idea what I am doing in Kenya, so I thought I’d share a bit about the work I am doing here.
To start, I am interning for a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI). You can learn a lot more about them and what they do on their website, but in brief, they build Productive Public Spaces. These public spaces are places that can address the many needs of slum-dwellers: economic development, sanitation, clean water, playgrounds for children, schools, clinics, and even simply spaces for people to mingle. So they are spaces that the entire community can use and enjoy, but they are also productive in that they provide many needed services to residents.
Toilet facilities at Kibera Public Space Project Site 02
KDI partners with local community groups in the informal settlement of Kibera (aka, slum) to work on projects that improve quality of life and help to alleviate poverty. They provide funding and technical support (from engineers, architects, landscape architects, and planners, like me) through a process called community-driven design. The community itself provides all the necessary feedback and information in designing the site, and they assume responsibility for running and maintaining the project when it is complete. KDI has built two productive public spaces in Kibera, a third is in construction, and three more are in the works.
My role here is (mostly) two-fold.
1: I will be planning for, designing, and running public meetings to gather input from the community for a new public space project – Site 04. These community workshops will focus both on the physical design – architecture, landscape architecture, and engineering (ie, how they want the site to look and what structures they want there) – and the programmatic details of generating income for the site, maintaining it, managing it, etc.
2: I will be designing and implementing a watershed education program. The goal is to educate and empower the local community to reclaim the river and sustain environmental integrity.
Dumping site along a river in Kibera
I have several other smaller tasks to accomplish, but that’s the quick and dirty of what I am doing here. I am working with 5 other interns who all have various roles in the process and a team of Kenyan staff who are helping to teach us the ropes. I share a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with Margaret, an architecture intern who just graduated from Cornell. We have cleaning service twice a week (which includes our laundry), and they change our sheets once a week. I am feeling really spoiled in that regard.
So, to end this post, I will leave you with a couple videos:
really nice apartments look out over Kibera:
school children ask how I am doing:
the river runs black in Kibera:
Tofu and Cucumber Salad + Africa Pictures
July 14, 2012 by 2 Comments
So this recipe is not at all African. It just so happens that I’ve made it twice since I have been here. I have not (and will not) stock a full pantry here for a mere two months, so I am trying to create some recipes with just a few basics. I have soy sauce, and oil and vinegar, and I bought a nice spice mixture called Pilau Masala, which is used for making a rice dish called – you guessed it – Pilau. So with just a few items, I have been throwing together this nice little salad.
I never really wrote much about our 2-week pre-internship trip through Tanzania and Rwanda. It was yet another wildlife-centric trip for us, with just a bit of beach and city time on each end. I only have photos from Zanzibar and Rwanda uploaded to flickr right now, so safari photos will have to wait until next time, but here is a little preview of my favorite photos from those two places.
Sunset at Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar
The evening sun illuminates a building in Stone Town, Zanzibar
Eric eating chapati while watching a local soccer match
The red colobus monkey of Zanzibar
A mass grave at Kigali’s genocide memorial, Rwanda
Eric paying his respects to the victims buried in the mass graves
Locals participate in gorilla conservation by entertaining hikers each morning
Manicured streets of Kigali, Rwanda
Rwandan countryside
Silverback gorilla posing for the camera
Female gorilla, contemplating
In other news, I have settled into a work routine here in Nairobi. Many days I will wake up and head to Kibera to meet up with the KDI Kenya team. Others I will work from home if I have to use internet or the computer. We have not had many days off yet – public meetings need to happen on weekends when people are home from work, so that means Saturdays and Sundays have so far been off limits for traveling.
Soccer field in Kibera
It is striking to me what a different world Kibera is – especially compared to the wealth you see in other parts of Nairobi. You enter Kibera on foot because there are not really roads – just dirt paths that are steep and uneven. When you walk in, you see row after row of small businesses – a clothing shop or a butcher, a vegetable stand or a hair braiding salon, a tailor or a knife sharpener – each set up in its own little tin-roofed shack. Further in, you can start to smell the fragrance of Kibera. If it’s a warm or sunny day, the smell can be especially strong. Sewage, sweat, and animals (including farm animals such as goats and pigs) are the main scents I can identify. Trash collects at dumping grounds along the river and is scattered along the paths. The rivers are essentially open sewers, and in many places in Kibera, the stream runs black.
Trash builds up along the river; there is no formal garbage collection system in Kibera
The extravagant wealth that you can find in other parts of Nairobi may not exist in Kibera, but you will still find well-dressed men and women, children attending school, eager entrepreneurs, and happy, friendly people. As I walk through – with my pale skin and blonde hair – children break into a sort-of song and dance, chanting “how are you” as they stomp their feet and run to shake my hand. High fives and fist pumps are huge with the kids. And if you respond to their “how are you” – if you say “I am fine, how are you?” back to them – they will often giggle and turn their head shyly. The younger children know few English words beyond that.
School children love posing for the camera
Tofu and Cucumber Salad
1 english cucumber, halved and sliced
1/2 medium sized daikon radish, peeled and julienned
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 package tofu, cubed
5 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon cold water
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon vinegar (preferably rice vinegar, but I used red wine as I had none on hand)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Combined tofu, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and a sprinkling of vinegar in a container and marinate tofu for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, chop the vegetables and combined. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining soy sauce, water, vinegar, and honey. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and refrigerate.
When the tofu is done marinating, pour some oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the tofu, making sure it is in a single layer. Let sit for a couple minutes until 1 side of the tofu has a crispy, golden edge. Stir around or flip the pieces and continue until most or all sides of each piece are crispy. Combine the warm tofu with the cold salad and mix well. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Almost Settled in Nairobi
July 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Even though I’m not exactly moved into my apartment and settled in, I thought I would post something here about my experiences so far. The internet connection is slow and intermittent, so no pictures yet, but hopefully when we move into our new apartments we will have a strong enough connection to upload a few pictures.
We’re staying in a temporary apartment right now because our actual apartment is not available until Monday. The apartment is comfortable – 3 big bedrooms, a nice living room, and a decent kitchen. Everything is furnished, and our next apartment will be also. There is even cable TV, complete with Food Network! Though apparently our next apartment will not have such luxuries.
We live in a pretty nice neighborhood and are very close to 3 huge grocery stores and two major shopping centers. There is even a fantastic natural foods store nearby! I bought an avocado at the produce market yesterday for 20 shilling, which is around 25 cents. You can bet I will be eating well here. The market had an amazing selection of fruits and veggies, including all kinds of things I have never seen before. This summer will definitely include several fun cooking adventures!
There are plenty of fantastic restaurant options, including several Indian and Ethiopian options – I am pretty excited about that. I went to check out the local gym today, since running on the streets seems nearly impossible. They charge $100/month! I’m seriously considering it, though, because it’s pretty nice and they even have a great spin studio. I should have brought my spinning shoes!
So I have my first meeting in Kibera today, the informal settlement (aka slum) that I will be working in all summer. I am excited and nervous to to see this place that I have imagined in my head for so long. I will blog more about those experiences later.
Eric and I also had a fantastic time exploring Tanzania and Rwanda during the last two weeks. I’m working on editing down close to 3000 photos, so it may be a little while before I can upload them. I managed to whittle a set of 800 down to around 400 just yesterday, though, so it might be sooner than I originally imagined.
And well… I guess that’s it for now!
Wanderlust & Food Stuff 