Week 1 is done

In case you haven't checked, please refer to our other blog: www.grainofriceproject.blogspot.com .  Ashley and I are posted more details there about how things are going with our business venture.  We have finished four days of actual working time with our group.  Things seem to be going pretty well.  People are arriving only about 30 minutes late (a huge miracle), and we've gotten pretty much accomplished I think. We have a lot of half started projects because it's easier for Tall to cut out lots of patterns of purses at one time and then do all the sewing at once.  The cutting part is something Ashley and I are actually able to help with.  We weren't sure at first what our part would be.  I cut a bit of leather today for the bracelets, but mostly we are professional paper bead rollers now.  It's tedious work but it needs to be done.  It's a little bit crazy to me that it can literally take an entire day to make a decent amount of beads before you are actually able to string them into a bracelet and in turn they are only selling their paper bead necklaces for 100-150 shillings or $1.50-$2.00.  We are trying to pay people for their labor and for what they make.  We actually paid them a bit more than what they asked with the hope that we can sell things for more in the U.S.  We have learned a lot more about everyone in the group each day.  Both women from Kibera are struggling to send their kids to school and pay for food to eat, so having the opportunity to work is a help to them.  Yesterday they told us how happy they were that we read the Bible together every morning and that we love Jesus.  They are encouraged to see the Bible out when they come in the house.  Emily said that if she forgets to pray at night her kids wake her up and insist that they must pray before sleeping.

Yesterday I went with Edwin in the afternoon to pick up his great uncle from the airport.  When we arrived there was a huge group of people standing in one of the parking lots.  When we pulled in we learned it was a group that had come to welcome back Prophet  , who had been in Columbia preaching.  Edwin tells me that this man is all about preaching repentance and turning to God.  He prophesied about the earthquake in Haiti before it happened and about the recent aviation disasters (Ghana, Nigeria, etc.) that have been happening.  People had come from Nakuru (many hours away) to greet him.  They were all dressed up in suits and dresses.  I saw a few peopl wearing shirts that said, "Pastor prayed for me, and now I am HIV negative."  What really moved me though was the way people were singing and worshipping God, not the prophet, right there in the airport parking lot.  Everyone was so joyful and seemed so drawn into God's presense that I started crying.  It's hard to explain but it was just a moving experience being there in the car watching. 

Last night we went out to watch the Portugal/Czech Republic          soccer match.  We found a nice place in Karen to watch it live.  This is us above: Ashley, Tall, Edwin, and me

Me rolling the beads

Ash and I dipping the beads in varnish to seal them

Wednesday, Pamela (one of the women) went to varnish the beads and hung them on the clothesline outside the house.  They dripped all over two shirts on the clothesline of the 2nd story of our building...oops!  We felt really bad and I tried washing the shirt out to fix it.  We even went knocking on their doors offering them shillings to replace the clothing, but no one answered.  We decided today to find a new location to hang them.

We Are Here

Yes, we have arrived.  Thanks for your prayers.  We are doing well, and have had lots of typical Kenyan days so far.  Edwin picked me up at the airport on Thursday night.  On our drive home someone had a flat tire and was changing it on the side of the road.  It was about 11:30 p.m., which is an extremely dangerous time to break down.  Edwin seemed pretty worried for the man and kept saying, "I hope he's going to be all right."  The road we were on was the road to the airport...so there's a decent amount of cars passing by that time of the night, but it can still be common for thugs to be hiding in the trees and jump out and attack people.  So I suggested that perhaps we should go back and help the man.  After all there is safety in numbers, and it seemed like the Jesus thing to do.  So we turned around and drove up behind him with our blinkers on.  Edwin was planning to just stay in the car and keep the lights on so that the man could see better while he was fixing the tire.  But he was really struggling and didn't seem to know exactly what to do.  So Edwin got out to help him.  And right before that he reached under his seat and said, "Here, take this in case something happens."  He proceeds to hand me a panga...or in English, a large machete.  So there I am sitting in the car, with the doors locked holding a weapon, standing guard.  Of course I looked ridiculous, and I couldn't help but laugh, until a serious thought came over me--what would I actually do if someone came?  I can't imagine that I'd really start whacking someone with a machete!  No worries though.  Edwin changed the tire in a snap, and we were on our way.

Yesterday we picked up Ashley from the airport and met up with Tall.  Where we're staying we have some modern anemities that I'm not used to in Kenya.  There is a fridge, freezer, t.v., couches, and a real mattress for Ash and I to sleep on.  The space is small and simple, but clean and safe--big blessing.  I noticed today that there's a small slum behind the apartment building where we are.  It's small unlike Kibera, and you might actually be able to take a car through it.  Clearly there's never been too many white people in this part of othe city, so the kids all seem a bit suprised to see us.

We spent the morning grocery shopping, cooking pancakes, and discussing what exactly we're going to be doing while we're here.  I guess I haven't really filled a lot of you in on this.  The plan is to work alongside some people we know here in helping create employment opportunities.  These people already have a skill set (craftmaking), but they don't really have a way to market what they make.  So we're hoping to find a way.  Neither Ashley or I are business people...we're people persons, we like Kenya, and we are willing to walk around the slums.  Interesting skill set.  So after talking with Tall, it became clear that we really needed to make a trip to Kibera to talk with the women about our plans.  Honestly, we weren't even sure who was definitely in with working with us.  We've tried to coordinate this all from the U.S. before coming.  But really, can you truly plan out much in Kenya?  So we ventured off to Kibera to figure things out.  Edwin is recovering from malaria, typhoid, and parasites (diseases seem to come in bunches here), and thus was not feeling that well.  So he stayed home to rest. 

We had our first matatu ride of the day.  Pretty standard--lots of bumpy roads, hitting our heads frequently, traffic, etc.  We walked forever far to get where we needed to be in Kibera.  Tall isn't from there, and we learned later that he wasn't aware of a shorter route.  I wouldn't expect him to be either...I mean I'm impressed he can manuever us around there at all.  I'm pleased to say that I didn't feel alarmed really at being there.  There were the standard kids yelling out, "How are you? How are you?"  in their sing-song chanting voices.  At one point I decided to joke around by dramatically saying, "Ni me choka," meaning, "I'm tired."  (which I was after all the jet lag).  This boy started cracking up laughing at my response.  They're not used to hearing mzungus say full sentence swahili responses.

Eventually we arrived at Pamela's house.  She had a whole table full of things she's already been making for us: bags woven from plastic bags, beaded necklaces, and more.  Obviously she's been very busy.  Emily came too.  Both of these women are people we met last summer when we met with a group of women in Kibera.  They were both happy to see us, and Ashley too, since they haven't seen her since last July.  They gave us big smiles and hugs.  We sat down to chat with Tall translating.  It's always a bit awkward at first because I never quite know what we're going to say or how people feel about having some white girls march into their houses.  But it went really well.  We basically decided that we will be meeting up every day at Edwin's.  We would rather meet in Kibera but don't feel like it's a safe place for Ash and I to be hanging out in every day.  Emily was the first to agree that it wasn't a good idea for us because people would start noticing our continual presense and then you never know what might happens.  We will be paying for their transportation costs of coming and paying a small fee for just showing up for the day.  And then we'll pay them for the labor of each item that they make.  Tall and Ash decided we need to be very strict about only paying people the daily fee if they arrive on time, otherwise they probably won't.  Emily was the first person to be very excited.  She started smiling and saying that she didn't care if she had to travel each day.  She just really wanted to work.  Pamela seemed a little reluctant to have to leave Kibera so often, but eventually she agreed.  She might not come everyday, but she'll be able to committ to several days a week.  They decided together that they would prefer to be payed every 2 weeks so that they have a larger sum of money to work with to pay for food and other expenses.  Please pray with us as we start this.  There is so much to consider and we don't really know what we're doing yet.  But we pray that God would give us direction and bless this venture.

We are considering the idea of adding up to 2 more people to our group, but we're going to see how things go the first 2 weeks.  I know 3 people doesn't seem like much.  But I know that if this works out, it will be a great blessing for these 3 people that struggle to make ends meet.  Besides, we aren't really sure if we can fit anymore people in Edwin's house.  The living room is small and is going to be very cramped with so many people.  We considered renting another space to work, but that can be complicated with landlords, and leases and city council members wanting you to pay money for having a business.  We are hoping to work really hard the next 2 weeks and get lots of things made so that Tall came take them to a Masai market in July and try to sell stuff.  Tall brought us all kinds of samples of wallets and clutches that he has been making.  He has really good ideas because they are unlike anything else I've seen here.  The plan is to go shopping for materials that we need on Monday and then start working on Tuesday. 

We got to finish out the Kibera afternoon by visiting Popo and Rodgers.  They were having dance practice with their dance team Vina.  We had lots of fun joining in with them.

Today we went to church at Karen Vineyard.  It's a very multicultural church with a mix of mzungus (mostly Europeans, although the guy speaking today was a New Zealander) and Kenyans.  I like this church a lot because it's familiar to the way church is at home.  Sometimes I wonder though if I'm missing out a bit on the Kenyan culture because there isn't much dancing and clapping and the volume level of a typical Kenyan church.  I can still hear a church service going on somewhere in the neighboorhood from inside this cyber cafe where I am typing.  The keys stick on this computer, and it takes several seconds for the computer to respond when you try to type several words at once or backspace, but at least the power is on.  We were trying to get the modem ready to have the internet at our house.  But it's Sunday and where we stay there are very few shops selling Orange (the internet company) minutes to top up (add minutes) to the modem.  Actualy they have Orange minutes but they don't have them in as large amounts as we need for the internet to work because we want to pay for a whole month.  Most people can't afford this service, so it's not a widely sold thing where we live. 

More International Food and Farewells

In case you thought we gave up on the international cooking, we didn't.  It's only that I'm quite terrible about keeping up with blogging.  The dish above is Pav Bhaji, which is an Indian dish.  I'm a big fan, except that my roommate and I decided upon making it a second time that we had to get rid of the cauliflower and substitute it with potatoes.  I'll eat just about anything, but cooked cauliflower isn't something that tops my list of favorite foods.  We finally made a trip to this huge international grocery store in Cincinnati and were able to get some spices needed for all these international recipes.  Who knew there could be so many differrent types of masalas?  Unfortunately, not thinking, I decided to try a huge spoonful of the garam masala on some rice I'd made.  Can we say spicy???  Makes sense, seeing as one of the ingredients is mace.  Of course you foodies out there probably know all about masalas, but I'm a newbie...so let's just say I was instantly running for a glass of water after taking a bite.

 We decided to have an international food potluck just for an excuse to cook some more.  We had all sorts of African, Indian, and European dishes.  Check out our feast:

 And I never posted pictures of us going to the World Culture Festival at the university here.  Don't you love our authentic Kenyan garb?

And speaking of Kenya, I am traveling there this week.  I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to be blogging...perhaps sometimes on this blog and definitely on the other one: www.grainofriceproject.blogspot.com
Keep us and our friends there in prayer: for safety, health, and purpose.  Farewell until I reach Kenya.  Kwaheri!

Chesterton Market

Today was the first week setting up at the Chesterton European Market to sell some of our goods from Kenya.  This was a trial run for me because I wasn't sure how things would go.  I was very fortunate to have Kim's help today, which was very necessary for moving the heavy tables and all the many items out of my car.  God blessed us with a great day.  I met a lot of people and felt really passionate getting to share stories of Kenya with them.  Ashley and I are working on trying to do more to promote Tall and the women of Kibera in selling their handmade goods.  Today was a step in that direction.  We are calling this endeavor the Grain of Rice Project.  We've started another blog site to specifically focus on this project.  You can check it out at www.grainofriceproject.blogspot.com 

The Best Yet

Yesterday Aquila prepared this amazing Moraccan dish.  I had already went out for dinner but I snuck a few spoonfuls of it when I got home because it looked so good.  I didn't look at the recipe, so I'm not entirely sure what's in it besides chickpeas and tumeric.  I had it for lunch and dinner because it has been my favorite dish from the recipe book thus far.
By the way, I lied about the ginger beer...I said it was ok, but that's entirely not true.  The more I tried it the worse it became.  I think our friend Regina described it best when she said it tasted like Pine Sol.  That is a precisely correct comparison.  I managed to drink an entire glass somehow.  The rest is still in the fridge.  Aquila only made it through a few sips.  We thought about tricking our friends into thinking it was great, but that seems too mean.  It reminds me a lot of this soda in Kenya called Stoney, which is a little like ginger ale to the extreme.

The Recipes Continue

Don't worry--we haven't given up on cooking the street food.  It's only that I can't keep up with blogging.  I actually forgot to photograph the last 2 dishes I made.  Perhaps I purposefully forgot during my kashata disaster.  Kashata is a dessert with coconut, peanuts, and sugar, which are then rolled into balls.  I remember seeing it frequently sold in Kibera, always sitting in plastic containers with blue lids.  I'm fairly certain that it was typically rolled in sesame seeds too (although my recipe didn't call for any).  I don't know why, but I never actually tried kashata in Kenya, which is unfortunate seeing as mine didn't turn out at all. The recipe tells you to cook the sugar and then add the other ingredients.  And then magically the whole mixture is supposed to become sticky and roll into a ball.  Perhaps my phone ringing in the middle of my attempt threw the whole thing off.  Let's just say that mine looked merely like crumbs.  My friends decided to buy ice cream and use it as sprinkles on top...a very nice Valentine treat indeed, although not very African.  At least it got eaten.  We hate wasting food in my house (something about seeing people in Kenyan who often didn't have anything to eat will do that to a person), and so we get creative about finding ways to finish eating whatever we fix.

The next dish I made was a lentil stew from Ethiopia.  This one actually turned out nicely.  Basically it was jut lentils with nutmeg, garlic, and some other spices.  It was a basic dish, nothing fancy about it, but good just the same.  There were no disasters in my attempt.

Last night Aquila and I attempted making ginger beer, which is not alcoholic at all but very potent indeed.  We had to grate 1/2 cup of ginger, which by the way is soooo much, in case you've never grated ginger before.  Our hands were hurting by the end.  Then we poured hot water over the ginger and let it sit all night before adding sugar, lemon juice, and cloves this morning.  We had to dilute the mixture with more water and more sugar because the ginger taste was over powering.  The drink isn't exactly bad but it's so strong.  I told Aquila we won't be fixing this for any get togethers!  i only had a few sips, and now it's sitting in the fridge until I can handle a few more sips. 

I am feeling really blessed to be able to try so many new foods.  We have created our own little international kitchen, right here in the Midwest.  Hope you all are having a blessed week.  Enjoy the sunshine that God has given us today.

Ministry in Chicago and Crafting with Friends

Yesterday was a relaxing afternoon of making some Valentine's crafts.  My friends and I are obsessed with Pinterest (what girl isn't?), so most of our inspiration came from that site.  My basement became filled with lots of people and lots of paper hearts.

On Saturday I went with some friends to help with a homeless ministry in Chicago.  Basically a group of people, mostly college students get together every Saturday evening to walk the streets of downtown Chicago.  They bring sandwiches to people living on the streets.  Once we arrived we split into small groups.  Micah, Kelsey, and I walked along State Street.  There was another group passing out food in a nearby location, so we didn't meet that many people, although we did find a few.  Micah had the idea of bringing hot chocolate along to offer to people since it was so cold.  So there we were...three people and three thermoses full of hot chocolate.  We got a lot of stares from other shoppers who were wondering just why we were walking along with thermoses (that were very 70's looking by the way).  The first guy we met seemed like he was okay with talking to us at first.  After we introduced ourselves he asked us about our jobs and lives.  We gave him hot chocolate and then Micah asked if he'd like us to pray with him.  Now I must say we were never very pushy about praying with people.  The idea was to be kind and get to know these people week after week to eventually build up a relationship with them.  Micah has already done this with several people.  Unfortunately the man was really not happy when Micah started asking about prayer.  He kept saying, "I pray with my life."  And he got really angry even though none of us was arguing about anything.  Then he told us it was the worst hot chocolate he'd ever tasted and threw it all over the sidewalk.  I wasn't offended by this.  After all, I'm sure this man has been through a lot, and I'd probably be very bitter about living on the streets.  But I feel sad that we probably made his day worse. 

Our other encounters with people were much more positive.  People were pretty friendly and happy to speak with us.  One man smiled a lot and was extremely positive.  He was a great encouragement to me and reminded me about having a positive attitude no matter what we're going through.  He said that it wasn't really that cold out compared to what it could be. 

I, on the other hand, thought it was extremely cold.  My hands started getting cold in the first 30 minutes of walking.  I wasn't that worried until they started going numb a while later and then I started experiencing stabbing pain in my hands.  I have really poor circulation, and even wearing gloves was not helping.  At that point I pretty much couldn't think anymore because I was so focused on my hands and how much pain they were in.  It was nearly time to meet back up with the whole group for a Bible study, and so I just kept walking straight to the meeting point (which was inside), ignoring everything else around me.  All I could think about was getting inside.  Here I was, unable to make it 2 hours in the cold, and yet these people we met were sleeping on the streets overnight.  I know that I would never be able to make it, and therefore I am humbled at how difficult life must be for them. 

The Bible study consisted of all the volunteers plus about 5-7 homeless men.  The message was about building a caring community and support system amongst each other.  I won't disclose the location where we met, but it was in a public place, and I'm quite impressed that no one minds all those people meeting there with thermoses and left over sandwiches and bags of clothes, etc.  It truly is a blessing to all get to come together in a warm place.

Let us be thankful tonight if we have warm houses to sleep in.  God is good my friends.

Here are the crafting pics:

Meat or Fruit?

It's never a good sign when your dessert dish looks like fried chicken.  I didn't think fried food could be messed up so easily.  Let me explain.  Today I ventured into trying to cook fried mango fritters, which are suppposedly from Tanzania according to the cookbook.  However, Kenyans, who don't live all that far from Tanzania, have never heard of this.  I think someone made it up.  That should have been my first warning sign.  Anyway, I retract my previous statement that all the recipes in the book are easy, especially now that I've been glancing through the Asian section.  I think I'm going to have to call for back up assistance with those dishes because they have lots of ingredients and require yeast...something that gives me trouble.  I tried making homemade bread a few weeks ago, and it would never rise correctly.  it was the most dense loaf of bread ever.  I told Aquila she wasn't allowed to offer it to any of our guests.

The mango recipe should have been easy though.  It's just breaded fruit.  How hard can it be?  I think something's wrong with the recipe because the batter was sticky and goupy.  I even tried it twice with no improvement.  It was all I could do to get a little breading to stick to the mango.  And after I fried them it looked like a plate of chicken fingers staring back at me.  I was ready to get out the honey mustard sauce.

The other significant problem is that I think it's nearly impossible to find a quality mango in this country.  They don't exist (except for one or two rare times I've bought them).  Mostly I've completely given up on trying to buy them.  There's something wrong when the fruit is soft and "ripe" and yet still green colored.  I didn't like mangoes at all until I went to Kenya, and that's because all the ones I had here were never ripe.  I actually initially thought they were kind of sour.  Isn't sad that in America I think the frozen mangoes taste better than fresh ones?  The ones I bought today I had to completely dissect to cut out some strange brown marks in the middle.  I thought it was rotten, but it didn't taste like it. 

The verdict: just eat a regular mango....in Kenya or another country that grows them.  And seriously, don't fry them. 

A Nicaraguan Treat

So my street food cookbook has become popular, and now my roommate Aquila is into the idea of helping make some of the dishes.  I'm rather grateful because that means we get to eat twice as much great food.  Seriously, if you came into our house on any given night of the week, you'd think you weren't in America or that at least one of us was from another country.  I can't remember the last American thing I've cooked.  Wait, that's not totally true because on Sunday I made Skyline dip (a Cincinnati tradition) for a Super Bowl party.  Although I'd hardly count that as cooking because all you do is open cans and boxes and throw everything together.  I'm not really into that box kind of "cooking," but sometimes you need small reminders of home.

Anyway, Aquila made this Nicaraguan dish called Gallo Pinto.  We're all about improvising in this house, so she used chick peas instead of pinto beans.  But the results were still great.  It's mainly a rice dish with cilantro, chili powder, and garlic topped with tomatoes and sour cream.  I'm sold on the idea.  And it's easy, which is even better.  That seems to be the trend with this book that things only take a few ingredients and a few steps. 

I have an entire grocery list ready with ingredients just for recipes in this book.  I think I would be cooking something everyday if only I had a stocked refrigerator! 

Mandazi Pics

Here are the pictures from my mandazi making. 

Mandazi!!

It's amazing how a little cooking can be so completely relaxing for me (thank you Jesus that cooking is enjoyable to me!).  It has been a bit of a hectic day...one can always tell the state of my life by examining my purse.  When everything is organized and in it's place, one can assume that I'm balancing my time quite well and feeling good.  And then there's days like today, when the state of my purse goes beyond even Mary Poppins' carpet bag.  My friend Kelsey was trying to help me find my camera in my purse, but she became overwhelmed by the amount of stuff she was looking through.  She pulled out a few items before politely suggesting that maybe I should wash the flour off my hands and attempt to dig through everything to find it.  I literally dumped everything out and looked multiple times before retrieving it.  But I am now totally calm and at peace after my adventure preparing recipe #2 from the street food extravaganza book.  I chose to make mandazi, which is a familiar favorite from Kenya.  I first learned about mandazi back in 2008 from my friend Lyonne, who would prepare batches of it at the house where I was staying in Nairobi.  While I learned the Lyonne version, I never mastered the actual street vendor mandazi taste because the recipes were slightly different.  Clearly I've spent 4 years completely missing out on the true mandazi experience--until now. 

Mandazi is basically just fried dough: flour, sugar, baking powder, and a few spices, mixed together, rolled out and cut into triangles.  Then you fry them up in good old oil, and WaLa... you have mandazi.  It's less sweet than our sugary American donuts and funnel cakes but good just the same for it's simplicity.  There's no extra icing or powdered sugar involved.  One time I made the Lyonne version for my church during a presentation I gave about Kenya.  Much to my dismay, my mom insisted on dumping cinnamon and sugar all over the top of them to give them more taste.  Meanwhile I nearly had a meltdown as I complained that she was ruining their authenticness.  (By the way I love my mom dearly, and I'm basically a hypocrite because I've come to love smearing jam all over my chapati...not exactly the way Kenyans eat them!). 

The whole endeavor was short and sweet.  I got all excited and started jumping up and down as the mandazi fried in the pan.  They turned out pretty much like the real thing, I think.  The only slight difference is that we're on a bit of a health kick at our house, so we're using white whole wheat flour these days (I figure Kenyans are practical and use what they have, so I cannot bother myself with making a trip to the store for white flour).  So they were very brown looking mandazi but nice and fluffy and delicious all the same.  It takes me right back to those Sunday mornings last summer when Rachel and I would leave our apartment early in the morning to spend time doing devotions with the boys from the juvenile.  We never made time for breakfast at home, so we'd grab some mandazi from the street vendor near Kibera before jumping on the bus.  I can perfectly picture the lady cooking the mandazi, flipping each one as the oil sizzled.  Ahhh, yes...

I will post pictures of my mandazi goodness soon because at the present moment I have left my camera cord in the computer at work--typical.  So in the meantime, perhaps I should go clean out my purse!

The World of Street Food

I realized recently that I haven't blogged in months, and I rather miss it.  It's become a habit for me to blog when I'm in other countries.  But then I come home, get back into somewhat of a routine, and unconsciously start to think that my life isn't interesting enough to write about anymore.  I can tell I'm really out of practice with blogging because I have now deleted and retyped the last 3 sentences multiple times, almost as though I'm self conscious about what I'm going to say.  I would never do that in Kenya.  The words just seem to flow off of my hands there, and I can't type fast enough--literally: I never know when the power might go off, so I really have to type fast.  Anyway, I've been reading the book Julie and Julia for my book club group this month, and it has created all sorts of inspiration in my life.  I'm not even sure how much I like the book, but I do like how it's reminding me of things that I love in my life.  The book is all about how Julie Powell blogs about her year of cooking through Julia Child's cookbook.  Reading the book reminded me of how much I missed blogging.  And then I was at a fair trade store the other day, and I felt drawn to this cookbook I've been looking at for months.  It's called The World of Street Food and is full of global recipes from every continent.  I recognized several of the dishes, including two from Kenya, and one from China.  Nearly everytime I'm at the fair trade store I want to buy it, but I feel guilty purchasing something for myself.  But this time between the Julie/Julia book and me missing being able to eat as much street food as I want, it seemed necessary.  Besides, my roommate and I are on this cooking new things (and not from a box) kick, and so it seemed to fit right in.  And then I thought, hmmm....I should start trying some of these recipes and then blog about them.  Ok, I know it totally sounds totally cheesy like I'm copying right from the Julie/Julia book, but really it's not that.  I just feel this need to be adding some cultural experiences into my life and this happens to fit in.  And I feel like I can justify buying the cookbook if I actually use it.

So on that note, I tried my first recipe from the cookbook.  I basically just flipped through and found something easy that didn't require another trip to the grocery store (I am striving for some simplicity in my life).  Thus, I selected the Kalawule (spicy fried bananas), which is a dish from Ghana.  And can I just say that I hope all the recipes are this easy.  Basically it's just pieces of bananas chopped up and coated in a chili powder/ginger/pepper mixture and then they're fried.  I cheated with the oil because you are supposed to use palm or peanut oil.  We had neither, so I used coconut oil...can one really be troubled over what kind of oil they are using?  (I'm all about improvising).  It only took about 5 minutes to make, and everyone at my house agreed it was delicious.  i'm not one for overly spicy food, but this had the perfect amount of kick to it.  I didn't even need a glass of water.  I would make these again just because.  My roommate even added the recipe to her recipe box, so I guess that's a sign that it's a must make again treat.

It felt really good to be making something African.  I really miss chapati, samosa, and all that other Kenyan street food goodness.  But I can say that we've been keeping the Kenyan spirit alive in my house.  Chai is regularly cooked here several times a week and my Kenyan spices (Royco) are frequently thrown into dishes (which in turn prompts lots of teachers to ask me what I'm eating while I'm in the teacher's lounge at lunch).   And my roommate insists that we must cook pilau soon. It is my hope to feel a little bit Kenyan always, even when I'm over here in America. 

Stay tuned for more international cooking soon...I hope!