Rain, rain, and foody things

Hmm, Friday seems to be update day when I've not been doing much exciting stuff. So, we've been in the guest house since Saturday morning. So Saturday Emma and I spent the morning making it homely. Or colonising it as Dave Anderson put it. I also went into the Sarit centre. I can't remember why. Oh yeah, to buy tahini so I could make houmous. And then this afternoon I found they have started selling it at the Kasuku centre down the road. It's 305ksh though, so it should work out better to make my own. If I can be bothered to do it again. The blender is a pain and doesn't blend properly. I wish I had brought my hand blender. It would be soooo useful.

Anyway, Sunday... I think I generally did nothing and pottered around the house. Otherwise all week I have been at the library. Monday Hannah arrived. Woop! It's really nice to have her around again. And then James came back last night.
Apart from generally having a pretty chilled out week going to and from the library I have got drenched at least twice walking home. It's a 50 min walk, and the time I leave the library it would probably take longer to catch matatus AND I would still have to walk 10-15 minutes to get to the road that the first one goes along. So I opt to walk. The first time I got soaked this week I didn't have my umbrella with me. But luckily the rain was being nice to me, and although it did rain the whole way back it was quite a light rain really. Yesterday I had my umbrella. And it absolutely hammered it down. For about 2 hours. So there wasn't even any point in waiting til it stopped, I would have just been stranded in the dark. By the time I got home just my head, neck, and bits of my upper body were only mildly damp (the misty rain got everywhere) thanks to my umbrella shielding me. Mostly. It did leak a bit. My greatest fear was that my camera would get wet. Next week I think I'm going to wrap it in several plastic bags. Anyway, luckily Hannah & Emma were in, and Han was downstairs so I called out as I got to the front door and she went and got my kanga and flip-flops so I could get out of my soaked jeans and trainers before crossing the threshold. I had to wade through the rivers rushing (and I do mean rushing, like in torrents, if I were a small child I would have got washed away, animals stood no chance) down the roads almost up to my knees in some places. Great fun. I had a nice hot shower when I got back and all was good in the world. :) I actually felt pretty good from the walk, although I have a sore throat today so I should make sure I keep cosied up for a while.

It's raining again now, quite hard. Hannah and James went to the shops after the office shut at 4.30. :-/

So today I stayed put in the office writing up notes. Mainly because all my trousers are dirty from the mud, and all my trainers are wet from the rain. Awesome. But it was a good thing I did. While here I did some emailing about the Bristol masters. I had an email telling me I was being offered a place when I got back yesterday. So today I emailed to ask a couple of things, and the admissions lady sent me the offer letter as a pdf so I could sign it and send it back straight away for the funding. Deadline of which was today. And I'll find out by the 24th. Fingers crossed everyone please!

So i've been sat here thinking about food, Kenyan food in particular. The traditional food that one would usually eat is meat stew, ugali and sukuma wiki. Sadly I don't think I can make any of it when I get back to the UK as Sukuma is, well, supposedly a kale, but it's not like kale at all, it's like a cross between that and spinach. And it's pretty good when it's cooked well. Even better is sudja (sp) which is similar again, but I think it's like a wild leafy green which I'm not sure you get down in this part of the country, which they seem to cook in milk and it is TAST-EY. Noms. Sukuma wiki is made by frying the sukuma with stuff like tomato and onion and seasoned. It usually comes in a 'soup' so I think they might add some water to it as well. Either that or they just cook it in the soup from the meat stew, which is usually quite tasty in itself. Beef I think is the norm. And you get funny looks if you leave the gristle and fatty bits. Ugali, as I'm sure I've already mentioned, is made with cornmeal I believe. I think they kinda mix it in with water and it suddenly becomes this thick block of white stuff - Ugali. It's usually in such a stodgey block that you cut a large chunk off to put on your plate. Then you use your fingers to mush it into a spoon (some people say that you're just supposed to grab a bit, put your thumb in it to make a scoop, and scoop up the stew or whatever, but it seems to make it taste better if you mush it about a bit, and have a little pile of salt to dip it into) which you then use to scoop up the food or pick it up using the ugali as a kind of pincer. Anyway, I don't usually like ugali but I'm craving it a bit lately. I might have to go to the museum where their cafe does cheap local food and it's quite tasty.

Anyway, enough of the food talk, I'm getting hungry. Tonight we're making a big communal meal. Pasta I think, but I'm trying not to eat wheat so I bought a potato so if I feel like being good I can just have the veg with a jacket potato. ooh, or maybe mash. mmmmmm. Mashed potato. ooh, now there's a good idea.

So, love to all. Hope everyone is keeping well. xxx