Thanksgiving in Kisumu!

Who knew that pumpkins actually exist out of cans? 

The best compliment : )

Kisumu and Masai Mara Safari

It's been a busy few weeks here in Kenya! Right now, I'm in the middle of conducting research on meat-borne parasites in slaughterhouses and butcheries. I've been visiting various slaughterhouses and conducting surveys with the flayers and stakeholders there about their knowledge of parasites. It's been an interesting experience -- I had to go get gum boots, and borrow a dustcoat, so I didn't get bits and pieces all over me. Here's an example of what I've been seeing:

And here's a picture of me, conducting some research:

I think yellow dustcoats and too-small veterinary hats are really my thing.

The whole experience has been eye-opening, certainly. But don't worry -- I enjoyed a beef stew without any hesitation this weekend. My carnivorous tendencies are still intact.

Kisumu is a wonderful place. It's cleaner than Nairobi, it's right near Lake Victoria, the people are nice. We've met some great friends here and have definitely enjoyed exploring the nightlife scene with them.

We claimed the bar at Octopus Bottoms-Up club... these are my roommates, one other American student, one Swedish NGO worker, two Brits, and one random Kenyan

We put on our stunner shades for a night on the town!

This past weekend, we took a trip to the Masai Mara, a wildlife reserve about 5 hours away. After an extraordinarily bumpy car ride which left me with various bruises and lumps, we arrived at the breathtakingly gorgeous open plains. We saw four of the Big Five, the safari-goer's ultimate "animals to see" list. Here are some pictures:

A herd of elephants crossed the road right in front of us. Reminded me of the marching elephants in Jungle Book : )

Fact: every baby animal is cute. Especially elephants

A rhino crossing the road! It is extremely rare to see a rhino, and especially this close.

Derp

My very favorite animal: The Thompson gazelle. Not the rarest animal, or the fiercest, but there's something so graceful and gentle about these lovely creatures. My friend described them as "dogs with horns" because they wag their little gazelle tails all the time!

Not the smartest animal on the savanna

Three cheetahs! Also very rare to see. 

As we were leaving, the cheetahs began to stalk a nearby herd of animals. Super cool!

It was a cool day, so the hippos came out of the water onto the riverbank.

What a gorgeous creature. We were maybe 30 feet away from this male lion

Cats are cats, no matter how big. Sleepy lion

A gorgeous place, truly.

An American's Kenyan Kitchen

Today I'm going to take you on an educational tour of an American's kitchen in Kenya. It's taken a few days to settle in, but now that we've secured a healthy supply of ramen noodles and discovered that our gas oven is, in fact, electric, this kitchen's looking pretty darn homey.

Well, some things are the same no matter what continent you're on. Dishes on dishes on dishes!

An assortment of high-end drinks and the cheapest liquor that shillings can buy. College alcoholism is like a box of chocolates; you never know if you're going to get the shitty whiskey or the classy vodka. A good mixer is your best investment. 

Leftovers from last night's milkshakes. Oh, don't touch the metal part of the blender. It'll electrocute you. Wondering how I learned that? Ask my tingling fingertips. 

Right now, you may be wondering, "Why do you have TWO huge jars of peanut butter? And why are they both crunchy?" If you even have to ask that question, you are obviously too old to remember college. 

The girls' side of the cabinet: Popcorn, crackers, ramen, oatmeal, nutella

The boys' side of the cabinet: Ramen, oatmeal, boxed milk (yes, boxed milk that apparently you don't have to refrigerate -- or do you?), cereal, rice

The deli drawer of the fridge. Right now, you may be also be wondering, "Why do you have FOUR different packages of cheese? Who needs that much cheese?" To that, I would answer, "Because we used up two of the other kinds for dinner last night, and we're heading to the store to restock because four cheeses is never quite enough."

I wonder whose corner of the kitchen counter this is? Whoever it is, I think we'd be great friends.

This goes against every go-green eco-friendly save-the-whales campaign I've ever heard... but us poor mzungus in Kenya just can't handle the tap water! And the fancy water pump is pretty fun to use, too. 

A Stroll Through My Nairobi Neighborhood

I thought I'd take you all on a nice leisurely journey through Jamhuri, my neighborhood in Nairobi. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Won't you be mine?

Oh, looks like a pretty usual day in Jamhuri. Rocky, unpaved roads, tons of tiny kiosks, clothes hanging off balconies... 

And don't forget about the chickens. They make excellent neighbors, really. 

Nairobians have this THING about washing their cars. My homestay mother washes her car every single morning. Unfortunately, because of the dirt roads, it comes home covered in dust every day. Futile or fastidious? I'll let you decide. This doesn't look much like your Highlands Ranch Waterworks, does it?

There are about three salons per half-mile of road here in Nairobi. To guesstimate, I think there's probably one salon per 79 residents. Women visit the salon once a week to get a new weave or style their hair. Men visit the barber- kinyozi - which often doubles as a phone-charging station because the building needs electrical outlets to power the razors. 

In Nairobi, there are no addresses. My school, for example, is "off Ole Odoume Road near the hill." The only way I could direct taxis to my house was to tell them, "Turn at the green kiosk!" After some confusion, I did figure out that green is surprising hard to see in the dark, and found that the Alvaro kiosk down the street was more directionally useful.

See? Spankin-clean cars. I could eat my breakfast off these cars. 

And a lovely rose outside my house : )