Our Kenyan Family

The Kenyans who sustained us at Moi

As some of you know, we haven't really been cooking since we got here to Kenya.  When we first arrived the house didn't have a stove or a refrigerator, and the kitchen was incredibly gross.  So we took our meals across the street at the Moi University Guest House.  To be blunt, this place is a bit depressing, with ragged carpet, beat up chairs, and some other basic problems.  Eventually, we did get a stove and a refrigerator, but by that time we had gotten used to eating at the guest house with what we considered to be our Kenyan family.  The main thing was the social outlet for both Evan and I, particularly the evening meal.  Another reason we never started cooking was that there isn't a market here with a refrigerator section with quality meats, and the idea of cooking a chicken that has been hanging in a window all day just didn't appeal to me.  The point here, though, is that we were very lucky here and hooked up with Kenyans who ate with us nearly every day, and led to some incredibly interesting and lively discussions, about politics, art, film, family, dating, marriage, wife beating, husband beating, child raising, education, technology.... You name it, there isn't much we haven't talked about.  Here are some pictures to give you a flavor of this part of our lives here in Kenya.

Here is the view of the guest house, this is what we see pretty much every morning and every evening.  This is on the first really sunny morning (May 9) that we have seen in a while. We don't eat lunch here, only breakfast and dinner.  We would have given up breakfast, instead fixing our own, but its fun starting the day with our family.

Close up view of the front.

The front door.  I have to be blunt, the food is not that great, but for me to cook, given our resources, would have been more trouble than it was worth.  And so, this is where we eat....

This is looking down the hall towards the rooms.  It's not the best environment, I won't lie to you.

This is the foyer.  The building was intended to be the home for the DVC (deputy vice chancellor) when Moi opened in 1978, but he now lives in town, as do most of the faculty.  A lot of the plans for Moi included building an entire community, but those plans never quite worked out, and most of the faculty and staff moved away.  And many, though not all, of the visitors to the university stay in town.  I wanted to live on campus, because it just made more sense for us to be here.  I think it was the right call.  In the foyer we typically find the security guards getting ready to take a nap in the evening when we finally leave after solving the problems of the world.  On rainy nights, of which there have been plenty, you couldn't PAY them enough to sit out in the little guard shack.

This is the kitchen.  Sometimes at night when we are waiting for our food, you can hear a cat meowing...  Through the door there is basically an open area, where cats hang out waiting for scraps.  Again, it isn't the best of food, a whole lot of rice, beans, beef (with the occasional bones... my teeth are going to need some serious work when I get back), chicken sometimes.  We are lucky, though, because my understanding is that before we came, they never served meals on the weekends, and basically served beans every night.  The coming of the two mzungus bumped up the menu a bit.

And here is the basic family.  You recognize Evan and I, I believe.  The woman in the front is Faith, the other Fulbrighter who is a US citizen but born and raised in Kenya.  To her right is Gerald, the engineer, who eats so fast he makes our heads spin.  To his right is Kaka, the patriarch of the group.  He has been here for about seven years, living in one of the little servants quarters.  He teaches film and media studies, and has been such a riot.  On his right is Rachel, who teaches German.  She only comes in for a couple of days a week.  There is another fellow, Immanuel, who teaches French, and also comes in for a couple of days a week.  The regulars... well, you can say we have all gotten to know each other well!

Here's Evan, doing what he does best, which is tweeting.  We got there early.

That's Wesley, who cooks in the evenings, taking turns with Charity, the lady who also does our laundry and cleans house for us.  Wesley is a nice guy, but cooking... well, he has trouble making rice, if that gives you any indication.

Another view of the family.

Another view of the happy family.

A view down our street on the sunny morning.

A view looking the opposite direction.

A view of our house.  It is much greener here during the wet season.

Another view of the house.  We have a huge leak in the roof, and there is something living in the attic, we have no idea what.  It may be a cat...

This has become Evan's spot, he has everything at hand: PSP, phone, computer... It's like he is on the bridge of the Enterprise or something.

A view of our patio.  It has been raining so much we really haven't used it in the past month.  Plus, don't want to gross anybody out, but we have had flea problems back there because of the neighbor's dogs.

The view from the patio.  It's nice to sit here with a Tusker and relax.  So, that's our Kenyan family!