Middle School Banquet 09

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This year's banquet again had delicious Indian food, round tables, and strings of lights. We all stuffed ourselves and had a fabulous time.

More Grocery Adventures

I'm pretty decent at food shopping these days, though a trip to the vegetable stand and Nakumatt still holds its challenges. I know and plan for it to be a multi-hour commitment, between driving there, greeting the stand owner, finding out whether she has what I need and if not if she knows anyone who does, then driving over the the shopping center, experiencing the world of Nakumatt, bringing the groceries home, then cleaning/soaking/deboning/repackaging the appropriate parts. The store is constantly being reorganized- today I saw beer next to Tom Yum sauce- so there's not much predictability in product location. Add that to the mental gymnastics of planning a week's worth of meals from scratch, translating that into quantities of staple ingredients (how much flour do I need to make tortillas, ginger cookies, that one chicken dish, dinner rolls, and banana bread this week?), and then being familiar enough with the recipes that I can adjust/substitute/recover when one or more ingredients is inevitably AWOL... On the plus side, I don't find myself haggling over prices anymore; I know what's reasonable to pay, I have a relationship with the people I regularly purchase from, and they quote me the real price right off.

But today I had a new mission: bread crumbs. I decided to bravely try to make Chicken Parmigiana from scratch for supper tonight, on the hope that it would turn out well and be a meal I can predictably serve to guests. I wanted some these pre-packaged bread crumbs that are great for coating chicken. I know they exist. I have some in my freezer. How they got there I couldn't tell you, but they are good and useful. The packaging looks cheap enough that I suspect they came from Nakumatt and are actually produced in the store, increasing my chances of finding them. But I had never bought them nor seen them on the shelves. Despite these obstacles, I decided to venture forth with hope and not despair: I put bread crumbs on my list.

I arrived at Nakumatt this morning during Stocking Time. Now, when I told my friend Beth this story, she heard it as Stalking Time and giggled. I responded that yes, I was stalking my prey of bread crumbs; she informed me that she meant the kind of stalking that creepy men do, and thought it was funny that there was a specific time set aside for that. Hm. Well, I might have been stalked while at Nakumatt, and I was indeed stalking the breadcrumbs like a lioness, and fortunately someone was also stocking the bread crumbs while I stalked. I procured the new ingredient without the usual 14-times-round-the-store search! 'Twas a miracle.

As it turned out, the Chicken Parmigiana was guest-worthy, so I have more good food to add to my repertoire. Stalking/stocking/stalking was well worth it.

First Weekend Back

Diving back into school at the start of a semester is always challenging, but my students did well. We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day Friday, though, so I'm glad I've had such a restful and pleasant weekend. Here's the rundown, you gluttons for boring details:

Friday after school: Bus duty. Every other day for 18 weeks, I stay a few extra hours after school and make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing. Basically I halt elementary kids who are playing and ask them who's watching them. If they can't point to the mom/dad/driver, we start making phone calls. This week there were two little munchkins who were un-picked-up for some reason, so we hung out and tried to solve the problem until I eventually dropped them off at the elementary principal's house for safekeeping. (Another reason I don't want to be an administrator). But a bizarre benefit to the whole experience- the aforementioned administrator has found Good Milk here!! It comes from the organic food store and can only be purchased on Wednesdays (of course), but it is Good Milk! She gave me a liter in her great kindness, and I have been drinking it all weekend.

Friday night: Bollywood at Wendy's. A bunch of friends got together to make mini-pizzas and watch a movie. This evening's treasure was Dhoom 2, a mix of action-adventure-romance and of course catchy musical numbers. It lasted a long time, was in Hindi, and was just so dramatic. A noteworthy experience.

Saturday: The National Museum. My friend Dalina will be taking her class there on a field trip later this week, so Chris L and I joined her to scope the joint and write 3rd-grade-appropriate questions about the exhibits. The museum gets a solid B in my opinion. It's not huge, but it's interesting, and it's somewhere I've driven past for a year and a half and wanted to go in. A good activity on a rainy Saturday.

Hey! It rained on Saturday and Sunday! Remember, it's summer here- hot and dry. And Kenya's experiencing a drought that's putting lots of folks in danger of starvation. So this rain was quite welcome; it's truly a miracle to have rain in January. But we're still doing water conservation measures like saving our shower water to use to flush the toilet. So please keep praying about the food shortages in Kenya.

Saturday night: DP & Australia. DP stands for Diamond Plaza, the El Parasol of Indian food. Cheap, basic, unhealthy, and phenomenally delicious/addictive. Australia was the movie Australia. It was epic.

Sunday morning: a pleasant early run on the track- the cassia trees are starting to bloom. When the flame trees are in bloom, I think they're my favorite. Same with the jacarandas. But I've changed my mind again- the cassias are my favorite. =) Church was also good, as was lunch afterwards. Dalina contributed ranch dressing to our wraps, and Chris can now saute chicken. Big step forward.

And finally, this evening I spent with some Wheaton-connected friends and their kids. This husband's an excellent cook, the wife is serious about her relationship with Christ, and the kids are smart and delightful. I had a wonderful time.

The gaps in the weekend were a nice mix of sudoku (new big book from my parents for Christmas), Numb3rs (featuring the most handsome man on television, or on DVD as it were), and naps. I am well rested and looking forward to this upcoming week of school! I like living in Nairobi. =)

More LA Pictures

Alrighty, facebook folk, you already saw these, but they're just too fun to not post here too. And thanks to Jill K for the lovely hat- it certainly helped me adjust to cold North America!

Kevin and Kate are deep friends of mine, and it was a delight to be in ministry with them for years and years. Olivia is the answer to many prayers and a tangible reminder of God's faithfulness. And yes, Kevin, I also hope you and Olivia someday have a relationship like my dad and I do. =)

A Whirlwind of Blessing

My time in the States was wonderful! Now, by the end I was thoroughly exhausted and ready to get on a plane so I could get some sleep, but wow, God really blessed the trip. If I tried to explain the conversations and unexpected path-crossings that took up the three weeks, I'd bore you and no doubt leave out some really significant ones. So here are some pictures instead, though I didn't pull out my camera for most of the trip...

Home in the mesas, mountains, and snow

Ina chewing on her African giraffe
Visiting some of my students- Kathy NEVER looks at the camera

Hanging out at the Simple Lodge

Jessie and the Los Alamos Boys- what great brothers I have! =)

Yay for married Lynches!

Skiing: why God made winter
Tim: why God made Christine
Fuzzy Ice Man

A Great Start to the New Year

I promise to post heaps of good reunion photos once I arrive in Nairobi (which doesn't make sense, since the internet is SO MUCH FASTER here), but I'm simply too tired tonight.

These 3 weeks have held blessing after blessing, one random/God-ordained meeting after another, heaps of snow, and a mountain of great memories. This exit from the US seems to be the easiest yet; I'm looking forward to what awaits in Nairobi, and I'm not as worried about which friendships will or won't survive the distance. I'm more comfortable with this idea: Relationships will change, but their significance can be maintained despite sporadic contact. In other words...

oh-no-i-almost-posted-a-michael-w-smith-song. Way past time to go to bed.

But upon third revision I can't resist: A lifetime's not too long...