US Ambassador, rain, room to sit and a recipe

(Blogmaster's note: This post has been inserted in the chronological order in which Donna intended it to appear.)


Mission to Maua - # 9 1/2 (A series of observations, and a recipe)


The US has a new ambassador to Kenya.  Ambassador Scott Gration says graft and lack of accountability remain major issues of concern to the US.   Gration promises to push the agenda of fighting corruption and improving the justice system during his tenure.  He also promised to maintain the development programs supported by his predecessor.  Ambassador Gration has a background in both security and diplomacy and is fluent in the Swahili language.


We haven’t had rain in more than a week and the weather is noticeably colder.  (no frost warnings though; we’re not in Idaho), so guess we have moved out of the rainy season.  It was shorter than usual.  Here in the Highlands, the crops are fine, but in lower areas, the crops are stunted and fear of a drought and hunger are increasing.  Earlier this week, President Kabaki declared the drought in parts of the country a national disaster and called for importation of maize to boost the countries grain reserves.  


Isabella’s recipe for kale and also for carrots. ( You can probably use Swiss Chard instead since it might be hard to find kale.  Here they cut up the kale into fine pieces before selling it.)
3 cups of kale or Swiss Chard,  or six carrots, sliced thin
2 tomatoes, cut up
2 small red, mild onions, cut up 
1 beef boullion cube
Fry cut-up onions in a small amount of oil. Add tomatoes, kale or carrots, and boullion cube and simmer for 10 minutes.  If cooking a smaller amount, adjust the boullion cube accordingly or it will be too salty.


People are very impressed to learn that I am a retired “MP” (member of parliament) I try to explain that I represented my district at the state, not the national level and some understand.  Others think that I was in Congress.  I’m not sure if the impression of my MP status is necessarily positive since there are so many articles in the paper about corrupt or ineffective MPs in Kenya.  


ATTENTION:HP COMPUTER USERS:  Beware of unsolicited, unapproved HP programs that  suddenly appear and download on your computer.  This was our experience and afterwards, our computer just wouldn’t turn on.  Roger wondered if he has lost all his photographs; I wondered if I’d still be able to write this blog.  Finally, our local computer genius, after several hours was able to restart our computer and we breathed a sigh of relief.  To be fair,  people in the Information Technology Dept. here at the hospital use a lot of Hewlet-Packard computers and say that they have never had this experience with their computers or any problems with HP software.


Guns are illegal in Kenya except for law enforcement.  So the guys high and aggressive on miraa cut each other with their pongas instead of shooting each other.  The hospital deals with a lot of “cuttings” patients, most of them non-paying and difficult to handle for the nurses.  The law enforcement people have rifles for their jobs.  I haven’t seen a hand gun since we arrived in Kenya.


Group behavior in Kenya is different.  We have observed that, at least at church services, people file in 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or even an hour after the service has started.  If a pew is occupied,  (and after 30 – 45 minutes all the pews are full) they simply sit down, place their butt firmly on the seat and expect everyone to move over – which they always do.  Chapel services are much shorter, but the same late attendance and expectation that people will make room for them exists.  Even on a matatu, there is an expectation that one more person will fit in if everyone will just squeeze together.