Odds and Ends

No major news to report for today, folks. As I get into the rhythm of this trip, it seems like the pattern will be a few days of EXTREMELY AWESOME EXPERIENTIAL OVERLOAD followed by a few days of 8 HOURS SITTING IN AN OFFICE READING PAPERS I FOUND ON GOOGLE SCHOLAR. It definitely oscilates in a beautiful sine-wave kind of way. As I'm about an hour away from my next major outing (to Narok, the district that borders the world famous Maasai-Mara National Park), I'm definitely at a trough with respect to new, interesting experiences, coming off of three straight days of reading lots of (very interesting, but as of yet still unapplied to the real world) articles. That said, I do have a backload of pictures and anecdotes from the last week or so that have fallen by the wayside because they didn't fit in with any of the other stories I wanted to tell, so I'm going to throw them all up in this piece without a real attempt at cohesion. Think of it as a blog equivalent of a "clip show", just without a lame framing device (or is this the lame framing device... OMG I AM META!!!!!!!!!)



The other day, I was walking in downtown Nairobi, and I saw a young Kenyan couple walking down the street holding hands; the boy was wearing a Tupac shirt, which is itself pretty unremarkable, given the widespread incidence of american hip-hop culture here. What made me do a double (or triple-take) is that the girl was wearning an Alan Jackson Shirt. I feel like this is something that you could ONLY ONLY ONLY see in another cultural context. I mean, I know that Nelly did that crappy song with Tim McGraw, but can you imagine two people who are t-shirt wearing rap and country fans in the states speaking to one another, let alone dating?



I haven't commented too extensively on food since I've been here... partially because I haven't experienced so so so much of what could be called "really typical Kenyan food". As I've remarked elsewhere, most of the really accessible food options available to working-class Kenyans are a range of rather standard westernized fast food joints, with a few Indian/Mediterranian flourishes, such as Samosas and Kebabs. That said, I have been able to have a few good " authentic Kenyan" meals at one of the food court stands at the Saritt Center (the big mall near my apartment) and at the dining hall here at ILRI (which puts the Prospect Street food carts to shame, BTW-really good meat, veggie, starch, and soda for $3). From what I gather, typical meals are usually a meat stew of some kind (usually beef, mutton, or goat) or a roast chicken, along with a starch, usuallly either Chapati, which is an indian fried flatbread, or Ugali, which I would describe as a slightly more soid version of grits or polenta. So far my favorite "authentic" Kenyan meal i've had was the beef liver and chapati that I had when I went to Kitengela for the first time- I'll keep a running account of my attempts to seek out new and exciting African dishes.




And finally, here is my traditional post-ending picture from my balcony... this time in sunny, late-afternoon light.


That's all from now, expect tons of photos and musings sometime late Friday, when I return from the Mara.

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