The Expats Kitchen

One of the hardest things for me (Kenzi) to adjust to here in Kenya was definitely cooking! While I thought I was prepared to make a lot of things by hand, I learned that here everything is literally homemade. There is no chicken stock, salsa, or pancake mix unless you make it yourself. Which is what I have learned to do. I will say we can go to the American style grocery store that is 1.5 hours away from us to get a few canned goods, boneless/skinless chicken breast and cake/brownie mixes but they cost 4-5xs as much as they do in the states.  We may or may not buy pancake syrup for $8 every now and then…

The local Sokoni (Market) here in town is great! Farmers come from all around the country on Tuesday and Fridays for Market Day. You can get all kinds of fruits and veggies. I can usually buy all our produce for the week there for about $5. The one thing they do not have at the Market is lettuce for salads. I have missed salads the most here. Kenyans don’t really like raw veggies so just eating a salad is such a weird concept for them. Thankfully at Nakumatt (the American style grocery store) I can buy lettuce for a fair price so we have it every couple of weeks. At our local supermarket called Spear we can get lots of basic items including eggs. Eggs so fresh they still have feathers on them!

Spear Supermarket

In our town, the Hotels (restaurants) only serve Kenyan food. I guess coming from American I was spoiled with food from so many different places that I just assumed most places had a variety of foods. We can’t go get Chinese food in the middle of the night (which we never did in the states but at least we had the option), forget Mexican food (most Kenyans don’t like spicy food), and Italian…well let’s just say I have tried to serve some of our Kenyan friends spaghetti with meat sauce and they told me that wasn’t food. Needless to say we have been getting our fill of Kenyan food.

Since moving here, I must say I have grown a lot in the culinary department.  It is a blessing that the internet is full of great recipes because I accidentally left all my cookbooks back in America! At home we eat mostly American food. I have learned how to make (homemade) potato soup, cinnamon rolls, chili, bread bowls, mac-n-cheese, butternut squash risotto, crescent rolls, broccoli salad, soak and boil beans, chicken noodle soup (with homemade noodles), pancakes (from scratch-no ‘just add water’ here!) garlic knots, chicken fried rice, mexican tacos with chipati bread (like a thicker tortilla), pizza (including the sauce -which I learned how to make a whole pizza from scratch a few years ago so this isn’t really new but still noteworthyJ).  We also get our milk straight from the cow so I have learned how to boil, strain, and store the milk.

Each week I decided I would try to make two knew recipes. I have actually really enjoyed playing in the kitchen.  I learned that cooking or baking is a big stress reliever for me.  Plus, when the food taste good then there is one less thing I have to worry about J

**I am sure some of you saw the post about butchering and cooking a whole chicken (pictured below).  I would just like to say that that experience was a little traumatic for me and probably won’t be happening again…*hashtag*WhatWasIThinking  *hashtag*IAmAMzungu *hashtag*IAmNotACountryGirl *hashtag*IGrewUpInTheSuburbs *hashtag*ThoseLegsStillKillMe

Emma 22 Months

Since we live so far from family and friends back home, I wanted to start a monthly blog about Emma and how she has grown each month. I'm sure the grandparents will love this the most but it will also be fun for us to have to look back on some day.                                                                                                                                       Emma is growing like crazy and saying new things everyday. It is starting to be a mixture of English and Swahili words now. Her favorite Swahili word is 'tuanane' which means 'see you.' She says it all the time! 

She loves to play in the dirt. It doesn't matter where we are either. She runs to the backyard to play in it, if we have car trouble and stop for a few minutes she gets out and looks for the dirt, if we are at a children's home and we tell her to go play with all the kids she then looks for dirt and plays with the kids in it. It's pretty funny. 

In the morning, Emma likes to come into our room and wake us by saying "mom, hey mom, hey hey! Dad, hey dad, hey hey!" It was fun the first time.... 

Emma loves books! Before nap time and bedtime we always read books and then she holds them while she falls asleep. I really hope this love for books sticks around a while.

Ever time we pray before eating or sleeping, Emma wants us all to hold hands, bow our heads, and she starts with 'Jesus' then wants one of us to continue. 

If we ask Emma to pray she sings 'Jesus Loves Me this I know, amen!'

Emma loves to dance and will randomly burst out in song (that's my favorite).

Her favorite song is 'Jesus Loves Me' and 'Do You Wanna Build A Snowman'. She even goes to our backdoor to sing that last one :)

Mark was holding Emma on one of our walks and he asked if she wanted to walk and she responded "No thank you. Hold you (me)."

Emma played in her little pool for the first time this year. 

She loves to eat peanut butter from the jar with a 'poon'.

Emma loves to brush her teeth and ask to do it about 5 times a day. 

She asks us constantly "what doing?" And "who dat?" 

Emma ran 77 laps through the house one night while I was cooking dinner. Mark faithfully followed her and made sure she drank some water :)

She has started to get a little car sick on our roads trips. We think it's either her molars coming in or just getting sick from the winding roads here. Either way, we now bring a change of clothes, lots of bags, wipes, and essential oils on our trips.

Emma is now sleeping in her own room, in a big girl bed, without her paci!! 

Fun Things We Did This Month:

This month we had the chance to visit The Maisha Project in Kisumu. Emma loved running with the kids and playing in the dirt. On this trip we also got a fun care packages suitcase full of goodies from family and friends back home. Inside was a new baby doll for Emma. She instantly fell in love and plays with it all the time. We even have to keep diapers on the baby. 

On Easter Monday we had 15 kids from The Father's Delight over for some pizza and to watch a movie. Emma loved showing off her toys and how she isn't afraid to play with our 3 dogs. She also showed them how to carry dirt in the frisbee.

We visited Lake Olbolosat for the first time. 

Tot School (March/April 2016):

Emma is doing amazing in her Tot School! This is the first month since we moved here that we have been more on a schedule and get her school in most days. She learned the verse (Matt 28:6) pretty quickly. I added motions which I think really helped. After about 3 weeks she was able to say 'green' (our color for the month) without me saying it first. She does great at matching colors and shapes but still needs a little help with matching numbers. Craft time is her favorite and she ask to do that part first. 

In April we have been learning that we are a new creation in Christ. The first few weeks we slacked a little in Tot School due to more meetings, a women's conference, and a little sickness but we have had more free time on our weekends to catch up. Emma loved learning about the letter 'dubblewoo' (W) and making a 'bobberelen' (watermelon). She is having a harder time sorting her shapes this month with learning the difference between triangles and diamonds but each day she is doing better.

We spent the week before Easter just learning about the resurrection. Emma really loved the Resurrection Scavenger Hunt and the Resurrection Rolls! 

Fun pictures from this month:

The Father's Delight

Meet Joy.  She is our cultural-liaison here in Kenya and has become a really good friend of ours. She also works with our partner ministry here and is a ‘mama’ to 15 kiddos!

Joy has been working with a few organizations and orphanages to help the fatherless and vulnerable children in Kenya for several years.  She has a desire to make a difference in the lives of children and help them to have a personal relationship with Jesus.  Over the years Joy has taken in 15 kids who needed a home and family.  I won’t go into much detail to help protect the kids, but it started when God told her that she was to take in one little girl, then for her to become the ‘mama’ for a family of boys that had no place to go, then four more little girls came along, and a few more families after that.  Joy has helped provide a home and a family for these kids.

We first visited The Fathers Delight a few months ago.  Joy took us around and showed us the property where the kids and other caretakers lived. She also shared with us the stories of how each little family came into her life. As she was talking we heard how God had carefully placed each child in her home. It was beautiful.

"God sets the lonely in families" -Psalm 68:6

On Easter Monday, Mark and I decided it would be super fun to have all the kids from The Fathers Delight over for a fun day of pizza and a movie; two things the kids have never experienced.

They were all so well behaved, so quiet, and really enjoyed the pizza! We thought it would be fun to watch The Lion King because, hello, we live in Africa. The kids were glued to the screen until Emma woke up from her nap then she distracted them a little. After the movie, Joy talked with the kids about it. She shared with them how they have a Father who will never leave them and for them to always remember the love He has for them. It was really sweet to watch all of them listen to her.

Later, Emma showed the kids her toys (they really liked her little kid computer J), Mark played some Frisbee with some of the boys, and others played with chalk.  All in all it was such a fun afternoon and we cannot wait for another day to spend with these sweet kids.