Great Day PLUS Pictures

Today was one of my most enjoyable days so far in Kenya. We were out in Mikinduri where we completed another four home visits and were yet again blown away by the lack of food. One woman was telling us that two weeks ago they frequently skipped meals and went to bed hungry until they got a crop of beans in, and now things “aren’t too bad”. This same woman gave us fresh eggs and a bag of oranges as we left to say thank you for coming into her home.

We also had our first cooking session with the Ruuju “Champs.” This was the first group of five to implement our orange sweet potato suggestions. Sooo much fun. We spent a couple of hours cooking with them over open fires and with very little in the way of kitchen conveniences; chapattis, stew, and uji (all with OSP). We were then joined by approximately 30 other women from the community to share the meal and discuss the messages surrounding the importance of Vitamin A. The “Champs” then shared the ingredients and methods of cooking with the women so that they are now able take the knowledge home with them, in addition to spreading the word to other women in the community. They included us in a full song and dance at the end and I have never been so happy being so dirty, and sweaty, and smelling of campfire!

We learned how to tie lesos around our heads and our bodies – the women here use them for everything from hauling potatoes on their backs, to slinging babies up, to using them as aprons while they cook (although you never serve food in your leso… it’s very bad manners).

It was also quite funny when the women discovered that my hair was real - they all thought I was wearing a weave!!! Then they all wanted to touch it and kept saying how 'smart' it looked. Many of the women here keep their hair very short and just wear a wig - which can be confusing when you first meet them and their hair is  short hair and then the next time you see them they have a completely different hairstyle.

It still bothers me to see some of the animals that people have on their farms – the cows and pigs are pretty skinny, but the dogs are the worst. We saw one puppy today that I’m sure was on deaths doorstep. I’m getting good at pretending it doesn’t bother me.

Belton and Cyrus are cooking up a storm in the kitchen right now. Last night they made homemade fish and chips and I didn’t know what to do with myself. We were all in agreeance that this was some of the best fish and chips we’d ever had… even better than PEI!

Our "kitchen"

Rolling out the chapatis

Cooking the chapatis - these are the traditional "three stone" stoves

Stirring the uji

Paulina and I cutting tomatoes

One of the women who we did a home visit with runs a pseudo day care out of her home - these are the children shelling beans

The "Champs" - all wearing their lesos around their waists (Mary, Paulina, Rael, Jane, ?, Damaris)

Damaris with the chapati dough

Rael preparing the sweet potato for the uji - notice the bend?

Rael bent over cutting up carrots on a banana leaf