Matatus, Monkeys, and Guacomole

In the last 2 days I have been to Nairobi twice and both times got stuck in horrible traffic.
On Thursday, Alex and I had to go to the outskirts of Nairobi for a meeting. The meeting ended early so we went into town to pick up a few supplies we needed that day. We started looking for a matatu to return to Kijabe while it was still broad daylight. However, by the time we found one it was dark and raining. I have rarely seen so much pushing and shoving for a matatu seat in my life. Thanks to my co-worker, Alex, I was able to get a seat but my bread got smashed. Then, it took us 3.5 hours to get to Kijabe because of traffic instead of the usual 1.5 hours. We didn't get back to the CURE Compound until around 10pm.

Then the next day, Friday, I needed to go to Nairobi to purchase supplies for the LIMBS knee evaluation. This time I went in a CURE vehicle with Alex and Peter (someone from the spiritual department). We were supposed to leave in the morning, but it was after noon before we left. Due to traffic and delays during the day, none of us got everything we needed. We started back towards Kijabe at around 5pm. However, since Nairobi University had its graduation yesterday, we didn't get out of Nairobi until after 9pm. The major highway was like a parking lot all the way through the city. By the time we reached Kijabe, it was after 11pm. It was a VERY long day!

So it seems it doesn't matter what type of transportation you use, when traffic arrives everyone waits in it!

Today, I had my househelp, Rose, with me and it was finally sunny most of the day. Because the sun was out, the baboons also came out to play and exercise. The troop around my house was made up of a nursing mother with infant (the boss) and several "teenagers".  At first, they were racing around my and my neighbors houses and yards enjoying the sun. They finally settled down in the yard next to the side of my house. Rose and I decided to see what they would do with the skin of an avocado. They loved it. We ended up feeding them most of my fruit and vegetable rubbish (rotten tomato and half an avocado, mango skins, carrot peelings, etc). They seemed to enjoy them. (And yes, they did grab a bag of rubbish in my trash can when I stepped into my house to grab something.) =)   Rose and I cleaned up the remaining trash after they had finished and left. The following pictures were taken literally right outside my house. Who needs to go on a safari when live in Kijabe?! What entertainment!!!

On approach

Mother gets first picks

The rest fall in

What a meal! (Notice the one in the upper left corner who took
his pick and then left the group to eat without competition)

And there go my good intentions of putting down a plastic
sheet to ease clean up!
They just pulled it out and tossed it aside.

I made guacamole (minus the onions) for the first time today. Avocados are in season right now and the ones I bought were about to go bad. I could only find small limes at the produce market and was disappointed at their lack of juice. Therefore, I replaced the called for lime juice with lime plump. The sour cream here in Kenya is different than that sold in the US so I used 1.5 times the sour cream called for in the recipe. It turned out really well!! I splurged and bought tortilla chips to dip in the guacamole. (These chips are basically a knock off of Cool Ranch Doritos) The guac and chips made a really good lunch along with mango and a slice of avocado.

Guacamole on the left. Chips on the right.

So much has happened and I wanted to update all of you!! =)