I've got a long streak of good luck in trying new recipes. I decided to try a new Indian recipe. Since saag (a spinach dish) is one of my favorite foods, I was really excited to give it a whirl. Now, most people know saag from Indian restaurants as saag paneer, where paneer is an Indian cheese. I realized that I was probably not going to take the effort to make the cheese and didn't have the money to buy some cheese, so I decided to buy some meat from the local butcher. Most butchers just sell beef, so I bought a half kilo and cooked up the sacred animal of the vast majority of India to put into an Indian dish. Also, I rarely cook meat these days, but we just got a new cleaver, so I was really happy to put that to use. (Thanks Becca, Mario, Arfa, Bina, Colin, David, Fareeha, Shavi and Vanessa!)
So, the recipe called for a lot of butter, for which I substituted a healthy amount of oil, a bit of margarine and some coconut milk. It actually worked out really well. I mean, not for our arteries, of course. But the coconut milk gave it a nice creamy quality and mixed really well with the spices. Mixing some kale with the spinach also worked out nicely. And the tomato, onion and carrot gave it some nice color.
Oh, and after attempt #2 and #3 to make falafel were rather unsuccessful, I am proud to report that Jodie and I made some delicious falafel on Monday night as we watched Mean Girls.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Electrical Adventures
There's a technical theater joke that goes:
Q: What do you call an electrician who is trying to do carpentry work?
A: A bad carpenter
---
Q: What do you call it when a carpenter who is trying to do electrical work?
A: A dead carpenter
Though I haven't done much carpentry or electrical work in a long time, this weekend made me think of the latter half of the joke.
Our power was out most of the day Saturday. It came back for the rest of town, except for our house and the ten or so immediately surrounding us. In the past, we've had problems with the wind knocking loose the wire that connects to our house. To make sure that wasn't the problem, I climbed on the wall that surrounds our compound and inched along the top surface to the offending wire (the wall is made of concrete blocks and is 2 meters high and the part I was standing on was about one foot wide). I used a broom (isn't that always the tool electricians use? -- I would've used a fork but they just weren't long enough) to try to knock the wire back into place. It didn't accomplish anything, but at one point, I fell and just managed to stay on the narrow platform I was on (probably would've broken something if I'd fallen to the ground). Turns out it was a different problem (never actually explained to us) and finally at 9:15 pm (13 hours after power was cut and 3 hours after it returned to everyone else) our lights came on.
On Sunday, the situation was different. Power went out at 9 AM, and we could hear radios and welding kit in the neighborhood, so we knew everyone else had power. I was in town most of the day, but when I got home, I felt more confident. I climbed the wall with the broomstick and poked at the wire again until I saw an enormous spark and our lights came on. I was a little startled, but after my stumble on Saturday, I kept my feet firmly planted.
We're still losing power for an average of 8 hours a day due to rationing (including today). Kinda makes me miss my Kenyan village where power was much, much more reliable than the third biggest town in Tanzania...
Q: What do you call an electrician who is trying to do carpentry work?
A: A bad carpenter
---
Q: What do you call it when a carpenter who is trying to do electrical work?
A: A dead carpenter
Though I haven't done much carpentry or electrical work in a long time, this weekend made me think of the latter half of the joke.
Our power was out most of the day Saturday. It came back for the rest of town, except for our house and the ten or so immediately surrounding us. In the past, we've had problems with the wind knocking loose the wire that connects to our house. To make sure that wasn't the problem, I climbed on the wall that surrounds our compound and inched along the top surface to the offending wire (the wall is made of concrete blocks and is 2 meters high and the part I was standing on was about one foot wide). I used a broom (isn't that always the tool electricians use? -- I would've used a fork but they just weren't long enough) to try to knock the wire back into place. It didn't accomplish anything, but at one point, I fell and just managed to stay on the narrow platform I was on (probably would've broken something if I'd fallen to the ground). Turns out it was a different problem (never actually explained to us) and finally at 9:15 pm (13 hours after power was cut and 3 hours after it returned to everyone else) our lights came on.
On Sunday, the situation was different. Power went out at 9 AM, and we could hear radios and welding kit in the neighborhood, so we knew everyone else had power. I was in town most of the day, but when I got home, I felt more confident. I climbed the wall with the broomstick and poked at the wire again until I saw an enormous spark and our lights came on. I was a little startled, but after my stumble on Saturday, I kept my feet firmly planted.
We're still losing power for an average of 8 hours a day due to rationing (including today). Kinda makes me miss my Kenyan village where power was much, much more reliable than the third biggest town in Tanzania...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Arusha Nights
So I have been avoiding my blog a bit, but I feel like I'm back on track. I need to consolidate a bit or else I'll never actually catch up. And since I can tie in the old stuff with the present this way, it seems like it's the best place to start.
Masai Camp is listed in a lot of the guidebooks as a nice campsite. I'm sure that 5-10 years ago it was. Now it's one of the most popular clubs in Arusha and trying to get a good night's sleep there is nearly impossible (on Saturday night/Sunday morning, the music usually cuts out a little after 6 and you can hear it at our house, which is over 1 kilometer away). In 2010 I went there a grand total of 3 times, which was a reflection of how anti-social I was for the bulk of 2010. Anyway, within the first 10 days of 2011, I had already matched that record.
For New Years, my friend Nick was just finishing up his Peace Corps service (he was my closest volunteer in Kenya) and so we went out to Masai Camp. We got there right before midnight (it's nearly empty until 11 PM) and were just in time to countdown to the new year. It was a fun crowd that night, but since they were charging 10,000 shillings (about $6.70) cover charge (usually it's 5,000) so the floor had more expatriates than normal (and I was getting a surprising amount of attention from strange Indian men). Nick and I were out there until 2 before coming home. We went back the next night since it was Saturday and it was a much more Tanzanian crowd. I was glad to see a bunch of people who I knew and was really bummed that I couldn't enjoy the night more since I had a headache.
The next weekend, we had a group of MIT students staying with us (I'll have a few more posts on this, don't worry), so we took them to Masai Camp. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed being such a large group on the dance floor. My favorite part was being with people who weren't used to all of the typical East African club music (plenty of it comes from America, but there's a good bit of Nigerian Pop and Bongo Flava). Anyway, there were some pretty intense Masai guys there that night, which made it even more fun. Since we were a big enough group, some of us walked home afterward and could hear the music the whole way.
After keeping up that pace, I needed some time to rest and to let my wallet recover. But this weekend my friend Pat (a fantastic Frisbee player from Australia) was having his good-bye party, so I grabbed some Japanese food with a bunch of the Frisbee crew and then they said that they were going to Empire Sports Bar and after some cajoling, they convinced me to come along. It was really exciting. We arrived at 8:30 and there was a live band playing and pretty much no one watching the soccer match on the TV (seemed weird that no one at this sports bar was interested in sports). We split into two tables (one inside where it was pretty much impossible to talk over the music and one outside where people were sharing their travel stories). I moved a bit back and forth between the two. Mostly I was reverting back to my anti-social tendencies (as people were talking about life in Korea and Japan, I was reading The Economist on my phone) and I was ready to head out of there around 11:15 since some of my friends were driving back down to my side of Arusha and I was kinda tired.
One friend brought me out onto the dance floor as I was saying my good-byes and I wound up staying another two hours. The band was a group called Warriors of the East and most of their set seemed to be Bob Marley's greatest hits. The energy was really great and most of the Tanzanians came over to dance with us. There was one huge guy wearing a Boy Scouts shirt he had bought in the market. He kept lifting up Claire and Rose (a couple of our Frisbee players who work at the same organization as Pat) sometimes at the same time, which was kinda cool at first, but probably got a little old after the third time. The only Tanzanian in our group (Jerry works with Pat as well and is crazy good at Frisbee) was an absolute riot out there and kept it crazy. It's been a long time since I've had that much fun on the dance floor.
There is another major club in Arusha called Via-Via, which is typically packed on Thursday nights. Now that IDDS meetings have been moved to 3 AM, I may go every once in a while. I haven't been there yet this year, but I'm trying to be more social.
Masai Camp is listed in a lot of the guidebooks as a nice campsite. I'm sure that 5-10 years ago it was. Now it's one of the most popular clubs in Arusha and trying to get a good night's sleep there is nearly impossible (on Saturday night/Sunday morning, the music usually cuts out a little after 6 and you can hear it at our house, which is over 1 kilometer away). In 2010 I went there a grand total of 3 times, which was a reflection of how anti-social I was for the bulk of 2010. Anyway, within the first 10 days of 2011, I had already matched that record.
For New Years, my friend Nick was just finishing up his Peace Corps service (he was my closest volunteer in Kenya) and so we went out to Masai Camp. We got there right before midnight (it's nearly empty until 11 PM) and were just in time to countdown to the new year. It was a fun crowd that night, but since they were charging 10,000 shillings (about $6.70) cover charge (usually it's 5,000) so the floor had more expatriates than normal (and I was getting a surprising amount of attention from strange Indian men). Nick and I were out there until 2 before coming home. We went back the next night since it was Saturday and it was a much more Tanzanian crowd. I was glad to see a bunch of people who I knew and was really bummed that I couldn't enjoy the night more since I had a headache.
The next weekend, we had a group of MIT students staying with us (I'll have a few more posts on this, don't worry), so we took them to Masai Camp. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed being such a large group on the dance floor. My favorite part was being with people who weren't used to all of the typical East African club music (plenty of it comes from America, but there's a good bit of Nigerian Pop and Bongo Flava). Anyway, there were some pretty intense Masai guys there that night, which made it even more fun. Since we were a big enough group, some of us walked home afterward and could hear the music the whole way.
After keeping up that pace, I needed some time to rest and to let my wallet recover. But this weekend my friend Pat (a fantastic Frisbee player from Australia) was having his good-bye party, so I grabbed some Japanese food with a bunch of the Frisbee crew and then they said that they were going to Empire Sports Bar and after some cajoling, they convinced me to come along. It was really exciting. We arrived at 8:30 and there was a live band playing and pretty much no one watching the soccer match on the TV (seemed weird that no one at this sports bar was interested in sports). We split into two tables (one inside where it was pretty much impossible to talk over the music and one outside where people were sharing their travel stories). I moved a bit back and forth between the two. Mostly I was reverting back to my anti-social tendencies (as people were talking about life in Korea and Japan, I was reading The Economist on my phone) and I was ready to head out of there around 11:15 since some of my friends were driving back down to my side of Arusha and I was kinda tired.
One friend brought me out onto the dance floor as I was saying my good-byes and I wound up staying another two hours. The band was a group called Warriors of the East and most of their set seemed to be Bob Marley's greatest hits. The energy was really great and most of the Tanzanians came over to dance with us. There was one huge guy wearing a Boy Scouts shirt he had bought in the market. He kept lifting up Claire and Rose (a couple of our Frisbee players who work at the same organization as Pat) sometimes at the same time, which was kinda cool at first, but probably got a little old after the third time. The only Tanzanian in our group (Jerry works with Pat as well and is crazy good at Frisbee) was an absolute riot out there and kept it crazy. It's been a long time since I've had that much fun on the dance floor.
There is another major club in Arusha called Via-Via, which is typically packed on Thursday nights. Now that IDDS meetings have been moved to 3 AM, I may go every once in a while. I haven't been there yet this year, but I'm trying to be more social.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Corn Shelling Emergency
Last night at 10:15 PM my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number. Turns out it was a prospective customer. I don't have any sense why he thought that 10:15 PM was a good time to call and ask the price of our machines. After he hung up, my brain started constructing scenarios involving situations where the fate of the country depended on this man removing kernels of corn from the cob before midnight and other such melodrama. That's normal, right?
Friday, February 4, 2011
Electricity
We've had some problems with electricity recently. We pre-pay our electricity bill like we do with phone credit here (I'm a big fan of that), and we thought at first that we were just out of credit. Upon closer inspection, though, we discovered that the wind can actually knock loose one of the wires that runs to our house. The solution is to stand on the roof of a car with a stick and knock the wires until the lights come back on. It's the windy season, so we're doing this quite a bit.
A Bit of a Funk
Sorry that I still haven't written about my January adventures. I do hate falling behind on my blog. However, I've also decided that sometimes it's better for me to keep my reflections private. I had a particularly negative tone in 2009 that I don't really want to bring back.
The past two weeks, I've been a bit down. Low energy. No appetite. Restless sleep (actually, this one has been going on for a while). Limited motivation. Minimal focus. So I decided to let it pass, which it seems to have done--though my appetite isn't actually restored, and the sleep seems to be a persistent condition.
Still today felt really refreshing, even if I didn't have a great Frisbee game, I did manage to check a bunch of nagging tasks off of my to-do list at work (though it persists in a much longer state than I'd like) and cleaned off my desktop so that my computer seems more manageable. So, hopefully I have a quieter February up ahead and you can hear all about my January adventures soon.
The past two weeks, I've been a bit down. Low energy. No appetite. Restless sleep (actually, this one has been going on for a while). Limited motivation. Minimal focus. So I decided to let it pass, which it seems to have done--though my appetite isn't actually restored, and the sleep seems to be a persistent condition.
Still today felt really refreshing, even if I didn't have a great Frisbee game, I did manage to check a bunch of nagging tasks off of my to-do list at work (though it persists in a much longer state than I'd like) and cleaned off my desktop so that my computer seems more manageable. So, hopefully I have a quieter February up ahead and you can hear all about my January adventures soon.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Not Enough Time in Lusaka
After wrapping up the workshop, we all headed back to Lusaka. We packed into the back of the Peace Corps vehicle and set off on our way. David was driving and Kofi was riding up front while I was sitting with Alex, Amy, Bernard, Eric, Henry and Mindy. Amy can always be counted on to bring games for long car rides. There were word games (kinda like Taboo) and Charades (but we used an action figure named Bendy Bob since we couldn't really act things out in the vehicle). Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we even had time to debrief a whole lot of the workshop and talk about things like IDDS.
When we got back to Lusaka we went straight to the Country Director's house for dinner. He has a lovely family and was really welcoming. He wanted to hear all about the workshop and was asking lots of questions about IDDS. Amy and I were sitting next to him during dinner, so I was talking to him for a while. It got me thinking a lot about the contrasts between the Peace Corps Zambia program and the Peace Corps Kenya program and wondering if I would have stayed the full two years with the team in Zambia. In any case, I have to say that the volunteers in Peace Corps Zambia are really lucky to be in a beautiful country with such a supportive staff. On the other hand, I noticed that a lot of the volunteers drink a healthy amount and smoke like I used to when I was in Peace Corps. The volunteers were definitely a lot more positive about everything than I was during most of my service, but there was still something familiar in their outlook that I was glad to have put behind me. As a side note, I emailed the Peace Corps Kenya team since I thought that the workshop was so great and that there were some ideas that they could apply to the program there, and the Country Director for Kenya wrote back a curt response saying that he had seen everything already at a Peace Corps conference where the Zambia team won an award for most innovative post.
After the dinner, we went back to the hotel where we were staying. The promised wireless never materialized, but Eric and I took advantage of the time to have a late night meeting about IDDS and some important steps to take moving forward with Amy and Kofi chiming in sporadically as they worked on a grant proposal. It was really nice to meet face-to-face with the IDDS team and to really discuss the direction moving forward.
The next day we were at the Peace Corps office all morning. I used their internet to catch up on all sorts of things and got to meet a bunch of other volunteers as they set off for different destinations for Christmas. Amy, Kofi and Eric were meeting with some Peace Corps staff for an official debrief and then they brought in some old IDDS Zambia participants. Kenny, the director at DISACARE wheelchairs, was one of my friends at the summit in 2008, but I didn't even recognize him when I first saw him since he looked especially distinguished in his suit and glasses (he was also walking with a cane as opposed to 2008 when he was confined to his wheelchair). I also saw John, the director at Light of Hope (a community health program right outside Lusaka), who was on my team at IDDS in 2008 and we immediately started talking shop about Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block Makers (that's normal, right?) and about all our mutual friends. I was disappointed that I didn't have a chance to see more of my Zambian friends from IDDS, but it was nice to talk with them and to discuss the possibility of what IDDS 2012 in Zambia might look like. Then we took a photo of the IDDS family (Amy, Bernard, Eric, Henry, John, Kenny, Kofi and me), and it was great to have everyone in one place (I need that picture). Then I said good-bye to Amy, Eric and Kofi as they headed to the airport.
After that, I went to the Lusaka Showgrounds where they have an annual agricultural fair in August and is a space with low-rent offices the rest of the year. I was meeting with our Zambian distributor for GCS to sign some paperwork and talk about how to work together moving forward. I was really impressed with his exuberance and wanted to do everything that I could to support him, not as a member of GCS, but just because I could see how excited he was to help people and help the environment.
On my way back to the Peace Corps office, I visited Manda Hill Shopping Centre (a huge mall). It was kinda crazy how fancy it was there (I saw a Subway restaurant), and I strolled through the aisles of a store called Game in awe of how much it felt like being in a Target. But I wasn't there to shop (though I did grab a vuvuzela for my roommate Mic), I just wanted to see the other side of Zambia, so I grabbed a quick burger and headed back to the Peace Corps office to finish everything before I left. It was really hard saying good-bye to Nancy (she's the number two in Peace Corps Zambia) since she was so helpful and kind. I knew that I needed to come back to Zambia and see a lot more of the country.
The Peace Corps driver dropped Bernard and I off at the bus station and helped us find where the buses to Tanzania were parked. John came back to find us before the bus left and gave Bernard and me each a scarf from Light of Hope and we made donations to support the new football program that they're starting over there. But soon, the clock read 4:00, so it was time to begin our interminable journey home.
When we got back to Lusaka we went straight to the Country Director's house for dinner. He has a lovely family and was really welcoming. He wanted to hear all about the workshop and was asking lots of questions about IDDS. Amy and I were sitting next to him during dinner, so I was talking to him for a while. It got me thinking a lot about the contrasts between the Peace Corps Zambia program and the Peace Corps Kenya program and wondering if I would have stayed the full two years with the team in Zambia. In any case, I have to say that the volunteers in Peace Corps Zambia are really lucky to be in a beautiful country with such a supportive staff. On the other hand, I noticed that a lot of the volunteers drink a healthy amount and smoke like I used to when I was in Peace Corps. The volunteers were definitely a lot more positive about everything than I was during most of my service, but there was still something familiar in their outlook that I was glad to have put behind me. As a side note, I emailed the Peace Corps Kenya team since I thought that the workshop was so great and that there were some ideas that they could apply to the program there, and the Country Director for Kenya wrote back a curt response saying that he had seen everything already at a Peace Corps conference where the Zambia team won an award for most innovative post.
After the dinner, we went back to the hotel where we were staying. The promised wireless never materialized, but Eric and I took advantage of the time to have a late night meeting about IDDS and some important steps to take moving forward with Amy and Kofi chiming in sporadically as they worked on a grant proposal. It was really nice to meet face-to-face with the IDDS team and to really discuss the direction moving forward.
The next day we were at the Peace Corps office all morning. I used their internet to catch up on all sorts of things and got to meet a bunch of other volunteers as they set off for different destinations for Christmas. Amy, Kofi and Eric were meeting with some Peace Corps staff for an official debrief and then they brought in some old IDDS Zambia participants. Kenny, the director at DISACARE wheelchairs, was one of my friends at the summit in 2008, but I didn't even recognize him when I first saw him since he looked especially distinguished in his suit and glasses (he was also walking with a cane as opposed to 2008 when he was confined to his wheelchair). I also saw John, the director at Light of Hope (a community health program right outside Lusaka), who was on my team at IDDS in 2008 and we immediately started talking shop about Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block Makers (that's normal, right?) and about all our mutual friends. I was disappointed that I didn't have a chance to see more of my Zambian friends from IDDS, but it was nice to talk with them and to discuss the possibility of what IDDS 2012 in Zambia might look like. Then we took a photo of the IDDS family (Amy, Bernard, Eric, Henry, John, Kenny, Kofi and me), and it was great to have everyone in one place (I need that picture). Then I said good-bye to Amy, Eric and Kofi as they headed to the airport.
After that, I went to the Lusaka Showgrounds where they have an annual agricultural fair in August and is a space with low-rent offices the rest of the year. I was meeting with our Zambian distributor for GCS to sign some paperwork and talk about how to work together moving forward. I was really impressed with his exuberance and wanted to do everything that I could to support him, not as a member of GCS, but just because I could see how excited he was to help people and help the environment.
On my way back to the Peace Corps office, I visited Manda Hill Shopping Centre (a huge mall). It was kinda crazy how fancy it was there (I saw a Subway restaurant), and I strolled through the aisles of a store called Game in awe of how much it felt like being in a Target. But I wasn't there to shop (though I did grab a vuvuzela for my roommate Mic), I just wanted to see the other side of Zambia, so I grabbed a quick burger and headed back to the Peace Corps office to finish everything before I left. It was really hard saying good-bye to Nancy (she's the number two in Peace Corps Zambia) since she was so helpful and kind. I knew that I needed to come back to Zambia and see a lot more of the country.
The Peace Corps driver dropped Bernard and I off at the bus station and helped us find where the buses to Tanzania were parked. John came back to find us before the bus left and gave Bernard and me each a scarf from Light of Hope and we made donations to support the new football program that they're starting over there. But soon, the clock read 4:00, so it was time to begin our interminable journey home.
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