Turtle Release

We had our conference at Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu this year. A wonderful place! We had 6 days’ of meetings, but also had time to just enjoy the surroundings and the warmth after the cool of Nairobi. Whilst there, I was fortunate enough to witness the release of 2 lots of turtles back into the Indian Ocean. These had been caught in fishermen’s nets, then handed over to Watamu Turtle Watch (www.watamuturtles.com), who rehabilitated, checked and tagged them, and then released them back to the sea. Over the last 4 years they have apparently released over 3,000 turtles back to the wild. Without this scheme almost all of these turtles would have been killed. The remuneration to the fishermen is small in comparison to the (illegal) commercial worth of the turtle; so it is a sustainable programme and does not encourage abuse. What a treat to be there to witness 4 of these beautiful creatures being returned to their natural habitat!

Ethiopian Fare

At the beginning of July, I was in Addis Ababa for 4 days of meetings. Whilst there, my Kenyan colleague John, and I, were taken out for a traditional Ethiopian meal by 3 of our Ethiopian colleagues. I’d had Ethiopian food in Nairobi but this seemed different somehow, maybe because of the setting, or the company, or because it really was the real thing.

The staple Ethiopian food is injera, a thin sour-tasting bread, upon which are served various meat and vegetable dishes (Wots, Tibs and Fitfit) with their distinctive spicy flavours. The Injera is also used to scoop up mouthfuls of the sauces and meat from the shared plate. The main ingredient of Injera is Teff. This is the tiniest cereal and used as a staple food only in Ethiopia, where it is believed to have originated between 4000 and 1000 BC. Injera preparation usually takes two to three days. The teff is ground, then mixed in water along with yeast, and then set aside at room temperature for 2 days so it ferments and rises. After the fermentation process is finished, the mix is cooked on a hot flat iron pan called 'Mitad'. A circular motion is used to achieve a thin consistency. On contact between the hot pan and the fermented teff mix/batter, thousands of tiny air bubbles escape, creating tiny craters/eyes on the side facing upwards, whilst the side touching the hot mitad pan is flat. It’s this porous structure which allows the injera to be a good bread for scooping up sauces. Restaurants will serve your dishes on injera and bring a side dish of rolled-up injera for scooping purposes.
Eating with Injera – Handling Instructions
1. Tear off a small piece (size of your palm)
2. The side with holes is the one that makes contact with the sauce / meat
3. Scoop or grab one or more lots of sauce / meat with the injera
4. Use your fingers (one hand only) to control so that pieces don’t fall out
5. When the excess injera has gone, you can eat the bottom / tablecloth injera. This will now be saturated with the juices and flavours of the sauces.

(Info taken from www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/injera)

Road Hazards

There are many road hazards in Kenya, from potholes, ruts, police checkpoint spikes, vehicles in bad repair and without decent brakes, matatus, and bad driving,.......... to goats, cows, donkeys, camels (!) and generally ‘unaware-of-the-dangers-of-the-road’ pedestrians. Somewhere on the way out of Nairobi to see friends near Machakos on Saturday, I came across another hazard - nails. I discovered a 3 inch nail both going in, and out of my tyre, when I was opening my friends’ gate. Amazingly, even on removal, the tyre stayed inflated – I saved by the tread on my tyres being somewhat deeper than most vehicles around here!