Culinary Exploration

I mentioned in my last blog about the culinary delights that Joe and Amy introduced me to in our tour of Chicago. Thought I should probably say a little bit more about them.

The first was Garrett’s Chicago Mix popcorn, a mixture of CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn. The first of these is, I guess, similar to Butterkist, basically popcorn in a sweet, caramelized coating. The second is hot air popped popcorn which has had melted sharp Cheddar stirred in, which was a whole new taste experience. Reminded me a little of Cheese puffs, and yet different. Combine these two together and you get, in my opinion, a slightly strange combination of flavours! Garretts, dating back to 1949, is obviously very popular. There was quite a queue, and we were just talking a popcorn store! Besides the two mentioned, there were several other flavours. The tin sizes were quite extraordinary, the largest size being 6.5 gallons. Even with the US gallon being smaller than the UK one, that’s a lot of popcorn!

The second place was Gino’s East pizza. Again, a queue, though we were there at about 4:30pm to avoid the lines later on. This was a newer establishment, started up in 1966 when two taxi drivers and a friend, frustrated with rush hour traffic, decided to open a pizzeria just off Michigan Ave. and Superior St. in Chicago. ‘Each deep-dish pizza is created with a secret, golden crust, fresh vine-ripened tomatoes, and loaded with your choice of fresh ingredients. Once baked to perfection these enormous pies are brought to your table in our well-seasoned pans.’ And they were good. Very different to any pizza I’d had before. Not sure if that was the crust or the filling – or both. The other different feature was the graffiti all over the walls, something which is actively encouraged (though the restrooms were designated as graffiti-free zones). Some people get quite creative in how to write over what's already there.

Clouds & Silver Linings

I thought I was coming to the US for 2 weeks, comprising about 3 days of travel, 2 weeks of Finance Leaders’ meetings, and half a week of working with a colleague from Dallas on the SIL Accounting Manual. I was also to get 8 days in the UK on the way back to Kenya, my first break since Christmas, to be split between home church and friends, and family. Being the planner that I am (and knowing how much harder it is to get to see all the people you want to see if you don’t plan), I had managed to book time with close friends in Horsham, and was even going to be around for the 1st day of my home church’s women’s conference – something I was back for last year, and thoroughly enjoyed.


The first surprise of the trip was to find that temperatures in North Carolina were significantly warmer than I had gone prepared for. That first weekend, they were in the 80s (28-29C) and subsequently went up to 90C (about 32C). I’d gone expecting something in the 40-65F range! Consequently, I was out shopping for summer clothes that very first day – and was very glad of them.

The second surprise was finding that I was presenting a session on the new Accounting Manual!

And the third came at the end of my time in NC. Last Thursday, I had a shuttle arranged for 10:30am to take me to Charlotte Airport. Pretty much fully packed (and dressed for the cooler UK temperatures), all that remained was to get the last few bits in the case, and to clean up the apartment I’d been staying in, when I received a phone call from a friend, alerting me to a volcano that had blown in Iceland. Knowing this friend, I was mentally figuring out in my head whether you could have an April fool 2 weeks on! However, he wasn’t joking. My travel agent in Nairobi had also emailed to let me know that the Chicago to London flight was cancelled. Initial instructions were to remain at the JAARS Centre where I was staying, my flight having been rescheduled to Sunday. So, I cancelled the airport shuttle and contacted Housing department to see if I could stay on. In the meantime, I was Skyping with the world (or so it seemed), and emailing with the travel agent. This then led to advice, supposedly from BA, to continue to Chicago. That seemed a risky idea given that in Charlotte, I knew a bunch of people, and could well stay on in JAARS housing, whilst in Chicago, I wasn’t aware of knowing anyone. However, having reinstated the shuttle and cancelled the housing (!), I went, trusting that God would make the way (‘where there seems to be no way’). Several hours later, after much dilly-dallying around in Charlotte airport, and chaos re hotel shuttles, I was on a bus on the way to the Oakbrook Holiday Inn. Along with me were families on their way home after Easter holidays away, business people (one of whom was over on a 1-day business trip in the US), ……. That brought with it a sense of de javu having been similarly transported to a hotel in January near Birmingham Airport. That time, the reason was tangible – thick snow. This time, it was less so, at least where we were – ash from a volcano many miles away.

The following morning, we received a note requesting that we return to the airport. My initial thinking was that there really wasn’t any point. Having seen the news, there clearly weren’t going to be any flights that day. Hoping to not have to lug my luggage, I enquired at the front desk about leaving everything in my room. Thankfully, I thought to ask whether BA had made a booking. They hadn’t. So, off we were all went with all our stuff, only to be told at the airport that we were now on our own. What to do? Facebook came into its own as a source of communication. Through responding to my Status update, SIL colleagues put me in contact with close friends of theirs who I’d met 6 years earlier at our branch conference. I made a phone call explaining my plight, and Amy came to pick me up within 45 minutes. She and Joe proved to be amazingly gracious hosts, and great people to spend time with. God really did make the way. We had a fun time together, particularly on Saturday when we walked around Chicago, enjoying the Spring flowers and the views of all the skyscrapers. They also introduced me to Chicago-style pizza at Gino’s East and Garrett’s Chicago Mix popcorn (CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn).

Currently, I’m in Dallas, having flown down yesterday. My flight to the UK has been rescheduled for Tuesday, just 12 days late! (Had I stayed in Chicago, the delay would have been 15 days!) I won’t have as long in the UK as planned, and probably won’t make it to Horsham, which I’d really been looking forward to. I’m also missing out on a week of handover in Nairobi relating to my new role as Africa Area Finance Coordinator. However, I will get to see family. Having promised my nephew that I’d do all I could to get there, I couldn’t break my word. And the time here is good, at least so far. Further progress on the Accounting Manual, and an opportunity to see friends here, plus the bluebonnets (a Spring time flower) which are out in abundance, and which I’d heard about, but not seen, previously. So, flexibility has been key, and this literal cloud has had several silver linings.

Trip to D.R. Congo

On a recent trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, it struck me again how life as a missionary in Kenya has meant my being able to do and experience some things that I would probably never have done otherwise. To get to the eastern side of DRC from Nairobi requires 2 flights. One, a regular flight between Nairobi and Entebbe, much like any other international flight that I take. And the 2nd a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flight to Bunia, DRC. This latter was a Cessna Caravan, seating up to 12 passengers. No dividing door between passengers and pilot here – I was right behind him! Another difference was that not only are your bags weighed, but the passengers have to be weighed as well! Bunia Airport was an interesting place. The U.N. has a large presence due to the insecurity there over the last 14 years. Their aircraft, base and tents dominate the airfield.

We were met and very ably shepherded through the various stages in the airport by a Congolese colleague, Bagamba. Another friend, Sarah, was there to see her mum off – and to meet us at the same time. Departing and incoming passengers were all together in one room, semi-subdivided by a row of wooden benches. At Immigration, despite the visa in my passport, an extra $20 was required given that I’d not been into the country on that passport before. (On the way out a week later, it seemed that I was paying hand over fist for different taxes – tourist, hygiene, departure, …..) No baggage carousel here – just point out your bag on the floor, and open it for inspection if required. On the way back through the airport, there was clearly something going on as a crowd was gathered outside, and there was a brass band which started playing at one point. It turned out that the governor was expected at some point that day. It wasn’t quite known when so the people could have been there the entire day. The police were out in force – all armed with AK47s of course.

We stayed at a Catholic Retreat Centre for our week of meetings, an hour’s very bumpy drive from Bunia along muddy roads. Thankfully, we didn’t get stuck! I didn’t quite figure out if it was the road that was exceedingly bumpy, or just a lack of suspension on the pickup truck we were crammed into (the result of much driving over bumpy roads!). Going into what seemed like thick bush, it was quite a surprise when we reached the Centre to discover an oasis of peace and tranquility, with a backdrop of green hills. It was beautiful there. Some evenings, between the close of the last meeting and dinner, those of us who wanted to made the most of the opportunity to stretch our legs and walk along the roads surrounding the Centre. We were met with smiles and greetings wherever we went. “Unashinda” (literally “Are you overcoming?”, but more “Are you passing the day?”). We were gawked at quite openly, but not in a menacing way. They were just genuinely pleased and surprised to see us. Indeed, one gentleman stopped in his tracks, and said, “Je suis surpris!” (“I am surprised!”). Around us were scenes of everyday life in an African rural setting – ladies carrying great piles of firewood on their heads; children carrying jerrycans of water; people chewing sugarcane; people gathered together… What was slightly unusual was the sight of 5 wazungu (white) ladies walking in the midst of it all!

Sightings

Some things I’ve seen in Africa that I probably wouldn’t in the UK:-

- People carrying an assortment of things on their heads – jerrycans of water, bundles of firewood, stacks of clothes, a tray of bananas, piles of soap, bowls of laundry. Perhaps the strangest recently were a number of men in Yaounde, Cameroon, each carrying a single shoe on their heads!
- Vehicles reversing back round a roundabout to the turn they’d just missed!
- Vehicles driving along the pavement to get ahead of the traffic.

- Giraffe, warthogs and baboon at the side of the road, on my drive to church.

- A walking clothing store (this in DR Congo).

- A group of labourers sitting at the side of the road, making road chippings out of lumps of rock, using hammers and chisels.

- An entire household of furniture on the back of a pickup truck.

- A truckload of 20-30 people standing in the back – no seatbelts there!

- A herd of cows being driven across one of the main roads into the capital city.

- Workers on wooden scaffolding, or on top of billboards with no safety harnesses or hard hats in sight.

A Weekend with Hippos and Crocs

Within 17 hours of getting home from the UK, I was off again – this time with friends from church to Lake Baringo, the most northerly of the Rift Valley lakes, about 290km north of Nairobi. What a contrast the Kenyan scenery was to the stark winter scenes I’d left behind in the UK! And the temperature was somewhat different too!

After a lunch of chicken and chips at Delamere’s near Naivasha, we drove straight to Baringo, only stopping for the mandatory photographs at the Equator. Our home for the weekend was Heron House, a cottage at Roberts Camp, looking out onto the lake. An exploratory walk down to the lakeshore revealed the presence of hippo and crocodiles – we were to see many over the course of the weekend. Strange to be walking along, be aware of something moving in the mud a few metres away, and then see a crocodile launch itself into the water. The owners of Roberts have been feeding the hippos during the drought, and presumably will continue to do so until the grass has grown back sufficiently to support these huge herbivores. We had a prime view from our cottage, seeing the 16 or so hippo come ambling out of the water as the sun started to sink in the sky. Motorboats on the lake startled them one evening, and they all went dashing back into the water – hippos really can run!

On the Saturday, when I finally woke up (lack of sleep from the 47 hours in transit, despite the 2 brief hotel stays, had caught up with me), we went out in a low-lying boat on the hippo and crocodile-infested lake, and spent the afternoon on the island of Ol Kokwa. We were able to use the swimming pool at the lodge there, which was wonderful. Views over the lake were quite amazing, and the variety of birds was wonderful. Jules and I went for a walk around the island and were soon greeted by a young man called Alex. I’m generally very wary of people approaching me as whether it’s ‘helping’ to load a car with your luggage, guarding it, assisting in changing a tyre, or acting as guide, there’s generally a request for money sooner or later – and we had none on us. However, he was not at all put off, explaining that it was important to him and the chief of the island, that visitors felt welcome, and that money wasn’t his motive at all. How refreshing! And he was a very informative guide. The Njemps people live on this barren island. Looking around, it was hard to imagine being able to live there, as it didn’t appear that anything edible would grow. On asking about the diet, we were told,… fish. And more fish! The population has nearly doubled in the last 10 years from 400 to 750 in the census taken just a few months ago.

The variety of birdlife around Baringo is well known – 470 species of bird have apparently been recorded there in total, with over 300 having been sighted in a single day! We didn’t see anywhere near that many, but enjoyed the ones we saw. 6-year old Benjie and 4-year old Zebedee, 2 budding ornithologists, assisted me in the early evenings in identifying the ones I’d taken photographs of in the day.
People generally retired to bed very early in the evenings, leaving me (with a body clock a bit screwed up still) on the verandah. Bugs were aplenty, and you’d occasionally hear the grunting of hippos nearby. We’d actually had to sign a waiver on arrival releasing Roberts Camp from any liability relating to injury by wild animals! And it was advised that if we wanted to go to the nearby lodge for dinner, rather than walk (as you did without thinking during the day), we should take the car. The first night, we had a campfire. It was great sitting out there under the star-studded sky, telling stories.

On our last morning, I’d been vying to stay on until lunchtime. However, the others wanted to get an early start, and it turned out to be just as well that we did.... About 30 minutes into the journey, the vehicle overheated! We then limped another 30km, going slowly, and periodically filling up the radiator with water (some of which we bought from boreholes in villages along the way). When we finally reached a petrol station, it transpired that the radiator had 3 holes in it! Thankfully, there was also a welder in the vicinity who could close up said holes, and we were able to continue on our way. The journey took us 8.5 hours in total. So, that was two journeys in the space of a week that had been twice as long as they should have been – but for very different reasons!

Snowbound

“It’s a shame I won’t get to see the snow”, I said on seeing the weather forecast. I’d been home for just over 2 weeks for Christmas, and whilst we’d seen a smattering of snow (enough for snowball fights with my 4-year old nephew (and his parents) on the first and last days of my time home), it hadn’t been more than an inch at any one time. Lovely to see even so, but not quite the ‘Winter Wonderland’ scenes on Christmas cards – even those sold in Kenya! We wound up leaving very early for the airport, my dad anticipating getting stuck in snow drifts – or something like that anyway! Well, we saw some snow on the way from Nottingham to Birmingham Airport, but really only in the last few miles. Dad actually took a wrong turning at one point - I suspect that it was with the intent of showing us that there really was snow on the minor roads, thus justifying his earlier agitation! It meant arriving at the airport 4 hours before my flight departure time of 8:20pm (having checked in online, 60 minutes would have been sufficient!).

Mum and dad stayed for an hour at the airport oblivious to the weather outside. Apparently when they left, there was a further covering of snow, - and for anyone wondering, they did make it home okay (unlike the dad of someone I met later in the day). So, it was through passport control and security. I have to say that Birmingham Airport staff seemed much friendlier than other airports I’ve been through. Jokes about a group of people in front of me all wearing purple, and generally just chatty. As were passengers, even at this point. I wandered around the shops (more to kill time than to buy anything), bought my duty free and sat where I could see the Departures board. Announcements started to be made about European flights being cancelled. It seemed that the runway was closed – not very encouraging. As each one came up, they were told to resell their Duty Free and proceed to gate 58. For the Emirates EK038 flight to Dubai, there was no notice given. However when the ‘Gate to open in 5 minutes’ notice had been up for 1.5 hours, it started to seem a little dubious that we’d be leaving. And sure enough, around 10pm an announcement was made that all passengers destined for Dubai (we were the only ones left at that stage) should resell their Duty Free and proceed to the dreaded Gate 58. We went through to retrieve our baggage, and then after a while of standing around while Emirates staff sorted out what was happening, we went to the Arrivals hall. Unfortunately, people chose to stand right by the automatic doors, which of course were then open, allowing the freezing air and snow to blow in. I’d left my winter coat, scarf and gloves with my parents thinking I wouldn’t need them for another couple of years, so was absolutely freezing. Not quite as bad as a fellow passenger though who thinking that she was on holiday on her way to Australia, just had flipflops on her feet! I soon got to know Mandy and Anna (Anna was going home to New Zealand having surprised her mum in the UK for Christmas), and really that made a huge difference to the whole experience. It was one of those things that just happens. What’s the point of complaining and moaning (as some were doing)? We actually just had a good laugh (our taxi driver commented that we were the first happy passengers he’d transported that night!), and enjoyed what we could, Mandy and Anna taking the opportunity the following morning to make a snowman, and get photos of Tigger (the mascot from Mandy’s ward at the Derby Children’s Hospital) with it. Emirates staff were great, as were the Arden Hotel staff, where we were gradually taken. My only criticism would be that families with small children should really have been given priority, as some of those kids were really tired, though there was hardly any crying. Amazing really! It was around 11:15pm by the time that we got to the hotel. And a meal of soup, sandwiches and cheese straws was put on for us. What it must have been for them to suddenly have 300 extra people descending on them!

Noone knew quite what would happen the next day. An Emirates representative was available from 7am. After a good breakfast, we were bussed back to the hotel. Initially, it was though that we might be leaving at 2:30pm, but then it was pushed back to 4pm. Our plane hadn’t been able to land because of the snow at Birmingham, so had been diverted to Gatwick – and then got snowed in there! Looking at Sky News, it seemed that Gatwick stayed closed all that day. Yet somehow, our plane got through, and suddenly it was there, Duty Free was rebought, and we were on our way!

Flying with Emirates generally means that most passengers will be transitting to somewhere once they get to Dubai. Sorting out all the new connections must have been a logistical nightmare for someone. Again, hotel reservations had been made (our connecting flights had long since gone!). However, nothing was ever said officially to let us know that this was the case. We were operating on the basis of unofficial information, and I’m glad that we did. It took a while to find the right desk (Dubai is a huge airport), but eventually, we were on a bus on the way to the Capitol Hotel. Only there for about 4 hours but it was better than nothing – certainly better than spending that time in the airport! And that was the last I saw of Anna and Mandy. They left for the airport an hour before me – and of course, had a lot further still to travel. Strange how lives can come together at such a time, and then that’s it, I made it home 24 hours later than scheduled – and 47 hours after having left mum and dad’s! But I did get to see (and walk in) the snow after all!

Carols by Candlelight

Carol services and concerts bring back memories for me of cold churches, and the need therefore of wearing thermal underwear underneath whatever the choir or orchestra dress was, and of consuming vast quantities of Fisherman’s Friends in order to quell the inevitable tickly cough (which always seemed to be at its worst in the quieter moments for some reason?!).
Whilst Fisherman’s Friends do still make an appearance in concerts these days, our Carol Service last week was far from cold. For the last two years, Karen Vineyard Church has held its Carols by Candlelight service in the grounds of the Karen Blixen Museum (as in ‘Out of Africa’). So, whilst Karen Blixen “had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills”, so we had a beautiful carol service there. I arrived early for sound checks, and a last (and only 2nd) practice with my accompanist, as I was playing 3 flute solos as well as being part of the band for the carols. The gazebo that we were playing under was already set up, as was the sound system. We had a little panic with lights, realizing that the two light bulbs suspended from the canvas weren’t going to be sufficient for the band plus singers once the African night descended. Elsewhere, people set to making mulled wine, decorating trees with lights, and getting the candles ready for everyone coming to hold.
Gradually, people began to arrive with their picnics, sitting on blankets or shukas on the ground or on chairs that they’d brought. The sun by now was setting behind the hills. And then, just as it was getting dark, we started. A mix of traditional Christmas carols, readings, two solos sung by Doreen Ziegler, my contribution of pieces by Rutter and Telemann, and a short Christmas message from our pastor, Doug Brown. From my vantage point, I was aware of hundreds of flickering candles in the African night air, and the lights on the tree by the ‘stage’. The calls of nightbirds and cicadas added to the atmosphere (the blood-curdling call of the tree hyraxes didn’t start until afterwards!). There was one particularly beautiful moment when Doreen was singing, ‘O Holy Night’, and a single bright star was shining in the sky. The evening was rounded off with the mulled wine (nothing like it for warming you up on a ‘cold’ winter’s eve!!!!) and mince pies. What a wonderful and beautiful start to the Christmas season!