Engaging In Life In A Different Kind of Way

Engagement…. No, we are not making an upcoming wedding announcement! We both have always attempted to be fully engaged in all aspects of our lives. In Kenya engagement has a whole different meaning. 

What’s wrong with this picture? Take a close look. These are the control knobs for our oven. Notice that there are no temperature markings. We’ve been told that Kenyan’s don’t do much baking in ovens - rather they use the stove top for many things or an outside charcoal oven. So, making brownies and cookies were exercises in trial and error and vigilant watching and adjusting - on then off then on again then higher then lower and on and off etc . . . 

Ice cubes? Kenyans aren’ t really fans of ice in drinks. We are. Our freezer came equipped with a mini ice tray which produces ten little cubes of ice each freeze. We searched a few stores for more ice trays. Nope. So we improvised. We purchased two mini bundt baking pans, and now we make the coolest ice in Mombasa! Ice patrol is a significant part of the day and involves dumping the bundt pans and refilling from bottled water.

Driving Redux. We’ve got the whole stay on the left side of the road thing now. And we totally get that multiple modes of transportation share the single lane byways - bicycles, motorcycles,  hand carts, construction trucks, cars, and pedestrians. Still no clue about any rules or driving etiquette.  Regardless of who cuts who off or who stops in the middle of the road or who plays chicken with you, only swerving at the very last minute, there is never negative engagement. No road rage here.  Given the aforementioned manic road scenarios, complete engagement while driving is critical.

Sartorial engagement. . .  Though, in the US we generally chose attire based on the day’s activities

with some consideration given to the weather. Here, selecting the day’s outfit is totally based on the heat. Regardless of how thoughtful one is in the morning, changing outfits two or three times a day has been the norm.

At the supermarket  . . . we spend a fair amount of time looking for any product that we recognize from the US. Randy’s highlight so far was when we found Nature Valley granola bars. We bought both boxes on the shelf. We haven’t found any more, but we look each time we go to the supermarket - which has been every day, some times twice a day.

One kind of engagement that has remained consistent with how we spent our time in the US is the time we spend with kids. We meet the girls from the home after school each weekday to help them with homework (which many of them complete with the smallest pencil nubs imaginable). We attend the Nyali Baptist Church with them on Sundays - and Good Friday. During this Easter holiday we had the girls and their house mothers over to our flat for lunch and then time on the beach.