Tea

Hospitality in any African country is extremely important. You share what you have without a thought about tomorrow, how you will feed your family in the future or even whether your family will be able to satisfy their own hunger.

During the December holiday we invited Sella, my principal, over for lunch one day when the girls were here. It was a wonderful afternoon. Phillip, her son who is a university student came along too. Since the Kenyan diet is so different from ours, I tried to prepare foods that are somewhat familiar to them. I had the ingredients for Chipotle type burritos: beans, rice, mince (hamburger), salsa, guacamole and tortillas. They don’t mix these foods like we do. They eat avocado, but don’t make it into guacamole dip. Both times I’ve made it for Kenyans, they’ve loved it! Both seemed to enjoy the meal.


Imagine my surprise when Sella called a couple of days later. She wanted us to come to her house for tea while the girls were still visiting. Now tea isn’t just tea! It must at least have bread. You can see the wonderful food that we were served: tea, mandazi (fried bread similar to doughnuts, sweet potatoes in the hot pot, popcorn and biscuits (cookies). It wasn’t just tea, it was an entire meal!

When invited into someone’s home, you are treated like royalty. You are offered the best seats in the house. Once you sit down you aren’t allowed to get up and you are served! There is no such thing as self service or buffet style.

You sit and chat for at least 20 minutes. Then the hostess disappears while the final preparations are made. Once the food is ready, a pitcher with warm water and a basin are brought to you. You wash your hands while they pour the water for you. Keep in mind, it is too expensive for most Kenyans to cook with propane, so the water is heated over a charcoal fire.

Kenyan tea isn’t like tea in the Midwest. It is a mixture of tea, milk and sugar. Some restaurants here call it milk tea. Once your hands are washed, you are served tea. The sugar bowl is available so you can add as much sugar as you’d like. We are happy with one or two spoonfuls however, most Kenyans seem to take three or four!

Then it is time to fill your plate. Our manners indicate that you should take a little and then clean your plate. Not so here! You are expected to fill your plate, fill your plate, and then fill your plate again. We are always told that we are not eating nearly enough!

We had a wonderful afternoon with our friends.

British English

John had a conversation earlier this week that went like this:
Teacher: Where do you reside?
John: I live in Milimani.
Teacher: No, I asked where do you reside?
John: Oh, I reside in Milimani.

We have been reminded the past couple of weeks of how two people can both be speaking English but still not understand one another. Quite a few words have different meanings than what we are familiar with. Often people are confused with our questions as we are with theirs. Here are some words that we’ve experienced since returning to school.

exam: test
scripts: students’ test papers or compositions
marking scheme: answer key for an assignment or test
marks: number of points a test item is worth
read: to study
revision: study for an exam by looking over past work
intake: enroll in school
clear: when students or teachers leave school they must clear. That means they
have to check with all departments to make sure they don’t have any books or outstanding bills
bursar: school accountant, financial officer.
canteen: shop where students can buy snacks or toiletries on campus
school fees: payment required to enroll in school
tuition: extra lessons taught outside the regular school calendar during the months of April and
August. This is required for Form III and IVs
holiday: school vacation, time off from school
attachment: practicum, apprenticeship, internship
foolscap: loose leaf paper
deputy head teacher: assistant principal, vice principal
sanatorium: nurse’s office
practice teacher: student teacher
birro: ink pen
rubber: eraser
rub: to erase
class list: class roster
revision lessons: extra lessons taught outside of the regular school day in order to covered the curriculum especially in Form III and IV
Form I: freshmen
Form II: sophomores
Form III: juniors
Form IV: seniors
candidates: Form IV students who will be taking the KCSE in October. They are candidates for university if their scores are high enough.

venue: location of an event. The venue will be at St. Moncia’s school.
reside: place where you live
lory: truck
defeated: confused me
promote me: (said by vendors) support me, buy from me

Shopping for Fresh Produce

In Kitale do have three large supermarkets where we do the bulk of our grocery shopping. However, we have discovered that we much prefer to buy our fruits and vegetables at the municipal market. We find the produce is much fresher and cheaper than in the larger stores. Plus, we would rather support small vendors rather than large corporations.

Most Kenyans don't shop at supermarkets. Instead villages have a market day at least one day a week. Vendors come in from the surrounding areas bringing their items for sale. This photo shows them getting ready to set up for the day's business. Notice the bags in the front of the picture. Inside are the items that will soon be displayed for sale. You will see some deliveries being made by lory (truck), donkey or even bicycle.

Some people set up kiosks along the side of a busy road. In these you see seasonal fruits and vegetables for sale. Often you can also buy gum, time for your phones, sugar cane, eggs or even loaves of bread.

These last two pictures show vendors at our local municipal market. Because Kitale is a large town, they are open seven days a week. Friday is the day farmers deliver items to the market, so Friday and Saturday are the best days to go shopping.

Tomatoes and onions are weekly purchases. We can buy a kilo of each for less than a dollar. The fresh pineapple costs a little more than a dollar for two kilos. Bananas are about 50 cents for a kilo. You can see that we have a wide variety of produce to choose from.

Christmas 2010

We were able to spend our first Christmas in Kenya with our daughters. Andrea and her friend, Melissa flew in from New York and Katrina from Nigeria. We were able to spend a little more than two weeks together. It was Andrea and Melissa’s first visit to Kenya so everything was a new experience for them.

Together we had a nice mix of tourist activities and family time at home. While in Nairobi we visited the David Shedrock Animal Orphanage to see the baby elephants, the Giraffe Center where we fed the giraffes, and had lunch at Karen Blixen Coffee Garden. Then we traveled to the best and most well known national reserve Maasai Mara for a safari. We weren’t disappointed as we saw four of the Big Five animals. Driving back to Kitale we went through tea plantations and then sugar plantations. It was a beautiful drive home.

At home we found a branch of a cypress tree that was quite suitable for our Christmas tree. We made decorations and cooked some of our favorite foods. Melissa smuggled some fresh cranberries in her bag, so we all enjoyed the cranberry sauce and cranberry muffins a couple of days later. Katrina completed a jigsaw puzzle as is her Christmas tradition. I’m afraid we don’t provide all that much help but offer plenty of encouragement.

We attended Christmas Eve Mass only to discover it was in Kiswahali. Although we didn’t understand most of what was said, the service was the traditional Mass. Christmas day was celebrated with our fellow Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Kitale: Russ, Kathy, Pat and Ilona and our own family.

A couple of days later, we spent a day hiking with a guide in the Cherangani Hills. Katrina proved to be in the best shape far outdistancing us all. We went to several viewing spots that provided beautiful panoramas.


It was a wonderful Christmas in a tropical environment. Family time is such a blessing.

Click here to view some additional photos we took during the girls visit.