The reason I haven't written anything since September 21st is that shortly after that day, I started planning for a blow-out birthday/goodbye to a friend party. The friend is the young woman to the right of this picture. Her name is Juliette, and she will be leaving on October 1st to begin her Master's Degree studies in London. That's two days before my birthday, so I decided to mark both occasions a bit early, on September 25th.
The young woman in the middle is Chanelle, a college student from California and friend of Juliette's family. She's in Nairobi working with a clean water advocacy group. If you detect a shiny, glow-y aura about all three of us in this shot, it's just flopsweat. That's because we had just spent two and a half hours slaving like three bald-headed stepchildren in my kitchen. We were just giddy to not be chopping, stirring and frying, at long last!
Mind you, I shall bear the guilt of making my party's co-honoree do much of the cooking for the rest of my life. But you see, I was responding to the specific request from one of my Kenyan guests, a reporter colleague at the Daily Nation. He was quite pleased to be invited, as were the dozen or so other Kenyan acquaintances I've made at Nation Centre. He even suggested I invite somebody I barely knew, an offer I deftly declined. But he specifically wanted sukuma wiki and fried fish and spaghetti. Made a big show of mentioning it on several occasions. Hell, I've been frying fish since I was old enough to reach the top of a stove, and spaghetti sauce is literally one of my all-around specialties, so I was game. If it would make him enjoy himself more in my home, so be it.
You see, I realize that I've been here now for more than two years, but most of the people I socialize with regularly are expats. Having recently embraced the possibility that I could wind up being here a lot longer than I'd originally planned, I decided to make a concerted effort to reach out to Kenyan co-workers, to extend myself beyond the expat comfort zone.
That's why I asked Juliette to make some sukuma wiki for my party. I LOVE that stuff!! It's essentially what we'd call a "mess 'o greens" back home, which is why I crave it. "Sukuma wiki" is Kiswahili for "push out the week." In other words, it's a meal that's prepared to last over several days. You just chop up a bunch of sukuma (kale) and spinach, boil it briefly, fry some onions, tomato and garlic and then saute the greens until they've wilted down into a tasty treat.
Anyway, I'd never tried to make it before, so I asked Juliette to help. Since Chanelle has been living with her for the past few months and has learned the "Ways of the Wiki", she took charge of the chopping while Juliette meticulously washed the greens, and then worked her magic on the stove.
It took two and a half hours. We were still sizzling and stirring when the first guests arrived. But it was worth the effort. It was the best sukuma wiki I've had since I got here!! I just ate the last batch of it last night. And though I probably should just release my post-party emotions to the Universe, I've also vowed to never again try and do "cross-cultural nutritional/social outreach," whether I'm in Kenya 10 more months or 10 more years. Read the posting below to learn why.
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