Everyone is a Princess in Kenya

Back in America, I have a sister and her name is Annette. Growing up with Annette, I always remembered her having a canopy bed, where she could hang beautiful, transparent drapes and sleep safely under that thin layer of glamor. Her canopy bed would always remind me of something from the movie "Princess Bride", or the kind of thing princesses would demand to sleep under during the middle ages. I never understood the appeal to sleeping under a canopy, but after 24 years of living on this planet and a trip to the southern hemisphere, I finally understand.
In Kenya, everyone is REQUIRED to sleep in a canopy bed. Well, instead of a castle, I am in a tiny, stone/cardboard room, and instead of ornate silk drapery I am under a mosquito net, but I believe the effect is exactly the same. Within my thin, deet-covered layer of protection I sleep safer and sound-er than ever before. And also with the Mefloquine malaria drugs giving me vivid, colorful dreams (and mild hallucinations?), my night-times have been something to look forward to. Also, as an interesting inside joke between myself and nobody else..my sister is named "Annette" as I have already mentioned, and growing up we would joke that we would need "Annette" to play volleyball, or we would need "annette" to catch butterflies. So, even though my dear sister is many miles away, I still need "a net" to sleep safe from the malaria bearing mosquitos. So my sister is with me, wherever I go!

Changing topics: Food. Though the food varies widely depending on the region, the staples in my area in Loitokitok (on the Tanzanian border..literally a 15 minute walk across the boundary lines) are: Maize, beans, oranges (the oranges here are green), bananas of all sizes, and kale. Some other common foods are: rice, spaghetti noodles, peanuts, mangoes, pineapple, guava, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, and avocado.
Some famous food combinations, listed in order by my own preference: Pumpkin Stew (cut pumpkin, potatoes, raw banana, vegetables all cooked together) Githeri (beans and maize boiled together), Muthukui (same as githeri, except the maize is de-kerneled), Chapati (essentially fried wheat tortillas) Sukuma Wiki (kale with a lot of lard), and Ugali. Ugali is essentially corn flour cooked in boiling water until a semi-hard, tasteless, white substance emerges. Ugali is a staple food in the Kenyan diet, and it reminds me of plain tofu, except with less flavor.
Everything beside the fruit is cooked with large amounts of lard or butter (except the ugali), so sincerely miss raw vegetables. Unfortunately, the danger with eating raw is the health risk involved: parasites, feces, and other little dangers cover the produce.
Last night I probably had the best meal so far in my short, African experience. It was a mix of githeri, muthukui, pumpkin, and potatoes boiled together, and then mashed to perfection. The results somehow amounted to a delicious, thick, flavorful curry. I'm sure it has a name, but I have taken to calling this dish: Kila tamu. "Kila" in swahili means "every" and "tamu" means "delicious".

A week ago, I spotted my first African moon in the nighttime sky. The thin sliver which I think is scientifically called "God's Thumbnail" was like a small piece of perfection hanging in the sky, and ever since I have spent at least a few minutes each night watching the moon slowly fill itself in the crystal clear blackness. I anxiously await a couple nights from now, when I will experience the African moon in its full glory for the first time.