Birthday Cake!

As you may have noticed, I am not a very good blogger. This may be due to the fact that a) I forgot how to post things to the blog and Jon only got around to re-teaching me today or b) my job does not require me to sit in front of a computer all day or c) the fact that I generally far prefer talking to people to writing to them. Draw your own conclusions. In any case, I am trying to turn over a new leaf. I am going to make it easy for myself by focusing today’s post on one of my favorite things: baking! Jon’s birthday was last weekend, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn’t get to make him a cake on his actual birthday. These circumstances were that Jon decided that a fun activity for his birthday would be visiting the mountain gorillas at the Volcanoes National Park in Northern Rwanda. In order to see the group of gorillas that Jon was interested in we had to hike 4 hours straight up a (n inactive) volcano and three hours back down. It was pretty amazing, but needless to say, after this everyone was more interested in sleeping than in cake. Here is a picture of me with a gorilla so you can get a sense of how close we were to them. For those of you who are more interested in gorillas than in baking, Jon is going to put up a whole post on our gorilla adventure soon.

So, I decided that yesterday would be cake day. Jon’s preferred birthday cake is funfetti, which to the uninitiated is white cake with confetti melted in so that it has colorful spots throughout. I had asked my mom to bring a funfetti cake mix from the States over Christmas but something was lost in translation and instead she brought funfetti icing. She did manage to bring many other amazing food items including pretzels, gold fish, Kashi granola bars, and all important taco seasoning so I wasn’t too upset (thanks mommy!) And it turns out to have been a blessing in disguise because I learned how to make my own funfetti cake.

I used a white cake recipe that I found on allrecipes.com (I picked it because it only required ingredients that are readily available here), followed the suggestions for modification given by some posters, made some of my own modifications, and voila! my first every from-scratch white cake. In case you are interested in making a white cake or funfetti cake of your own, here is the recipe I used. Also, keep in mind that Kigali is at almost 5,000 feet, so if you’re baking at lower altitude, your cake will probably turn out slightly differently (I’m not sure exactly how it will be different, but I’ve read enough baking books to know that it will be different…so if you try it, let me know)

White Cake for Jon’s Birthday

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups white sugar
½ cup oil
2 eggs
1 ½ cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
(Sprinkles for funfetti cake)

1. Butter and flour a 9x13 pan
2. Preheat oven at 350
3. Sift (mix) together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. (I don’t have a sifter, so I mixed and it turned out fine)
4. Mix in egg yolks, milk, oil, and vanilla.
5. Beat.
6. Beat egg whites in separate bowl until soft peaks form (I have no electric mixer so I did this by hand. It took a little while but it’s definitely possible).
7. Fold in egg whites (and sprinkles for funfetti cake)
8. Bake at 350 for 30 min

Here is a picture of the cake. The icing looks a little bizarre, but the cake really was delicious. Happy baking!

Uganda over Thanksgiving Weekend

Yes, I am behind!  But I have put some pictures up from our trip to Uganda over Thanksgiving weekend!  Wait wait, there is actually no Thanksgiving here so it was really just like any day (I had Mr. Noodles for lunch!).  Except for the feast we made on Thanksgiving Day with Matt, Nena, and Zach.  I don't remember everything we had, but the two things I do remember are that there was no meat and that butter was the primary ingredient for all of the dishes.  It was delicious!

Well onto the trip to Uganda...

We went to Uganda in November so Lucy could take the GRE in Kampala (the closest city to Kigali that offers the test)  before her graduate school applications were due soon after the new year.  I didn't see the inside of the testing center when we visited the day before her test, but given the 8 flights of crumbling stairs, iron-gated entryways, and abundant use of spray paint to identify the offices, things were not looking good.

Lucy had been very disciplined in her studying and was well prepared for the test.  Despite 2 power outages and 3 server reboots (with the clock ticking in the meantime), she did not get flustered and did quite well on the test.  I think she could write an essay for her application just on her testing experience.

We had planned to go to Uganda anyway since other than visiting the mountain gorillas and going on safari, the most common "must do" activity in East Africa is going white water rafting on the Nile.  Matt and Nena came on the trip as well so they could raft and see Kampala while they were here.  After arriving in Entebbe at 2am (thanks RwandAir!), the hour taxi ride to Kampala, and a disastrous hotel experience, Nena, Matt, Lucy, and I woke up very early on Saturday 11/28 to move to the Hotel Ruch.  While it was quite expensive (compared to our other lodging experiences in Africa), it was was much much nicer then the other hotel and has an excellent location in the city center. Nena, Matt, and I left Lucy around 7am (so she could rest and prepare for her test on Monday) to meet our rafting outfitter Adrift for our 2 hour ride to Jinja where Lake Victoria pours out to form the Nile.

We were on the one-day trip and had an unbelievable time.  The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but having just received them last week with the DVD, I am very eager to go again (and tricking Lucy into thinking it is a good idea).  All in all, the whole experience felt very safe even though it was impossible to not get dumped in the water on virtually every rapid and experience a brief moment of a total loss of control.

We proceeded to pass out on the bus ride back to Kampala where we met Lucy at a thai restaurant for supper.  It was certainly no Jasmine in New York, but it has inspired us to attempt to make pad thai (approx.) at home with rice noodles I bring back from Kenya.  We haven't hit it spot on yet but will continue to try.

As for the rest of the weekend, we enjoyed shopping at the Garden City Mall, visiting the Kasubi Tombs (UNESCO World Heritage Site - Home of the largest thatched-roof hut in the world...CAN YOU IMAGINE!), and eating at an excellent pizza restaurant.

Matt, Nena, and I returned on Sunday night while Lucy returned Monday after taking her test.  Lucy and I would very much like to return to Uganda to go rafting again and see a number of other sites including Kampala's Baha'i House of Worship, the only Baha'i Temple in Africa.

In conclusion, please see picture of me with my moto driver in Kampala and check out the map with relevant sites:

Tennessee Vols Viewing Update

I was unable to watch a single Tennessee game despite pretty a strong effort throughout the season.  I tried streaming video at work on ESPN360, "sports bar" in Gondar Ethiopia, western hotels with satellite TV in Gisenyi, my boss' house in Kigali with the premium TV package, and even explored splitting a Slingbox account with Charlie.

Thankfully it seemed like a pretty good season to take off with all of the coaching changes and player jail time, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the progress I followed from afar.  With the close calls against Florida and Alabama, I could only be optimistic about the future.  But then this past week Lane Kiffin angered all of Vols fans (especially those named Knox since he had the gall to name his son after us) and left the Vols for USC and the irrelevant Pac-10.

While I was shocked how anyone could insult the Vols like this, my initial disappointment and anger have subsided and I am actually feeling much better about the whole situation.  I have decided that Kiffin really never was a long term play since he was never going to understand SEC  football, its fans, and its tradition.

Having lived through the Calipari era at Memphis where everyone looked the other way whenever questions of integrity came up, I think the Vols may have dodged a bullet on this one.  We (I) had begun to embrace Kiffin since there seemed to be so much progress, but at the end of the day this may save us from future problems.  At the end of the day, I think USC and Kiffin may be extremely successful together but who knows at what cost (Gene Wojciechowski at ESPN.com wrote this great article about the situation and I learned he actually went to UT.)

While the new Vols coach Derek Dooley may not be that high-impact hire we were hoping for, he certainly has the pedigree to get the job done and I am excited for what I hope to be a rebirth for the Vols.

On a related note, now that we have moved into the Coffee VolCon House (down the street from the Dairy VolCon House), we have internet and TV access.  I haven't really watched any TV or movies since we got here but have enjoyed watching NFL playoffs this weekend.  We watched the Colts-Ravens game tonight with Matt, Nena, Emily, and Iris (a new coffee VolCon who got here last week) before supper (vegetable lasagna that was delicious).  Matt and I are watching the Jets-Chargers game now (it is 12:30am).  These are the first downs of football I have seen all season.  I am optimistic that I will be able to watch the Winter Olympics next month as well.

Akagera National Park

After much delay, I wanted to do a brief post on our trip to Akagera National Park in October.  After getting up at 4:00am to pack, we were on the road by 5:00am in our spacious Landcruiser with our trusty driver Amos of Bizidanny Tours & Safari.  The landscape of the eastern part of the country is different from the other directions we have been since you are essentially driving out of the mountains to an area of rolling hills that lack  the tiered agriculture that defines much of the rest of the country.  This park covers much of the eastern border with Tanzania (we even received text messages from our cell phone provider welcoming us to Tanzania) and includes many finger lakes of various sizes as it transitions into the generally flat plains leading to Lake Victoria.

Due to Rwanda already being the most densely populated country in Africa (it is doubling every 25 years) and a significant number of people having fled the country over the last ~50 years, there is a major land shortage here and unfortunately the government is chipping away at the national parks in their efforts to repatriate people.  Akagera has been the park most effected by this policy as it was reduced by nearly 2/3 to 1,085 km2 in 1997 and has numerous refugee camps scattered around the current border of the park.  As a result of this and general poaching (though more for food and resources than sport from what I have gathered), the park does not have the sheer volume of animals that the savanna parks of Kenya and Tanzania have.

This was my first safari experience and it certainly lived up to my expectations (see above).  From what Lucy has told me about her past safari experiences, one of the major downsides of the better known parks (Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Masai Mara, etc.) is the number of tourists and safari cars.  While it is widely known that safaris can be quite expensive with plan tickets, tour operator costs, rising park entry fees, and lodges that are outfitted for people who demand the services of the Ritz Carlton, this has not stopped tourists from around the world flocking to these parks as an "adventure" vacation.  What actually results is one safari car spotting a couple of lions, the driver radioing other drivers, then all of a sudden safari cars are surrounding the lions and the lions run away.  Apparently, the whole experience can lack a sense of authenticity or intimacy.

I think Akagera must be the polar opposite of this.  What it lacks in animal volume is made up by the real feeling that you are out there all alone in the bush.  We did two morning and one evening game drives and literally did not see another car once we picked up our guide and left the ranger's station.

I am fading on the description here so I am heading to bed, but for $100 per person per day this was a pretty amazing experience.  I have put some pictures up on my dropbox account, and we plan to make a couple return visits.

Merry Christmas!

If you were in Ethiopia, today would be Christmas!

After a long hiatus, we are committed to doing a better job on the blog with more pictures and stories of everyday life going forward.  Hopefully this weekend will be the beginning so check back every so often.

My lunch experience yesterday is a good example of a normal customer service experience in Rwanda.

Jon: "Do you have meat and vegetable samosas today?"

Attendant at Novotel: "Yes!"

Jon: "I would like two vegetable samosas and one meat samosa please."

Attendant at Novotel (without moving, pausing, or looking at what was available): "No vegetable samosas today.  It is finished."

Jon: "Ok, I will have two meat samosas and a coca cola."

Attendant at Novotel: “Ok”

Keep in mind that this interaction happened in real time with no pauses at the second most western-oriented hotel in Kigali.  Lo and behold, I ate my two samosas and they were both in fact vegetable.  And my coca cola arrived after I had already finished eating them.

Also, currently it is 9:30am in Kigali and it is 73 degrees.  It is 30 degrees and snowing at 1:30am in Memphis.  It is 33 degrees and clear at 2:30am in New York.

Have a nice day!

Tennessee Bye Week = Trip to Akagera National Park

With the Vols off this week, we are headed on safari (Rwanda style) in Akagera National Park.  The park makes up most of the Eastern border with Tanzania and is a similar landscape to the Serengeti with potential sightings of elephants, lions, giraffes, hippopotamus, buffalo, zebras etc.  We have hired (we think) a 4WD vehicle with driver for two days and will be staying at the Akagera Game Lodge.  The lodge is the only hotel within the park and the closest town is an hour away.  It has been "recently under new management" for quite some time (a Mantis Group Hotel) so we we can only be cautiously optimistic about what is to come.   There are also boats for hire on one of the lakes so you can go swimming with the hippos which I am very excited about but Lucy is less so.  Matt (he did most of the organizing himself which I very much appreciate) and Nena from TechnoServe and Emily from ISK are coming along as well.  We will leave at 5 or 6am tomorrow morning and return Sunday night.

Lucy had yesterday and today off so has had some time to relax and write some lesson plans that should cover the foreseeable future.  Last night I went to supper at Handee (one of the two Indian restaurants here) with Matt, Nena, Zach (VolCon), Cory (Rwanda Monitoring & Evaluation Manager), and Cory's wife Radhika.  Lucy also went to supper at Handee with Emily, Cady, and Shannon from ISK.  Tonight we are going to the Crocker's house for pizza night which is always quite tasty.

I will leave you with a picture of last night's sunset from my office window. Have a nice weekend.

My International Class

I have seven (!!!) students in my class right now. Four boys and three girls. It is a joy. Really. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go back to teaching a big class. Here are the nationalities of my kids: Eritrean, American-Nigerian, American-Brazilian, American-Russian, Rwandan, Tanzanian, and Dutch. Between them, they speak English, Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Tigrinya, Dutch, and Portuguese. And they're learning French at school. As the ISK motto says, I'm definitely "Educating Global Citizens."

Bagels!

This past Friday was bagel Friday, a VERY exciting day for me. Some American missionaries here have started an organization that trains widows and orphans to make bagels. They come to ISK every other Friday to deliver them, so we get two bags at a time, freeze them, and then eat them for breakfast (me) and lunch at work (Jon) until they run out. They make plain, everything, cinnamon raisin, and a flavor of the month. September's flavor was Cheesy Onion (it didn't taste much like cheese or onions, but it was delicious) and October's flavor is pumpkin. This week there was added excitement because the bagel man brought his friend the tortilla man. We bought 30 frozen tortillas from him for about $5.50. Not a bargain, but not too bad either. The discovery of tortillas opens up new culinary options for us (burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas) which is great since the other things you need for mexican food like rice, beans, cheese, tomatoes, avocados, peppers etc. are all available here. The tortillas also give use something to eat our guacamole with. Since avocados are everywhere here and very cheap, we've had guacamole a number of times. But we've been eating it with bread, or just spoons, since you can't get any kind of chips. We are very excited about both the tortillas and bagels!

Our House

Here we go with the background info. For those of you who are interested, here's some info about our housing situation. Even though Jon is working on the coffee project, we're living in the Dairy "Volcon" (volunteer consultant) house since the Coffee Volcon house is full. It has four bedrooms, a living room/dining room, a kitchen, and three bathrooms. Our house is also currently full with the two of us, Matt and Nena (my age, formerly worked in consulting in Boston, working on coffee), Pamela (Jon's age, Irish, working on the dairy project) and John (about my parents' age, from Australia, working on dairy). The two dairy people, Pamela and John, work in a small town in the Eastern province from Monday morning to Friday afternoon, so they are only around on the weekends. The house is a 25 min walk from school, up and over a hill and back down the other side, a 15 min walk from Jon's office, and a 10 min walk from a big intersection with lots of shops. So its really quite convenient. We have two guards, Frank during the day and Patrick at night, who are very nice and we all really like. We also have a lady who comes to do our laundry a few days a week, and some lovely bushes in the yard where the laundry gets dried.

We have a blog!

It took a little while, but we finally have a blog! Thank you to Jon for conquering the mysteries of the internet and coming up with a witty(?) title. Its a pun...get it? Anyway, I'll write some recap posts in a bit, but for now I'm going to post current news. This weekend we are cat sitting for Jon's boss and enjoying his internet and his beautiful house. His cat, Castro, amazingly looks very very much like Beecher. Sadly though he is very shy and anti-social. One highlight of the house is the collection of cooking magazines. I've been reading Martha Stewart Living and Saveur to my heart's content. I even found an article (with recipes!) about Maida Heatter, whose baking books I love. Last night Nena and Matt came over and we made Mexican-ish food and a chocolate cake for Matt's birthday. The cake was not quite as successful as I had hoped, but given our lack of equipment and ingredients and our inability to regulate the oven temperature, I think it was a pretty good showing. On the agenda for today: a walk to the "Italian Cheese and Harm" shop (that is what the sign outside used to say), where I've never been and an attempt to make pad thai for dinner.

Touchdown Kigali

Well we made it.  After a smooth check in at LaGuardia and a standard three hour delay on our flight to DC, we had an uneventful flight on United to Brussels (I do not recommend I Love You Man, The Soloist, or domestic airlines for that matter).  After falling short on our search for gaufres (waffles), we raided the chocolate aisle at Duty Free and headed to our Brussels Airlines direct flight to Kigali. 

The eight-hour flight was only about 50% full and we enjoyed the amenities of the only direct European flight to Kigali by primarily sleeping.

In the beginning...

Well so much computer time is finally wearing on me, and I am giving in to the man. In anticipation of major travels in the somewhat near future I am going to start throwing some stuff up here...

And it would only seem fit to start with a very telling article from Jason Edgar in the WSJ: A Transplanted Southerner

• For Lee:

"I think both my parents were afraid that college was going to change me into someone they couldn't quite recognize, and to an extent that was true. I'm not sure they understood that I would have to live up North to appreciate growing up in the South...People would always say to me, 'Boy, it must have been a culture shock for you to go to Harvard.' I tell them, 'No, it wasn't quite as good as I expected.'"

• Eternal Question:

"Introducing the members of a panel on the subject of humor writing, Mr. Lopate described Mr. Blount as "the world's most sophisticated redneck." "I didn't quite know how to respond to that," Mr. Blount told the Birmingham audience that night. "I only know of two definitions for redneck, one a disparaging term for someone from the white rural laboring class or -- and I'm quoting my dictionary from memory -- someone with a provincial, often bigoted sociopolitical attitude."

• Yankees don't eat Chick-Fil-A:
  

"Race relations in the South are better than they used to be," he told his Birmingham audience, "which you could say makes them less Southern. But I think people are also generally friendlier, more personal, in the South than in the North. . . Anyway, people have been talking about the South getting less Southern for as long as I remember, and no doubt some people are right. But in the past couple of weeks I've been in both Massachusetts and Alabama, and I didn't have any trouble telling which was which."