It has been a very long time since I have been able to update my blog exclusively because ANU’s network has a grudge against Google web applications. It is very funny, the search engine loads, kind of…but as soon as you search it freezes. Blogspot opens, but as soon as I sign in my Google account, it freezes! Never the less through some Microsoft oriented trickery I am able to post again. You see, using Outlook as a Gmail client allows me to circumvent the nasty proxies that make life miserable for Google – being able to send and receive email is especially nice because (lo and behold!) I can update my blog via email!
It has been an eventful week and a half! I have met some good people, made some interesting friends and gotten closer and closer to my “niche” on ANU’s campus. I am not there yet, but I will continue working towards finding the tasks that I can accomplish well in a healthy, God breathed context. Let me tell you about my friends.
There have been 4-5 fellows who I have gotten to know very well. They were the guys I initially worked with in the computer lab over a week ago. Xavier, Charles, Peter, Michael, Evans, and Joe are just some of the boys who have taken me under their wing. Consequently, they have spread the word. The regular under grad students have returned to campus, and now what seems like a vast majority of them know my name (at least my Kenyan name!) and never fail to greet me with a knowing smile and a “Hey Mwangi!” Probably the coolest part of knowing these guys is their enthusiasm for cooking for me – Kenyan style. Xavier Mzizi has been the coordinator and chef. The first meal he simply said “I want to cook some fish for you!” Neat, I like fish. Little did I know that these fish were very little indeed!
If you look very closely you can see that this dish was like a fried medley of whole minnows, tomatoes onions and greens. I can honestly say I enjoyed that meal, yet in retrospect, I would probably defer to another menu option! A few nights later Mzizi and the guys came over again to make stew and ugali. Ugali is a Kenyan doughy meal actuator. What I mean is that it’s a hot corn meal based dough that you use as a utensil to pick up things like meat and vegetables in a stew. This meal was scrumptiously messy.
On Saturday the Freshman and their mentors (most of the guys I know are mentors. ANU has a great system for mentoring new students imparting the “wisdom” of the older guys onto the new students.) went to a national park around a famous water fall called “Fourteen Falls”. It was a super exciting trip, and I got some cool pictures – but I will talk more about that when I have access to the pictures. Anyway, while at the falls Peter and Xavier decided to buy some mudfish to bring back to my flat to cook! They fried the crap out of those fish, but it ended up being quite delicious and well worth the exhaustive clean up afterwards. I spend the majority of Sunday mopping my floor and scrubbing the walls around my stove to get all the exploded vegetable oil off!
So those are some stories for now – I can get back to updating everyday so I can fill you in slowly but surely. I don’t want to overwhelm you with a long exhaustive entry with everything I’ve been doing for the past 10 days. Also, its dinner time! God Bless.
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