Birthday LOVE

It's my birthday and...Wow, I mean, WOW.  Why are birthdays so awesome? I love the fact that someone out there, back in history, decided that we will all celebrate the day that we were born ..and every year at that! S/He could have decided that it would be every other year..or only on the 10s or something..but no, s/he decided that we should celebrate every year. Okay it would have been nice if we had half year birthdays too but yearly is pretty awesome. 
When Sergio was visiting a couple of weeks ago, we had an early birthday celebration while he was here. We went to my favorite fancy restaurant in Nairobi. I have a favorite fancy restaurant in Nairobi and a favorite shit hole restaurant - For my birthday we went to the fancy place. It's called Seven but they should call it "oh damn, I over did it". The food is good - and it's such a cool place in general. I think I spoke about it in my Easter blog post. So we got all dressed up in our nice jeans and brass jewelry and went to our "fancy" dinner.

At dinner, Sergio gave me my early birthday present from him - Um, probably one of the coolest gifts I have ever received and something I really wanted but never thought I'd actually do:

Comedy classes at the Improv DC once I move back!! Things 'bout to get silly up in hea

So, that was just the best - one, just being with Byu there and making a toast to a new year for me and then BAM! getting comedy classes is like Gold baby! Can't wait (but I'm scared!!!)

Then - Yesterday marked my big celebration with my friends here. My brother David and his girlfriend Ali flew in on Saturday night so I planned the get together the next night on Sunday so they wouldn't be face down in the masala by 8pm.   We all met up at Mystique Gardens - a Karoga restaurant in Westlands. Karoga is a style of cooking where you cook your own indian food on these little jiko grills. Typically it's a man thing and the Indian men get together and cook and then eat to get away from the ladies for a bit. It takes a while so we arranged for the restaurant to start our food early. It's all outside and you get these little bandas with a big table - like a picnic shelter. It was an awesome time. I really love all my Nairobi friends, truly. And having my brother there too was like over the top. Only thing missing was my byu. But his presence was there afterall...as I'll show you later.
Here's some of the pics of the karoga:

cookin it up - there are these little clay charcoal grills there with a giant pot on top where the masalas cook.

Me stirring the pot

I took a turn at the jiko

Jeera Chicken - Delish

My brother David and his girlfriend Ali digging into the bhajias

Some of my favorite people

I look chubby here in my giant sweater -but it's my birthday!! Who cares?

Part of the group

And with me -

more stirring. You stir this stuff for like an hour at least.

Then, I got some presents!!!! It's like people had read my bucket list of stuff I want to buy before I leave - All these things I really secretly wanted - seriously.

A really cool long necklace from Emma

Scott gave me his Ethiopian table that I have always coveted! Now I dont have to buy it from him!!!

It's so lovely - he's the nicest ever!!!! Love him.

Tara gave me an indian spice set thingy. If you go into any indian kitchen, you will find one of these filled with the various spices that are most common in indian cooking. Looks like this when it's in use:

And Scott also gave me his Ethiopian Platter thing. This thing is huge. it's like 2.5 or 3ft in diameter. I'm gonna serve up my arabic mezze on it!

And my BYU somehow managed to arrange for someone to buy my absolute favorite purse ever and give it to me at my birthday dinner!! I actually just blogged about this damn purse - I wanted it so bad. I decided I would buy it for myself on Saturday - I went to the shop and they told me someone had purchased it the day before! Turns out that it was Scott buying it for Sergio for ME! Love it love it love it love itLove it love it love it love it

Also my little brother gave me a pretty hilarious red neck margarita glass. It's so characteristic of him and it makes me love it even more - It's a great to-go margarita glass!! It's a mason jar on a pedestal. brilliant.

My awesome step mom and dad sent me a really thoughtful gift. They saw the jewelry I made here and sent me all this jewelry making stuff. Needless to say...Immo be busy makin me some blang from here on out. (I feel that bling refers to gem stones and blang refers more to like boho style stones and metals and stuff)

 And I dont have photos but my mom sent me some work out clothes, which I really needed, some sandals that didn't fit my giant feet, and this awesome coffee mug. It's a GIANT mug.You just cant tell in this photo.

So, that's it. It's 11:35 and it's now about over. Just spoke to my byu for 1.5 hours and my sister for an hour and my mom for a bit - that's about all I need, those personal connections,just to know you matter. Beyond gifts and all that fun stuff..your birthday is that one day a year where you actually realize how many people genuinely care about you and whether you exist on this planet. It's good.

In touch with the Arts

I am not an artsy person per say....I don't play any instruments or own ballet slippers or paint or draw or do anything fine artsy that requires natural talent. But I certainly appreciate those that do and I often get madly jealous that I couldn't have been an amazing artist or on the big screen or hell, even a small stage for that matter!  (Okay there is still time for me...but I'll have to get my act together QUICK - literally)

So anyways, when I was invited to a special play open to US Government employees and friends, sponsored by the US Embassy here, I jumped on it. It was called A Raisin in the Sun - derived from a Lanston Hughes poem called Harlem.

It was held at the Phoenix Players Theater downtown. Why can't Phoenix be spelled Pheenix? Seriously.

One of my friends actually wikipedia'd the play and it is apparently a famous broadway production that came out in 1959 in the US and featured almost an entire African American cast, which was hugely risky at that time. So the US Embassy sponsored the presentation of the play here in Nairobi. They definitely Kenyanized it - the real play takes place in Chicago. This one clearly had Kenyan context. We were a bit late but from what I saw it was a great play.

The Grand Stage

The highlight of the night was that I met and shook hands with the US Ambassador to Kenya!! wooo woooo! Major General (Ret) Scott Gration. The whole thing lasted 2.3 seconds but still cool.


In other news, it's my little nieces birthday - She's 6! My little Sophia. Happy Birthday. Love that child! I talked to her on the phone for about 30 minutes. We pretty much just called each other poopy face back and forth and then she told me that her and her dad can poop out chocolate cupcakes with the candles on them. It was all in all a great convo. Right on my level.

Getting pretty with painted nails

I taught Sophia the lotus - she's a natural! Okay but I did not teach her to do that weird hand movement. I think the spirit of namaste was guiding her.

In more other news, Bob Harper kicked my arse again today with the ultimate cardio DVD. That thing is nuts.


And lastly, my little brother and his girlfriend are on a plane right now to visit me. They arrive tomorrow night! They'll be here for my birthday!
I'll keep you updated!

DIY Home Gym - Kenya Style

So my fridge has been broken for about 4 days. It's made cooking and eating at home a bit tricky.  Try making an entire meal with stuff from your pantry..... Although to many the food in my pantry would be a luxury - no reason to complain really.

Actually I've been eating a lot of eggs and oatmeal during the fridge down time. Oh that reminds me so apparently eggs don't need to be refrigerated if you are going to use them within like 4 days or so.  Sounds nuts right?  I thought so too - but in the stores here, eggs are not refrigerated so I looked it up online. Apparently egg shells are a special supa dupa force-field against bacteria and other bad stuff. I still keep them in the fridge just cause I'd rather be safe than sorry if the force field has a crack and I dont know it.

Anyways, some guys came and fixed the fridge today - they took the whole thing apart and some how got it working with just like 2 tools - a hammer and a blow dryer. so freaking resourceful in these parts!

Speaking of resourceful...I meant to show you photos of the most amazing DIY home gym ever.  Dominic is our friend that works at Kenyaways Kite Village - the place we stay at the coast. There are some staff quarters by the house and Dominic wanted to show us the gym he put together there.  Him and I talk about working out a lot - it's his favorite topic...and sort of mine too - so we enjoy each other. He hasn't really been exposed to a much - he's very simple and quiet but when you start talking about working out - he get's pretty excited.  I show him body weight moves from all my little DVDs and bodyrock.com - and he goes on long runs with Sergio - the guy is OBSESSED with working out. It's seriously what he lives for. He told me "Lenna, if I don't do work out one day, I am very sad".  So, this other guy Alex, took us over to see Dominics gym:

He filled the bottom of 5 gallon water jugs with concrete to make one barbell and used concrete in some mold for the other.  The bench was just made of wood.

and a couple of free weights

It's so amazing to me what we could all do if we knew buying something wasn't an option. It's kind of awesome.  It's like my DIY bosu balls made from maize bags! Listen, I dont want to make it sound like this is the only work out equipment you find in Kenya - There are a number of modern gyms in Nairobi and other big cities in Kenya - not as many as we have in the US but modern gym exist here  - but if you are just a normal everyday guy like Dominic, without anywhere near the kind of money that the gyms out here cost ($70 per month!) it's pretty amazing that you can use your hands and some raw materials and throw something like this together. Impressive.

Some of the staff's families live there and there were lots of kids hanging around since there was no school that day

The baby on the little girls back was so cute but was not so into us ..the other kids were like freaking out and everyone wanted to be up in the camera.

The kid with the orange shirt had the cutest face with the funniest expression. Real cutie.

Love how kids out here are so together - i mean they all take care of each other. It's such a great thing. They are raised to take care of each other from a very very early age. There are like 5 and 6 year olds taking care of the baby.

They were showing us their "kitchen area". You know, these 4 days without a fridge, I just kept thinking the whole time that so much of the world doesn't have fridges - they just cook over an open flame exactly what they have and they eat it. The same thing every day. Like here - they cook up some greens and some ugali and they'll maybe save it in a pot if there is anything left. But if you can afford milk, you buy it that day and drink it. That is IF you can afford it. Most people that dont have fridges can't afford daily milk either -

The kitchen.

Okay, that's it! Let me know if you have any ideas for resourceful DIY gym equipment  - I'm without a gym right now so I'm trying to mix it up as much as possible.

Bob Harper yay - Kale Chips Nay

I just finished watching season 1 of New Girl - It's superb.  It makes me laugh out loud. If you haven't seen it - you should.

Next topic -  So before Sergio arrived I was doing really well with working out and eating healthy, but then I sort of got off my kick and the schedule was all nuts and so I lost my weight loss mojo. I was down a few for a while there! But I'm back on the horse now! Since my gym membership ran out I bought like 15 work out dvds and my plan is to do a mix of work out dvds, running, and bodyrock.com throughout the week to try to lose some LBs.

So far, I've done the Bob Harper Ultimate Cardio and the Jillian Michaels Shed and Shred.
The Bob Harper Ultimate Cardio will have you doubled over in pain and misery. I sort of crushed it though - It is awesome. And I feel like I am pretty tough in general so when I say it's hard,  I promise you will vomit and feel like you've been punched in the gut if you try this video.

This was pretty much how I looked after Bob Harper had his way with me

The Jillian Michaels Shed and Shred has 2 30 minute workouts - the first one is level 1 and it sucks. It's like doing a Jane Fonda callestetics work out. I was so annoyed the whole time - and her voice always yapping doesn't help.

Then there's Level 2 - Level 2 will make you burn. It's decent. I would do it again. It's a mix of movements with weights and plyometric body weight exercises.

Then, since I'm also trying to get on track with my healthy eating - I made a couple of new things in the kitchen that I've been reading about in some healthy people blogs.

The first was Kale Chips.
Kale is in ABUNDANCE here. They shred it and boil it with onions..sort of like spinach.
But these Kale Chips were supposed to taste like you're eating potato chips.  Eh - I mean, they were okay, I over salted mine. Would I rather have a stack of Pringles? Yes.  Do I like that it's a new way to slip more veggies into my diet without feeling like i'm eating veggies? yes also. Here's how it went:

Kale in all its glory. It's a strong leaf with really giant thick veins.

I used my scissors to chop the leaf off the stem

I chopped them into large pieces and then tossed them with olive oil and seasoning salt

baked them till they were crispy..

this is what resulted. I think i over salted them but they were okay. I guess if you are a huge potato chip person and you are trying to stay off them, this is an okay alternative.  Kind of tastes like a maple leaf with salt. mmm

Then I also made Sweet Potato Fries. There is so much stuff on the internet right now about sweet potatoes and how they are this great healthy food that can satisfy your carb craving without being destructive to your progress. Here the sweet potatoes are really mild - It's not as easy find those deep colored yams - but i've seen them around. Actually sweet potatoes are really popular in the local diet here, so the big light colored ones are easy to find.

I just chopped them up - threw on some olive oil and salt and baked them till they were soft. These I highly recommend. I dump ketchup on them and it works for me.

These were goooood. I'll be doing this more often.

Okay  - that's it for today. Tomorrow is another day and another work out DVD. I'll holler at ya!

Pinterest Kenya Style

Hellos dear friends -  Yes, I said Hellos, not hello. It's one of my favorite Swahenglish things that you hear people saying in Kenya. In swahili there is a plural and singular hello..so a lot of Kenyans just apply that same concept to English and they throw out the "hellos!" or "Hi's" if there is more than one of you(s).  Makes me giggle.

Today, I want to show yous things I LOVE from little shops and markets around Nairobi. It's my version of pinterest if you will - given that I am hiding from that website because I'm sure it will make me even more covetous than I already am and waste more of my precious time on this planet looking at things that don't matter much.

And please - If yous have the time, could yous leave me comments about the items that yous love the most??

colorful clutch purses

printed belts

Yoga Mat bag!

Baskets Galore

SUPA DUPA IN LOVE WITH THIS BAG

recycled glass beaded necklaces. Love these.

retro Afrique

Wanted it..didn't buy it

Like a lot

my shoes match the spoons!

Disco

these are mine and I love them

What do we think about these horn earrings?

Awesomeness

Masai love - would you wear these colorful beaded earrings?

Beaded spoons in a banana leaf box

Serving thingy dingies

paper bead necklaces with flair

African patchwork bags

awww.iddy biddy elephant backpack

awesome quilts

Do you guys like these cross body bags?

Don't forget to leave your comments!!! I like to know what other people think about this stuff for gifts and things. and I promise I wont say YOUS in the next post ;-)