30 Apr 12
Food in Mozambique is awesome. Awesome enough it gets special blog attention.
Indian appetizers:
Check out our awesome market lunch that cost like a dollar:
Closer in:
The white stuff is Xima (pronounced SHE-ma), which is Pap. What’s pap? The staple of South Africa–corn meal and water, think like polenta.
The green stuff is some sort of mix of greens and berries of some sort. We were told it was “medicine”. It had an almost alkaline taste, but still was pretty nice.
Polony and egg:
I’ve blogged about Polony before, but it’s Bologna spelled for humans. This reminded me of Taylor Ham and Egg, and made me homesick for food I never want to eat at home.
This was purchased in a Chinese market:
This is, of course, Puta Leisure Food (sadly ruined by the flash). Polyglots will recognize the word “puta”, please discuss in the comments.
It wasn’t very tasty.
24 Apr 12
Between New Years and the start of the school year, I was lucky enough to make a trip to Mozambique. Samora Machel, leader of the revolution, welcomes you to the capital, Maputo:
Joining me on my adventures is my buddy Marc, who came all the way from his home in Korea to babysit me while we ventured into the real Africa. Here Marc presents us with a 2M, which is better than any beer I’ve had in South Africa:
To balance out the beer:
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18 Apr 12
Big readers might remember over a year ago when I first posted about screwing.
Truthfully, screwing (spinning) usually takes place in specially built venues. Some enterprising individual realized that the store parking lot was probably not the best place for this, and that there were a lot of people here who would pay to see it. So somebody went and built one at my site. They had their first event in December:
Admission was 50rand, or about 7 dollars. But that’s a pretty big chunk of cash here. So a lot of people were content to just watch from a road bridge that sort of overlooked the venue:
And…the videos:
Check out this genius, who realized that partially malfunctioning nitrous afterburner can be used as a heat source (MOVIE).
Not as awesome, but check out this dude who doesn’t care about the car skidding around him (MOVIE).
And for you screwing megafans, just a normal car spinning in the daytime (MOVIE).
11 Apr 12
A few photos from my life.
This happened at my school:
Using foam suits to sell stuff to kids is universal. Dance off:
Accidental video game reference:
And the most important thing ever, Soya Mince. Vegan:
What’s going on here? Soya mince is textured soy protien, dried and mixed with spices. You add boiling water and voila, instant cheap protein source. You can find soya mince everywhere, and if you don’t have money it’s practically a staple. This is what the future of meat eating looks like, America.
It’s not very good. Even the peperoni flavor. I find peperoni flavor especially amusing because peperoni only exists in major pizza chains here. I’ve never seen it in a supermarket–I’m sure it exists, but it is a lot more difficult to find than peperoni flavored soya mince. The overlap of people who eat soya mince and people who seek out peperoni is a very small set. I might be the only person. I’m awesome.
09 Apr 12
The final stop in Kenya before I left was Mombasa, Kenya’s second city. It’s a very different scene than Nairobi. It’s coastal, very Islamic, and you can feel the influence of the various cultures and occupiers that have passed through.
Because our time in Mombasa was short, we went with a whirlwind day tour.
These metal tusks were erected to commemorate the visit of some crusty British royalty. Now they’re famous or something:
Because Mombasa is basically an island, ferries are necessary:
Tourist trappers:
Our tour guide took us to a spice shop. While it was kind of cheesy and I’m sure they got a cut, it was still pretty amazing. And yeah, the spices were awesome. Guess who scored some saffron at like 1/20 the price it costs in America?
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06 Apr 12
After our adventures around Kenya, we returned to Nairobi for a very packed day.
We started with a visit to a craft market in Nairobi. It was out of the way and we attracted A LOT of attention. Thankfully, we had Julius taking care of us:
Weaving:
Making Beadwork:
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27 Mar 12
Not really the last chance, but the last chance to support my running of the Longtom Marathon this upcoming Saturday.
I’m running a half marathon to raise money for the KLM Foundation. The KLM Foundation provides children from economically disadvantaged (rural) communities scholarships to attend private school. Their focus is on finding and educating the future leaders of South Africa.
Donations make me happy, and will result in a personalized piece of mail to you, dear donor, that you will be able to sell when I’m famous. Famous for raising money, obviously. Oh, and for being awesome. This probably isn’t as good as my last post asking for donations, so read that if you haven’t.
I’m in the running to be one of the top fundraisers. Don’t you want to help me win…a hoodie?
Donating is easy:
1) Go to the KLM Foundation Website and click the Donate button in the top right corner. (Or just follow this direct link)
2) Fill out the form. You can donate (much) less than $100 if you want. 5$ is fantastic.
3) In the Longtom Marathon box (“If you are making this donation in support of a participant in the Longtom Marathon, please indicate the runner’s name”) put my name, Michael Sherman .
You can also donate by check. Ask me for help or read the instructions on the Donate page.
Please let me know if you have problems or questions, or have a peek at the KLM website.
Yay!
26 Mar 12
Lake Bogoria!
Lake Bogoria is primarily famous for two things. Pink Flamingos!
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22 Mar 12
After visiting the family farm, and one of Joe’s brothers, Fred, on his farm, we headed towards Lake Bogoria. This required an overnight in Elbasan, where I got awesome food poisoning. Travel!
Elbasan is in the mountains, and is near this place where they train marathoners
And then, a view of the Great Rift Valley:
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14 Mar 12
After a long day on the road, we arrived at the farm of my Uncle Joe’s Kenyan family. We were fed extremely well:
Then we promptly passed out from exhaustion and deliciousness.
The next morning, with mama and her sister:
Peeling roots:
The house:
In the middle is Uncle Julius, one of Joe’s Kenyan brothers. This house is where we stayed, and is where Julius and his wife, Benji, plan to retire to.
Julius took us on a walk around the village:
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Filed under Africa, Education, Personal Experiences, Vacation | Tagged: chief, corruption, equator, farm, farming, kenya, lake victoria, life, meat, obama, school, sugar cane
