Last night as we greeted Jeri and Hans in the yard, Tom took this shot.
What a glorious dinner we had last night with our guests, Jeri and Hans! We couldn’t have had a more perfect evening. The temperature in the 70s, by dark, with the mosquitoes at bay after my indulgent use of repellent and BugsAway clothing.
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| Only moments later he took this shot, but oddly, the sky appeared brighter. |
Yesterday’s grocery shopping was a bit of a challenge with guests coming for dinner, with little idea as to what to make. With limited ingredients available for our American way of cooking, we opted for a tried and true menu, easy to prepare in the tiny galley kitchen.
We pulled off a delicious dinner with the limited cookware on hand. Yesterday, Hesborn brought us a bowl from Hans’ house which we will continue to use while we’re here. We’ve been using cooking pots as bowls these past few weeks. I was so excited about the bowl that I feared Jeri and Hans could assume that we invited them for dinner for the bowl.
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| Tom took this photo from the 2nd level of the strip mall as I was grocery shopping on Tuesday morning. He was upstairs to purchase additional data for the borrowed Hotspot. |
Here was our menu:
- Marinated Fresh Garlic Filet Mignon: so tender that we cut it with our butter knives
- Butter Sautéed Button Mushrooms
- Eggplant, Zucchini, and Carrot Ratatouille (using available ingredients)
- Steamed Long Grain White Rice
- Coleslaw: Our usual recipe
- Garlic bread: made with the bread we purchased yesterday morning when it was still warm, to which I added unsalted butter, fresh diced garlic, garlic salt, all topped with Parmesan Cheese and placed under the broiler for 2 minutes
(I didn’t have any rice or bread due to my way of eating. Tom splurged partaking of all but the veggies).
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| Yet another baboon shot on our return cab ride from the grocery store. They approach the car when we stop, curious to see what food we may have for them. We had none but a lot of tourists buy bananas to give to them. |
Setting the table with what that which we had on hand, using paper napkins as shown in this photo, it all turned out to my liking, picky that I am when serving guests.
Our guests, Jeri and Hans, couldn’t have been more delightful. The conversation flowed as did the drinks for Hans and Tom. Jeri and I stuck with the non-alcoholic beverages.
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| Quickly losing interest in us when we had no bananas, he meandered off for hers/his day’s tasks. |
Even Gucci and Jessie, their two precious little dogs spent the evening with us, lying at our feet, hoping for a dropped morsel. Jessie had disappeared Monday night. Jeri and Hans looked everywhere for her until, by sheer luck, she was returned moments before our dinner last night by a local resident after word got out that she was missing. With our love of dogs, we too, worried along with them, fearing her fate. What a stroke of kindness and good fortune!
At the end of our evening, Jeri and Hans invited us to their home next door for dinner on Saturday night. We’d already made a reservation for dinner at a local restaurant, happily and easily changing it to Friday. Offering to bring something to add to their meal on Saturday night, they both jumped in at the same time, “Could you bring that salad?” We all laughed. Darn, that coleslaw is good. We never tire of eating it keeping a steady inventory of the necessary ingredients on hand.
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| Our glass table was set and ready for our dinner guests. With no Windex or glass cleaner in the grocery stores, I’ve had a heck of a time cleaning the glass tabletop. I asked Hesborn how he is able to clean it so well with no streaks. He said he uses soap and water on a rag, drying it with a dry towel. I tried this method, only to end up with streaks. Guess I’ll watch him do it today. |
Frequently entertaining guests in our old lives, doing so once again brought a new enthusiasm. We hadn’t had dinner guests since we lived in Belize from January 29 to April 9, 2013. The chopping and dicing were tricky with dull knives and no mechanical chopping devices.
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| Gucci, a male and larger of the two dogs and Jessie also joined us for dinner last night. |
Soon, when our package arrives from the US, we’ll have our own Mezzaluna knife that we’d discovered in Tuscany, making chopping and dicing a breeze.
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| This is Jessie, who disappeared for 24 hours to later be returned by a kind local man after he’d heard that a small long-haired dog was on the loose. |
Today, we’re going on an outing with Hans to see the properties he’s building in the area. Of course, we’ll take photos sharing the details here tomorrow, in the same manner, we’d done for Roger and Nancy on the fabulous house they’d built in Belize.
We find it interesting to peruse real estate values in the countries we visit. Doing so provides us a better perspective of the local architecture, the culture, and the property values, adding to our repertoire of knowledge that we gratefully acquire traveling the world.
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| Jeri and Hans, our landlords, neighbors and new friends joined us for dinner last night. |
Again today, it’s slightly cooler and less humid. This morning I hand washed my BugsAway clothing, dirty from all the cooking last night. Hopefully, they’ll dry by tonight to further arm me for yet another evening in our outdoor living room, which actually, folks, I’m beginning to enjoy much more than I’d expected only a few short weeks ago.
Tomorrow, we’ll share many photos and the story of visiting Hans’s construction site where 50 local workers diligently forged ahead in the blazing sun and humidity. This offered us an interesting glimpse into the culture and lives of workers in Kenya, a true culture shock.