Quiz: "The Price Is Right" at Toyworld

In Nairobi, there is a shopping complex called ABC place, which is a wazungu (white people) oasis. In one place, we can get fresh veggies, excellent meat (including a crocodile steak that I'm eager to try), yummy groceries, fresh groceries, deworming meds, go to a Barclay's ATM, and grab a lunch of awesome cappuccino and a bleu cheese burger. There was even a hair salon specializing in white people's hair, but it has since moved. Alas.

One of the lesser known features of ABC place is ToyWorld, which is on the second floor, but it has long been rumored that you can find all sorts of western kids' toys there, if you were willing to pay the price. A few weeks ago, we decided to venture upstairs to ToyWorld, to see what it was all about. Whoa. You can really find a lot of stuff there.

Listed below are five items we found at ToyWorld, listed in no particular order. We would like you all to guess the price (in USD) of each item. For extra credit, guess which two items are exactly the same price. There is no penalty for over-bidding, so no $1 guesses. Sorry, Bob Barker.

-1 Hotwheels Car

-8 Crayola Markers

-Cranium Game

-600 piece picture puzzle

-Kids bicycle

Answers (with some other pricing just for fun) to be revealed in future post.

Taking a Trip to Nairobi

In the past several months, we have driven back and forth to Nairobi a total of 5 times, and we'll be doing it again this Wednesday. This time, it's to pick up Eric's renewed US passport, visit immigration, and try and find the elusive Burundian embassy, to procure a visa for upcoming travel there.

So, we've gotten to know this route well, and for those who might be interested, I thought I'd guide you through it, accompanied by some of my favorite signs.

We start by driving our van by the hospital, dodging a million matatus, who have parked there with impunity. This 100m stretch is by far the worst stretch of road in the whole trip. Next, we drive 10 minutes to Bomet, our nearest town, and I always hope to catch a glimpse of the matatu bus that bears a window decal that reads "Israeli Vibrations". Why? I don't know.

The next hour is all good road (since the recent pothole repair project), and we go through several small roadside towns, including one that boasts the "Hilarious Mascot General Stores" sign seen below.
After an hour, we come to the district capital city of Narok, which is a Maasai city (though most people think of the Maasai as semi-nomadic, some of them are quite urbanized). Among other things, this city boasts a little tea garden with killer samosas, and a couple lovely signs including the "Moran Driving School" seen below.
After Narok (which is, incidentally, the branch point for tourists going down to Maasai Mara Game Reserve), there is another 30 minutes or so before you open up onto the Great Rift Valley, a stunning landscape with several volcanic mountains. We wind down into the valley, and for the next hour, you have the best chance of seeing game animals. On a given trip, we usually see 1-2 of either giraffes, zebra, Thomson gazelles, or baboons. At the other end of the valley, there is a 20-minute drive up a steep escarpment, in which you will inevitably get stuck behind a truck going 5 kph, and might have to pass him on a curve.

Once out of the valley, there is a slow descent into Nairobi, passing first through a few outlying towns and roadside vendors selling local pears and roasted maize. Then the roads get busier and more well-established, even if there are more potholes. A weird sort of wealth and commercialism, unique within Kenya to Nairobi, creeps in, and there is an advert for the 2010 Ford Everest SUV. Eventually we make our way through some very treacherous multi-lane roundabouts and turn off to the Samaritan's Purse guesthouse (our preferred lodging), which is located in two apartments within a complex near downtown.

All in all, it's close to 3.5 hours, and almost the entire way is paved, which is a huge blessing, since this was just completed within the last year.

Visiting Chepkurbet Church

Though we've already told a little (or rather giraffe-huge) story about our trip to Nairobi, there was a small excursion the week prior that we wanted to share.

Some new friends of ours here, veteran missionaries Jeff and Christine, invited us to ride with them out to a nearby (but not on the hospital grounds) church for a Sunday morning service. We jumped at the chance, and thus we found ourselves worshiping in an all-Kipsigis language service, and the church of Chepkurbet.

Part of the story of the church is that for years, they have been a very small congregation (probably about 40 people total our morning), and they slowly saved up money to buy a plot of land for their church. They found someone willing to sell them the property meter by meter. So when they had enough for a meter, they would pay the guy, and he would move the boundary fence another meter. When they had a strip about 10 meters wide (and this in the middle of a very rural area), they built the first church, seen on the left above. This became the church as they slowly bought meter after meter, eventually with enough land to build the structure on the right, which you can see by the interior picture below is a much roomier space, with much room to grow (especially with high crowd density that is the norm here).

The inside is dirt floors, with rows of rough-hewn planks, with two backed benches, one of which was immediately offered to us. The service starts at 10ish, and we showed up about 10:15, and people trickled in over the next hour, and then we got started.

What followed was a long series of scripture readings, greetings (we were invited up to say a few words, and our untranslated English was greeted with unanimous smiles, if not comprehension), testimonies, a sermon by one of the village ladies (there is no trained pastor), and a bunch of songs. The music was interesting, but my discussion of it would really be too lengthy. Forgive me.

Maggie was, expectedly, the center of much excitement, especially in this child-dominated congregation. She endured the long service quite well, but started to get whiny towards the end. Rachel thought she would take her outside to feed her, and Maggie's exit was apparently a stimulus for the mass exodus of the children of the church. They followed her immediately, and more children were already outside. Thus, when the service ended 10-15 minutes later, I came out into the sunlight to be greeted by the scene below (though only a fraction of the kids are in the picture). No fear, Maggie never minds being the center of attention. All in all, a lovely excursion into yet another manifestation of the body of Christ.

Traveler's Club International Restaurant & Tuba Museum

It's true. We're back in Michigan for a week, and decided to take advantage of our proximity to Grand Rapids, and meet up halfway with the newly married Alex and Tabitha Blanski (our cousins).

Halfway is the Lansing area, and Alex suggested a unique little venue in Okemos, Michigan, just east of Lansing: The Travelers Club International Restaurant & Tuba Museum. A little hole-in-the-wall where the "international" menu ranges from gyros to Indonesian dishes to buffalo burgers (which are very low in cholesterol. Who Knew?). The "Travelers Club" part apparently refers to the various world maps hung up around the place, and the impressive international beer selection (though all their drafts were from various Michigan microbrews). And the "Tuba Museum" part was just what it sounds like. All the way around the restaurant were hung up around 50 tubas and tuba-like instruments. The first couple pages of the menu described the significance of some of the more memorable tubas. Perhaps best of all (partly because of it's being so underwhelming) was the world's only "sousaphountain", pictured below.

Every small town should have a place like this. Genuine, kooky, and with some very tasty food and drink. Thanks for suggesting it, Alex.

Rachel's Brain Brings Home The Bacon

This being her last year of residency, Rachel has completed her research project, "The Implementation of Standardized Treatment of Patients with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus." It reads like a John Grisham novel, I assure you.

Now we all know that Rachel is a smart one. Or as we say in our house, according to the Wooster fashion, "she eats a lot of fish" (now that she's not pregnant). Yet this world in which we live is not always one that rewards such brilliance.

So we were extra delighted when she beat all other contenders at her home hospital for her research project, and an extra little check made its way to our burgeoning family. This success also made her the hospital's candidate for the regional research presentations and competition.

So, last week, we headed out to Rochester Hills, a northern Detroitland suburb, to a place called Meadowood Hall. We had no idea a place like this existed in our general area. It was built in the 1920's by the widow of John Dodge (of auto fame), after the style of various historical British manor homes. It was absolutely idyllic, and after sitting in a gazebo in some perfect weather for awhile, Rachel went into her conference, and Maggie and I walked around the grounds for a bit (well, she didn't actually walk), and found a pint-sized building, that was a gift to the Dodge's 12-year old daughter. A fully functioning house to teach her how to run a household. Then we joined in for Rachel's presentation, where she wowed the crowd, and Maggie behaved perfectly and earned many adoring fans. After another monetary prize, we headed home, but thought we would share the sites with you all.

Adventures in Dearborn

Sometimes in the Michigan winters, one can get complacent and neglect opportunities that still persist all around you. My first couple years in Michigan, I visited everywhere within a 5-hour radius of Ann Arbor, and now after 7 years, I have to fight the temptation to become one of those people who have never been to some interesting place, even though it's been 30 minutes away all this time.

So this past Sunday, while our house was being shown for the 2nd time (to different people), we decided to head to Dearborn. Dearborn is a Detroit suburb which is the heart of the Ford Motor Company. It is also the center of Middle Eastern culture in the United States. Spillover from this has provided us with many yummy foods and interesting cultural moments in Ann Arbor, but neither of us had ventured into the heart of the city.

Now that we've been there, we sort of understand why, though if a local were showing us around, I'm sure we would have found more places of interest. Our first stop was to the Islamic Center of America, which might be the largest mosque in the US. We have only visited old world mosques in various other countries, and so this was interesting. Big, but not really ornate. And it bore a number of resemblences to modern American megachurches (including coffee shop, gift shop, and fellowship halls). Maybe these similarities are the parts not intrinsic to either religion, just to America.

Our second (though primary) goal was to find a bakery where they served this Lebanese treat that we had tasted in Dubai, while hanging out in a bathroom, trying not to eat in public during Ramadan. We drove down the streets of Arabic shop names, and pulled into Alsultan bakery, where we didn't see the pastry on the shelves, but I explained it to the lady there, and she went to the back where they had some fresh ones. "Zaatar" is a flat bread cooked with lots of yummy thyme and (we think) lemon. They also serve them with cheese. We bought a couple and ate the hot one in the car on the way home, the latter preserved now in our fridge.

Not the craziest outing, but good to stretch our legs and once again feel like we're taking in the world around us.

Observations From -29F

I call Tennessee my home, where the Christmases are tender and the schools close for cold rain. However, I am going on my 7th year in Ann Arbor, and my standards have been redefined during this time. I can now drive in snow. Warm beverages are a staple. 20 (F) is the new 40.

Nevertheless, this morning is easily the single coldest morning I have experienced in over 2000 days in Ann Arbor, and it took about 15 seconds to realize it, despite the fact that yesterday was -1F. I walked (briskly) to the bus stop, shivered for a bit, got on and tried to warm my toes, and then we passed the Big Red "A", which has a digital thermometer, which said -14F. Once at work, weather.com pronounced my wind chill -29F. Some observations from this new nadir:

1. I hope I never get accustomed to this.
2. Beards freeze within 20 seconds.
3. Nose hairs also freeze.
4. Bus doors get stuck.
5. The combined body heat of a packed city bus will still not warm up my feet.

Winter Wonderland

Over the last 36 hours, we have gotten a steady snowfall resulting in about 10 inches on the ground currently. And it's the nice non-windy version where every last tree limb is outlined in white, and icicles from each of the eaves. Then, this morning, the sun is out, and all of the work from shoveling doesn't matter as much as the natural beauty of a crisp winter day. Since this is likely our last snowy winter for some years to come, I guess I'm getting nostalgic.

Fall Apples

A couple photos from our annual apple-picking foray. Will this be our last time to pick apples for quite a while? Probably. And it good time it was. We continue to discover new varieties every year. We're not going for all of the Big Five of Michigan fruit picking this year. (see last year) However, we did get strawberries, blueberries, and apples. Thanks to the Rockes for joining us.


It must be said that apple picking is really secondary to the real activity, which is the post-picking consumption of fresh cider and apple cinnamon donuts. So good. I think the expression on Rachel's face really says it all.

Mayoral News

Kwame Kilpatrick has plea bargained and agreed to step down. It even made the front page of BBC news. There's still a lot of injury to the city to answer for, but may better days come for the city of Detroit.

What Detroit Doesn't Need

For a while now, I've thought of putting up a post regarding an ongoing story in southeast Michigan, for all those of you who are outside the state, and thus most likely blissfully unaware of this saga, though it is the front newspaper story for Detroit more days than not.

Our favorite exclamation for Detroit (recently one of Forbes' Top 10 Fastest Dying US Cities) comes from Michigander Sufjan Stevens: "O Detroit! Lift Up Your Weary Head!" The city has an incredible amount of need. It would seem that almost any willing hand would be a net asset to this city. Instead, they have Kwame Kilpatrick.

Once a rising star and apparently fairly impressive politician, he was elected at the age of 31 to be mayor of Detroit. His first term was scandalized with $210,000 worth of inappropriate charges on the city's dime, including a luxury car for his wife, very expensive champagne, and day spa visits. After this being brought to light, he has paid back $9000 of the charges. Then, he was re-elected for a second term. (Shock and awe.)

The first term now seems like the good ole' days when Kwame was just spending the money needed for schools and healthcare on Moet et Chandon. Since then, the allegations have been marital infidelity, perjury, conspiracy, and murder. The explicit text messages he sent to his staffwoman and "mistress" were the basis for the court case against him. He is the only current mayor of a major US city to be charged with a felony while in office. During this whole circus, he appeared on TV and gave Rachel's personal favorite Kwame-ism: "I won't quit on you, Detroit." Please, Kwame, quit on us.

Last month, he violated the terms of his bond and went to Canada without approval, and thus got landed in jail. Tomorrow, the governor of the state will hold a hearing regarding whether or not to remove him from office. There's more of the story here. The murder allegations are particularly and unsurprisingly disturbing. So, pray for the people of Detroit, and have a little grace for the other political circles that aren't as bad as they could be.

Geocache #100

We will not rehash the glories of one of our most treasured recreational activities, geocaching. Suffice to say that the Edwards family are testament to the fact that this is the wave of the future - the wave of the - the wave of the future.

Since we got our GPS 2 years ago and joined the ranks of the coolest people in the world, we have discovered parks and scenic views all over the world that we wouldn't have known otherwise. Last week, we found 3 more, which put us up over the 100 mark for total caches found. We decided to combine this with our lesser-known New Year's resolution (the more publicized being "Ethnic Bread of the Month"), which is to walk to a local restaurant every month.

We discovered a cache out in front of the Corner Brewery, a venue we had been meaning to visit for a while now, and celebrated our #100 with a couple fine brews while we played 90's Trivial Pursuit. We would tell you where exactly by the Corner Brewery said cache is hidden, but that would be breaking the secret and sacred blood oath we had to talk in order to become cachers. Sorry.

Gas Prices

It was humorous in a sad way, as I was bussing into work tonight, that I noted that all of the Ypsilanti gas stations were at 3.999 per gallon. Normally, there's a good spread in the pricing, with the cheapest being this really ghetto BP near our house that does great car repair.

But now they're all the same. Teetering at less than $4 by only a 1/10 of a cent. Truth be told, gas for 4.009 is not really much more expensive, but we've been going up and up, and it's like all the gas stations stopped at the edge of this cliff, peering over, then looking back doubtfully at each other saying, "No, you go first." One station didn't even put any numbers up, which I'm assuming means they've breached the $4 barrier but would rather just not advertise at all.

I thought this would maybe be a good thing, even if irrational, for putting a pseudo-cap on petrol pricing. Then, the bus passed into Ann Arbor, and they apparently have no problem going over 4. Man, I'm thankful for this bus.

The Myriad of Ann Arbor Culture

Eric has now lived in Ann Arbor almost 6 six years, and Rachel almost 3 years. Yet we are still amazed at the new experiences we encounter and wonder how we've not taken advantage of them all this time.

Last Wednesday, we bussed up to our friend Eunice's house, then walked up to Hill Auditorium, a beautiful historic U of M structure (where Eric graduated) to take in a free concert by the Campus orchestra. We picked it out, because "Claire de Lune" was on the website, and even though it mysteriously disappeared from the program, there were some wonderfully classic pieces enjoyed by all. Plus, there was this awesome conductor named Yaniv, who had a great accent and this very cool casual way of going about a rather formal event, i.e. an orchestra concert. Plus, since Eric gets free bus access and Rachel had a coupon, the whole evening, transport included, was completely free! Why have we not been doing this regularly (we have done it occassionally) up till now.

Eunice let us know about some shows coming up in the next few weeks, with some of the more premiere symphonies and orchestras from campus, so we'll try to dip in again. Ann Arborites: here's the weblink with the calendar. Do yourself a favor and check it out. Seriously, there are multiple events every night.

The Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor

This is fascinating. The other day, when walking around downtown Ann Arbor with Rachel and Kim (see below), we passed The Ark, the fine folk venue where we took in an excellent Christmas show by Over the Rhine two months ago. Rachel points and exclaims "Look, a Fairy Door! I've heard about these." A what?

Apparently, there has arisen a little-known (obviously "little-known" since I was out of the loop until a couple days ago, right?) practice of the installation of "fairy doors" into the exteriors of various Ann Arbor homes and businesses. There's even one at the public library and a local elementary school. I don't know too much of the background, but the meister of this project has a full description to enjoy if you'd like.

As soon as we noted the door at The Ark, we kept our eyes open, and there was another found a few doors down. This secret world has been opened to us, much like when we first discovered geocaching (see link at sidebar). In fact, we may try and rig up a virtual multi-cache to tour the fairy doors of Ann Arbor. I realize this last sentence makes sense to about 5 people who are likely to view this blog.

Google has recently opened some offices in our fair(y) city, and were apparently not slow to be visited by the pixies, who are apparently not without a sense of "cute".