Yummers

So I think "sukuma mimi" was a really really apt title for this blog. I guess if I haven't turned into a pickle or a macaroni by this time in my life, I probably won't turn into sukuma wiki, but I definitely eat enough of it to think I might. Also, it's delicious. When I go to the fish restaurant near the field site where they don't even serve beans (the chicken restaurant across the street does have tasty beans but I'm generally with people who prefer the place that serves tilapia straight from the lake) I get ugali, sukuma wiki, and kachumbari (tomato and onion salad). Like I said, it's delicious. Then I come home and have some sukuma wiki for dinner too, but luckily get some lentils in too.

 

In other news, today I distributed the first of the phones to a few animal health reporters for our pilot run. I also worked on training the animal health technicians in various things including how to send e-mail attachments. I didn't really consider this until now, but of the three of them that were there, one has an e-mail address which he doesn't really use, another set up an e-mail account a long time ago and never used it, and the third has never dealt with e-mail. These are young and educated people that do know the essentials of using a computer but not much more. So, me saying "and then fill out this form and e-mail it to me every Friday" really doesn't cut it. I guess I am lucky to be as computer literate as I am, having the instinct and knowing where to look to solve problems. It's been really great working through everything with them though, because they are super enthusiastic and really want to learn and really contribute to the studies they work on. They also have great ideas and suggestions and can think of a ton of potential problems that I wouldn't think of until it caused a major roadblock. Honestly we come up against enough little problems every day, like there being very little cell phone reception in the office where our cellular modem server is (aggh!), that any chance to anticipate problems is super helpful.

 

This Friday is a public holiday for the promulgation of the new constitution! Whoo hoo! I might take the long weekend and try to go somewhere fun and relatively nearby. Forest, mountain, savannah, lake? WHO KNOWS.