Corn, Fishy fish, and Strikes...

Welcome again to Linders' Comedy Hour!  (Hopefully it doesn't really take you an hour to read this.)  That's right it's "Das not funny Friday" EVERYDAY!  For those of you who have missed the last few posts I encourage you to go back and read for some hopeful good laughs.  It's my attempt to "forget about it" (adoption chaos) and laugh at the everyday things that are going on around us here in Kenya.  

Today I'd like to show you a few pictures of a REAL stand I saw at the Sarit Center (like a shopping mall).  Chris and I had to go get my phone fixed at this mall and just outside the Safaricom store this is the food stand we saw:

That's right folks the "Hot n' Corny" corn stand!  I know it's dark, but hopefully you get the picture.  What do they sell you ask?  What is in that massive silver vat you say?  Well, piping hot corn of course.  And only hot corn.  No drinks, desserts, or marshmallows- just a small ice cream cup of hot, steamy corn.  They will add in a spoon full of mayo and stir it around for you upon request though.  GEEROSS!  

The title alone seems a bit fishy to me.  Speaking of fish...

This is Taphrosa, Pastor Indiazi's wife.  Last Thursday we went to Kibera as usual.  Well I walked into their house and immediately was smacked by the horrendous smell of old fish.  So I followed my nose into the kitchen and there lay before me a huge round plate of old, dried fish.  I said "Mama!(a term of respect here)- What are you going to do with this fish?"  She told me Meshack (her son-in-law) brought it back from the Congo!  She said she was going to take the scales off of them with a knife and soak them to get some of the salt off and make the meat poof up.  mmmm.  Don't get me wrong, I really like fish.  I would go as far as saying I love fish- tuna in a can, crappy, trout, salmon, cat, who cares!  My daddy raised me a fishin' girl- loved to go fishin' with my dad.  (Whereas my brother would eat all the snacks then ask when we were going home. huhuh.)  Then I'd watch him for as long as it took him to fillet them all.  (I usually sat there begging him to please open the belly of every fish and show me what they had eaten.  He probably regretted ever doing that for me the first time.)  

Whatever Taphrosa was doing with the fish was making my stomach turn a bit though. We were there for four hours and she was working on scaling those fish for 3 of them.  Towards the end I started taking them and just peeling the skin and scales off.  She looked at me with a furrowed brow.  What?  It just made sense to me.  Picking the scales off with a knife was for the birds!  After a minute of watching me she said "Here. Do the rest so that I don't have to."  Hahah.  I just laughed at her.  We got a good laugh together.   (Prolly not as funny to you.  Had to be there.) 

EWE!

And last but not least let me introduce you to Kararapon Rd.  This is the main road that leads to our house.  There is a guard at that little shack 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  The guard opens and closes the gate all day to vehicles going and coming.  If it is an unfamiliar one then he inquires about their destination in our neighborhood.  

Yesterday apparently they were on strike though.  Graig was the first to leave the house yesterday morning to take Melia to school.  Graig pulled to the gate and no one opened it.  The guard that works it everyday as there but walked off as soon as G pulled up.  Another man comes to the window and tells G he will need to open his own gate because "people" haven't paid their security fees.  G talked to the man for a few minutes about how he hasn't heard anything about it.  He said how do you know who has paid and who hasn't?  He said he had a list of names.  G said "what's my name?"  Finally he got out and opened it himself then politely closed it.  Melia yelled out the window to the man "I better not be late for school!" hahah

So the funny thing about all this is IF you are striking then WHY would you even come to work?  He was there all day, IN the guard shack, but would walk off as soon as a car came up.  And just for the record our landlord pays our security fees (or doesn't- we don't know) and we give the guards money every month that we aren't required to give them.  I just found that funny that he would come to work, wearing his uniform, not actually work - ON STRIKE.