Brooke's Update

Jambo! ( Swahili for hello).
I think that Rachel and I have made quite an impression on this trip to Melako Conservancy. Can you imagine 2 blonde ( ever so slightly loud) Aussie girls in the middle of northern Kenya? I had a feeling we were starting to infiltrate local society when some of the warriors were making it very clear that they would like their 2nd wives to be Australian. We told them they were crazy as Aussie girls would be just too much trouble. On pondering this, it was decided that we were probably right (we burn in the African sun too easily, we snore, eat too much) so therefore they would offer a reduced bride price to our families, of only 5 cows..... and possibly 1 goat instead of the going rate of 9 cows!!! I said that's fine, but only good looking cows need apply....... thank you very much! I've been offered a thousand chickens before, so I think I'm moving up in the world and I could never quite imagine mum and dad's place in Geelong with a thousand Kenyan chickens in the garden!
Now it must be made clear right from the start that Rach and I have a rather large obsession with food, especially chocolate. Which is in very short supply in the north. Rach, being very farsighted and well prepared for chocolate deprivation, had bought 2 packs of snakes and some Caramello Koalas before we left Australia. We knew things were going to be tight, but I must say I never thought I'd have to ration jelly snakes (1 per day) to get us through. We have also bought some local fudge, which I'm not sure I can actually describe, not even the locals really eat it, so that should be saying something. But when you are desperate for a sweet fix, anything will do, even if the use by date was sometime last century!

Slaughter the cabbage!
The generosity of the Melako community is so incredible, they share their food, their homes, and give anyone a chance and they can cook a mean 3 course meal using just goat, potatoes and cabbage!. Mind you once you've had goat cooked 20 different ways for breakfast, lunch and dinner, including all the "delicious" inside bits you start to dream about a really luscious fruit salad ( I also dream about pina coladas, I think Rach was mumbling something about Mexican in her sleep last night). To make things even more interesting, Rachel is vegetarian. Now this is unheard of in the remote parts of Kenya and the gamescouts and other local villagers just can't understand it. When Rach first told the scouts she was vegetarian, there was a moment of confused silence, then frenzied whispering in Samburu, then silence until one of the scouts, Leolo, piped up and said " what's a vegetarian?" Rach replied it meant she didn't eat meat. Again rapid whispering and Mpakayu said "you don't eat meat, Ok. What about goat?" No, not even goat, "what about the liver?" it was hilarious. So it was decided unanimously by the scouts that each meal time, they would slaughter a goat for me and a cabbage for Rach. It has become quite the running joke in camp.

Another very popular food/drink in Kenya is an exceptionally sweet tea made from camel's milk. It took me a while to get used to it the first time I came to Melako, as it has quite a salty flavour, but actually really grows on you. To keep the milk fresh it is stored in a gourd. The gourds are cleaned with hot ash swirled around the inside with a dried cow tail ( I bet you all thinking how appealing that sounds). The result is a tea that is rather salty, charcoally, camelly, cowy in flavour, and I'm sure it covers about 5 food groups all on it's own!! Do you know in spite of all of this I've never had an upset stomach, and I try and cook goat at home every now and then. But I don't think Rach will ever look at a cabbage again!

Kwaheri ( good bye)
Brooke