The Rush Toward the Reading Challenge

One of my goals for 2011 is to read 24 books and I track my books on Goodreads along with others who participate in self-defined goals for the reading year.  While this may not seem like a lot of books to read, one can quickly fall behind in the goal unless plans are made and time is set aside to read throughout the week.  I've actually done a fair bit of reading since the Fall but some of them were rather lengthy.  A few of them were about 1000 pages (Pillars of the Earth and Anna Karenina) each and that also impacted on my goal of reading two books per month.

I've decided I must make real progress on the number of books read before the summer is out.  The sooner I do that, the sooner I can also give my books to someone else to enjoy.  That will help me in another goal for 2011; to fully declutter the condo.

This week, I'd like to share some of my recently read books with you. I don't go in for writing extensive reviews of the content of books and highlighting especially interesting or meaningful passages. I prefer to enjoy reading my books and give short summaries or impressions of what I've read. 

French Fried
Written by an American in Paris. It is charmingly written with anecdotes about the author's life in Paris and her forays into learning how to cook as well as learning the art and beauty of the French approach to eating and living. I've always been fascinated by France and French living. I enjoyed the book because of insights into the culture as contrasted with American culture.

Teacher Man
Written by Irish American author Frank McCourt of Angele's Ashes fame. I found this book very interesting because I too have a background in teaching.  I enjoyed Mr. McCourt's recounting of his early teaching days and what he had to say about his fears, hopes and experiences during his teaching career in New York.

Joshua's Bible
Written by  Shelly Leanne this thrift store find turned out to be a very pleasant and interesting read. Set in the mid-1930s, it is a book about a Black American preacher sent to South Africa by his "white" missions group to "civilize and christianize" the Africans. Movingly written it takes us through the joys and sorrows of the young preacher, Reverend Clay, and his experiences with the tribal peoples of South Africa. Over his period of two years he opens his eyes to the truth of the African experience and history and their hopes for emancipation and equality.  Despite what sounds like a heavy book, I found this to be a pleasant read with a nice rhythm to it.

Leaning Into God, When Life is Pushing You Away
I won this book through a giveaway and I will need to write a proper review of it as my "payment" for receiving the book for free.  Written by Reverend Robert Anthony Schuller, this book explores the various ways in which individuals lose or experience interference with their connection to God.  The author explains how emotions such as shame, regret, fear, and disappointment can stand in the way of our intimacy with God.  Reverend Schuller leads the reader through ways to reconnect with God and after each chapter asks incisive questions for us to consider and to help draw out our understanding of what causes our disconnect/connections with God.

Autism's Hidden Blessings: Discovering god's Promises for autistic Children & Their Families
This is another book I received in a giveaway and for which I need to draft a proper review. The book was written by Kelly Langston, a mother of an autistic son. This book was somewhat different than I anticipated. I had thought it would be more of memoir of a mother dealing with an autistic son. Instead it turned out to be a good bible study on turning to God as a source of help in dealing with an autistic child.  The book is also sprinkled with good discussion points, summary points and anecdotes about the Langston family experiences in raising an autistic child.  I was highly interested in reading this book because my family raised an autistic child in the days before there was little available as helps for families and next to nothing known about autism.

I'm currently reading, The Shackled Continent:  African's Past, Present and Future by Robert Guest and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

I purchased this book at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. It's a great read so far in terms of helping my understanding of Africa.

After this week, I will still be 3 books shy of my goal of 14 books for the first 7 months of this year. But  I am feeling well on my way to reaching my goal if I can keep up the momentum.

What about you? Are you reading a lot this year? Do you have any reading goals for yourself or any great books to recommend?

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Peeping Eyes

Hippos wading in Lake Baringo, Kenya.

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On Our Way

When we left off our tour in Marigat, we were just finishing lunch and making our way east. I thought it would be interesting to show you some of the photos I took along the way. The trip took several hours along a very bumpy road. So for much of the time, I didn't even try to take photos as they wouldn't turn out without a steady hand on the camera.

Julius my driver on the far left of the photo. Patrons of the restaurant in the middle and on the right.

A street scene as we drive through Marigat and set out for the village with the new borehole.

One last street scene in Marigat.

We pass by a mosque. Click on the photo to see the bird flying overhead.

We are now on the long road to where we are going.  At this point I have no idea just how long this journey will be.

The "road" in these parts is still reasonable. It will get much bumpier. But I think you can get an idea of how dry and dusty it is here.

Along the way we meet people....

...and lorries.  We are actually still in the city limits if you will.

Soon you can see the change in roads.

The greenery along the road side is due to the Perkerra River which flows there. It isn't very filled with water at the moment.

I love to take photos of the countryside where I can as it is so very different to where I live.

A nice large tree though I'm afraid I do not know what kind.

These cows are crossing the small river.  I was struck on this journey with all the cattle and goats in the area. These people are pastoralists more than farmers.

I thought this bike against the tree made a nice vignette.

Here is the same vignette but a little farther away.

I love this countryside where the land is flat, the acacia trees are forming their lovely branches and there are big bunches of cacti.

We now must cross the river. The driver and the village community leaders who accompany us discuss what to do.

Here they get out and survey the situation.

The river is not too high so we look for the shortest distance across.

And here they go.

I decide to walk across and cool my feet but I keep  my flipflops on.

I snap photos of the mud huts and laundry along the way.

More cattle. These seem to be a special breed as they are all white.

We are very close to our final destination of the borehole.

The journey took about 3 hours on a dusty bumpy road. We had to drive very slowly. This was supposed to be a shortcut but I think it ended up being a long ride because we had to go so slowly. We will return a different way. Stay tuned. Life and travel in Kenya is always interesting!

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A Sweet Tooth

Lately, I've been craving apple pie so I purchased a few small apples last week in anticipation of making it.  Today I noticed the apples were going a bit soft and as I wasn't up to making pie crust, I decided to make some apple crumble instead.

This was my first attempt at making this dish though I have eaten it from time to time. I knew before hand that it is not too difficult to make so I googled a diabetic recipe.  The following recipe came up but somehow I don't think it is that diabetic friendly. I'll have to look for another one but in the meantime, this one will be eaten.  I did reduce the sugar and the oil and increased the oats so that will help a bit.

Recipe from IFood

Ingredients

* 4 large cooking apples

* 4 tbsp olive oil

* Zest and juice of 1 large lemon

* 3/4 cups of sugar (any kind will do). I like brown.

* 2 pinches of ground cinnamon

* 1/2 cup of cold unsalted butter

* 1 cup plain flour (I increased this slightly by about 1/4 cup)

* 5/8 cup sugar (I reduced this to about 1/2 cup)

* 1/8 cup porridge oats (I increased this slightly). 

Directions

1. Peel and core the apples and cut into large chunks.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the lemon zest and juice, sugar, cinnamon and then add the apples. Cook for 5 mins to soften slightly.
3. Tip into a large baking dish.
4. Place the cold butter and flour into a food processor and pulse until you have a fine breadcrumb consistency.
5. Tip into a bowl and stir through the extra sugar (1/2) carefully. Spoon over the top of the stewed apples and sprinkle over the oats.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 mins or until well-browned. Serve your apple crumble plain or with custard or ice cream.  Today we had French vanilla ice cream to go with the crumble.

This dish was delicious and I highly recommend it. It was made special by the addition of the lemon juice and lemon rind which really enhanced the overall flavour of the dish. 

Bon appetit!

Driving to Marigat

I know I've posted some scenes about this drive before but I didn't think it would hurt to post some again as I re-start my travel series about my Kenyan travels.

My travelling companion and I are on our way to a mission station in Marigat, Kenya.  Marigat is a small town about 100 kilometres north of Nakuru.  Actually where we are going is off the highway a few hours east of Marigat.  However,  Marigat is the place that you can find on the map. We are going there because I first travelled there several years ago to see this very arid place and to learn about their need for water. I am travelling now to see the borehole that has been built and to learn about what progress has been made and the still outstanding need for water. I'll write more about that project later. For now I want to show you the countryside.  You can click on the maps and photos to make them larger.

Can you find Marigat? How about Lake Baringo and Bogoria as that is where I am headed after going to the village closer to Marigat.

I love the stretches of countryside. I noticed that the closer we got to Marigat which is a smaller town, the narrower the highways got. I assume this is for a few reasons.  One being that the road is less travelled to these less populous places.  Another possible reason is that the road is not new.  Since my first trip to Kenya several years ago I have noted that the highways are much improved and I'm sure that these improvements will continue.

I'm always struck by how many people are walking in places where it seems like no one lives. I know there are villages and habitations everywhere so I'm assuming that is where these people are headed. Many people in the villages of course cannot afford a car so they must walk or take matatu if they can afford the transport fees. A matatu is a small van which transports you for very little money. Sorry for the blurred photo but we were travelling quite fast.

We had to slow down for this little creature who decided to take a nap in the middle of the highway.

More open highway. I love the blue sky.

This is a typical scene along highways and roadways. You will come across signage pointing the way to schools and churches primarily. You will also come across stalls like these ones with the corrugated metal. There are usually stores in these stall but these ones don't look too busy that day.

Here we are driving through Marigat, Kenya. We will stop for refreshment before carrying on.

We are stopped at a restaurant that I've been to before. We usually have some stew and milk or tea here. People like to sit on this veranda and eat as well as people watch.

This is the view from the veranda/patio of the restaurant. From here you have a good vantage point as to the buses, the shops and the roadside market.

Here along the busy highway the woman sell produce of fruits and veggies. From what I understand, a lot of produce must be transported from elsewhere due to the arid nature of the land. However, there is now a major irrigation project, Perkerra Irrigation scheme.  I'm guessing that more of the produce needed in the area can now be grown. I did see the project as we drove further to the village eastwards.

Another street scene.

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