17MAR2007 “Green dye+Tusker=St. Paddy’s Day in Kenya”

I woke up early and took Suki out for a long run in hopes of tiring her out before our big party. She and I ran out to the end of Bofa Rd to file her nails down on the tarmac (note British influence), and then back along the beach. The tide was super low (~1/2m above sea level) and I wanted to test out the rumor that we could make it up the beach and around the coral cliffs that normally block progress. After ~10 minutes on the beach, we came upon a small inlet covered in 6-8” deep of seaweed. There was a crowd of women around a 6-7’ long shark that a man was quickly slicing and dicing with a penga (machete). I asked them if it was good to eat (the fins were already missing and I watched the head come off, so it was tough to ID the exact species) and they replied “ndio - like tuna.” I inquired about where and when I could buy some, offering to come back in 1hr and the spokeswoman told me it would be ready in town in 6hrs…disappointed, we ran on. After scaling our way through and around beautiful coral pools and outcroppings, I introduced Suki to 3 young boys, maybe 4-6 years old. I taught them to say ‘jambo’ to her and to ask for her paw – they were pretty excited about meeting the ‘mbwa rafiki’ (friendly dog) and shaking her hand. The heat and humidity at 8:30AM was rough, so I also took advantage of the exhausted dog and let her run off leash for most of the beach section to practice her obedience. We have to be careful with this because there are many local dogs on and near the beach that are very territorial and not very socialized. Suki got a C+, letting the crabs distract her as always and pretending not to hear me when called!

Patrick came back home sweaty and excited about everything they had seen, especially the shark. Suki was just tired, tripping over her tongue on the way to the water bowl. “We have to get some shark for the party tonight!” “But, shark’s not Irish…” “ It’s Irish Kenyan!” So it was decided; shark for St. Patty’s- a new tradition! We drove back to the spot and found a woman near the road sitting beside a bucket full of shark chunks with the head balanced on top. We were disappointed to learn that all the rest of the shark (in steak form) was gone—taken to the market in Kilifi. The chunks looked jumbo kebab sized, so we bought 3kg for 500 shillings (~$1/lb). We got a couple of cases of beer and sodas, way too many potatoes, and a few other essentials in town. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon cooking. It was great fun. Our tropical Irish fusion menu was as follows: barbecued ribs w/ homemade sauce, grilled shark with orange avocado relish, Irish champ (mashed potatoes with leeks), soda bread, dyed-green garlic hummus, kachumbari (tomato and green pepper salad), fresh coconuts from the garden and, of course, Tusker beer with green food coloring. All of our European guests were a bit confused, but amused. Margaret capped the meal with the best chocolate cake I have had in two months, topped with green icing! I am sure we had the first ever St. Patrick’s Day pool party.

During our post-dinner dip in the pool, Patrick suddenly noticed that the dogs (Suki and Nathan and Caroline’s puppy, Dave) were suspiciously absent. He went around to the front and caught them crunching on rib bones. Two racks of left over ribs were missing from the buffet table and all but a few small chunks of fish were gone from the platter. They certainly looked guilty, but not that sorry…

18MAR
The next morning, a huge mess still faced us in the kitchen. We corralled all of the dishes into the kitchen, scraped the food into the garbage, and cleared the beer bottles, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to wash all the dishes. We washed enough to fill the drying racks (out of guilt, mostly), but left the other 75% all day on Sunday and waited for Joseph and Nancy to return on Monday and rescue us from the aftermath of the party. By Monday morning, the kitchen really smelled bad. We felt a little bit colonial (and guilty and lazy) for leaving the mess, but not guilty enough to take care of it ourselves…