Ukrainian Ugali?

Continuing with the Ukrainian blog post theme, I thought I would share with you some pierogy making that happened in Kenya today. (I think that I can bet money on the fact that we were the only people in all of Kenya making pierogies!)

The same Easter egg making family from last week had also asked me to make Ukrainian food with them before they leave Kenya on Sunday. Since I've never actually made pierogies on my own from scratch, I figured this would be a perfect time to start!

My mom sent me the family recipe and luckily we had all of the ingredients. They were a great success!

Here are some pictures...




potatoes, onions and cheese...yuuum


one of my wonderful little helpers


this was my favorite part as a kid


folding


Almost done


Voila!



The Kenyan cooks asked what we were making, and when I told them 'pierogies' they looked totally confused. So I explained that pierogies are the Ukrainian equivalent of Kenyan ugali (ugali is a staple food in East Africa made from maize or cassava flour). They seemed to like this explanation because there isn't a Kenyan out there who doesn't love ugali. I guess every country has it's own beloved staple starch!

Aberdare National Park

A group of us headed out to Aberdare National Park for the 4 day Easter holiday last weekend. The weekend was perfect and I would go back in a heartbeat if the park wasn't so far away!

It took about 6 hours to drive from Eldoret to the park entrance.

We arrived at our first campsite on Friday just in time to set up and make dinner. We brought along some homemade chili so it made for an easy and delicious meal.


The next day, we hiked 17 km to see Karuru and Gura falls. Both of these have been claimed to be the tallest waterfalls in Kenya. Karuru had 3 drops: 383 feet, 84 feet and 427 feet. We were only able to see the first drop from our lookout point since the other two drop deep into the valley.

Karuru Falls


hiking


After the hike, we packed up to go to another campsite. Our guide told us that this site would be completely 'in the bush' and he was not lying!

A video that my friend made of the campsite...


Our campsite and our campfire




On Sunday, we hiked Satima peak which is the third highest peak in Kenya (after Mt. Elgon). It took us about 7 hours to hike the 20 km. We definitely slowed down closer to the peak because of the 13, 144 feet altitude!

On our way


Beautiful Scenery


Satima Peak...If you look closely you can see one of my friends already at the top. She is one of the most fit individuals I have ever met (she has two ironman triathlons under her belt!). She ran up to the top because apparently altitude doesn't affect her. :)


Almost there!


At the peak...


More Pictures