Fun food from Kenya - chilli balls

 

Mabuyuz chilli balls. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I was given these to taste in London. A friend who lives partly in Kenya with friends and family there and in the UK says these are a favourite of his family. The ingredients include Tamarind, sugar and salt. The balls are red. On holiday one is always looking for things to bring back, as memories of home if that is where you live, or as novelties if you are a visitor.

Mabuyuz is the plural of mabuyu in Swahili. Swahili is spoken in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Useful Websites

To buy ready made from Amazon for 12.99 pounds sterling

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vtamu-Baobab-Sweets-Mabuyu-Ubuyu/dp/B07NDMY1GT

DIY recipe

One of many you tube videos on how to make this 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElLmWrL9-8Y

Swahili language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language

https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/sw/en/Learn-Swahili

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_African_origin

What To Look For At Beach Shops and Online For Local Motifs: Giraffes, elephants, birds, butterlfies, palms, orchids - where can I get that dress

I started showing my caftans in assorted amusing prints on Facebook.
Why buy caftans?I began in 2020 by showing myself wearing a butterfly design on a caftan. This attacted so many comments that I decided to go with the flow and show a dress of the day. I took out of my cupboard items which had been sitting their unworm for years.
I has started buying caftans on my trips to tropical Singapore, which I made as stopovers on our annual summer holidays in New Zealand where it was winter and my family went skiing. 
My husband was working as an expat in Singapore. Our son was at boarding school in England.  My suitcase was filled with warm weather clothes for New Zealand skiing. 
Caftans were the only clothes large enough to fit me. The Chinese girls were tiny and shops stocked clothes in sizes UK 8 (US 6) to 12. 
Also my weight yo-yoed. I would expand during the flights of 13 hours and in the heat.  

Then Elephants.
I discovered clothes from Thailand in Singapore before I went to Thailand. Elephants are popular designs on clothes from Thailand. Thai silk is heavy and hard-wearing and does not crease  much or need ironing if you keep it on a hanger or fold it flat.  I used to avoid buying clothes which were too small. Now I undo the two side seams under the arms and insert a piece of ribbon, horizontally or vertically. With a jacket on top in an air conditioned restarant or hotel, nobody would know or notice.
While you are on holiday you can look for local designs. hawaiian shirts with tropical scenes are no surprise. They may suit beachwear and be too bright for home wear except for holidays. But dress down Friday at the office, or online, they might be just the ticket.Giraffes.I started going through my wardrobe of clothes. I wore a beach dress with giraffes and one of my facebook friends, a friend in real life from my annual writing holidays, asked where I had bought it. This caused me to do a search online.
Now I knew that Thailand specialises in Thai silk and one of their favourite patterns is elephants, the national symbol.
It appears that pandas are popular in China. 
Giraffes appear on African prints, esecially from Kenya and Tanzania. 
China makes scarves in many patterns. Favourites are cats and dogs, butterflies and flowers.
Chiffon Giraffe Print Maxi Dres

poshmark.com
https://theprincessshirt.com/product/chiffon-giraffe-print-maxi-dress/

Shirt with giraffes from cotton doux
49 pouns sterling
https://www.cotondoux.com/en/p/5792-lady-shirt


https://www.amazon.com/Clearance-Ruhiku-GW-Sleeveless-Printed/d

Single giraffe with bow tie and spectacles on white tee shirt

urbanmatter.com

 I found four great red giraffe patterns and several more giraffes.

Useful Websites, Ebay, For Duvets With Giraffe Patterns

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Giraffe-3D-Design-Bedding-Set-3PC-Of-Duvet-Cover-Pillowcase-Single-Double-King/2

Sorry about the underlining. I copied a link and now everything on the page is underlined.

About the Author
Facebook; LinkedIn, Youtube. Amazon.com
 for a book on Wedding Speeches. Lulu.com for a book entitled Quick Quotations

Travel Bucket List: Giraffes, Anne of Green Gables and Easy Esperanto - my wishlist

https://www.onb.ac.at/museen/esperantomuseum/

What's my travel bucket list, my wish list, my dream? A Canadian travel company wants to know.
1 Esperanto and Planned Languages Museum
Vienna
Austria.
Only one of its kind - not quite, there's the Zamenhof Exhibition centre in Bialystok Poland. But this museum sounds more cheerful

This is a two-centre stop (in fact more on a hop on hop off bus tour. Afterwards do the Frankl Museum.
If you want to be serious, you certainly can. Frankl was man who could run a programme to tell students not to commit suicide, back in the 1930s, then after WWII, he recovered from losing his family in the Holocaust and helped others.  Who wouldn't want to learn his secrets of serenity.
As the British road safety ad says, The life you save may be your own.

Vienna, land of the Strauss waltz. Plus those beautiful baroque buildings I saw on the New Year's Day concert, broadcast every year to TV in London, England.

2
The Sea Wall Mural at Bay of Fundy
Canada
The tide creates the artwork. Maybe it can supply energy for floodlights, too.
The painted lady on the wall - she is resurrected from the sea. I shall watch and remember what poet Maya Angelou wrote, 'I rise'.

3
I'd love to be a renowned writer of children's books. What a dream!
Maybe I'll be inspired.
Anne of Green Gables Museum
Route 20, Kensingon
Canada.
Fantastic building. Must see surroundings.
'The Lake Of Shining Waters,' wrote L M Montgomery. Five words and I'm captured.

Giraffes looking through the window - oh wow!
4 The Giraffe Manor
Nairobi
Kenya

The Rothschild Giraffes - well if they're good enough for the Rothschilds, they're good enough for me.
Since one night costs a fortune, about £260 for two, I suppose a night or two will have to do. I'm sure you could find another hotel for a couple of nights after coming all this way you won't want to go straight home. Also to see in the area, the Karen Bixen museum.

Travel Websites
https://www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca/See/BayOfFundy.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_Green_Gables

https://www.onb.ac.at/museen/esperantomuseum/
visitacity.com

My websites:
travelwithangelalansbury.blogger.com
luxurytravelforless.co.uk
luxuryforless.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my previous posts on the Bay of Fundy, and Vienna. Please share links to your favourite posts.