Pictures of a typical home in Kenya?

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Pictures of a typical home in Kenya?

by Ronnie
(Logandale, NV)

My son's class is doing a report on different countries. His is Kenya. I am looking for any help on what a typical house would look like because we have to build a replica, or make a flag from the country...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if you have a recipe of a famious dish that people eat from there would also help. On the last day of this report each child is to make a sample of food from that country... Please help?

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Pictures of a typical home in Kenya?

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Mar 14, 2011

Home in Kenya
by: Anonymous

Kenya has many diverse cultures and the house types would vary, most nomadic tribes live in what is called manyatta, a temporary rounded house(one room about 12ft across) made of cowdung and mud mixed into a cementing agent, to improve on this house like most comunities are doing now you need to coat the mudwalls with concrete mixture of cement and sand,thats what majority of Kenyans in rural areas live in, the normadic tribes dont raise high thatches of grass but the rest of communities raise a cone shaped roof made of special thatching grass, not any other grass. The house have one or 2 tiny wooden windows and a wooden door, the kitchen smaller and built away from the the main house it also serves in the nigght as the children's sleeping house while parents sleep in main house, younger unmaried men sleep in a separate house, so in a typical Kenyan home you will see several of this rondavels making up a homestead.
For the flag google kenya flag
As for staple dish it varies with culture but what is common across is ugali: take 2cups water bring the boil,scoop in 1cup of maizeflour and stir with wooden spatula for three minute, waiting as it hardens into soft pulp,keeping mixing in till allo flour is gone, then cover and simmer for 5 minutes, turn it over several times and its ready,serve this with stewed beef and greens such as kales or spinach.

Jun 30, 2010

Kenyan cookig
by: Madrine

I hope you got help.Am a kenyan and i know sometimes its to tell how to make most dishes. In most cases we just go to the kitchen and do our thing,they are very tasty. You may wanna visit Susan Kamau's Kenyan Kitchen for much help. Good luck.

May 21, 2010

Eat and Greet
by: Archie Melrose

Ronnie,
Thanks for your mail and lets see if we all can help you out.

The typical house thing is a wee bit hard because Kenya is very modern with the usual office blocks inner city and large suburban areas with smart houses. The older traditional houses out in the bush are somewhat different and are generally round with a thatched roof. I am not quite sure if you want to project Kenya that way.

However if son can manage to reproduce a log cabin coated in white concrete & totally open inside with an opening upstairs to allow the wind to flow through the open roof space then that is Swahili or Coastal style of housing. The poorer areas of Nairobi and other cities in Kenya have areas of corrugated iron and cardboard houses in large areas.

The Kenyan flag is easy to make and its colours mean a lot. Black for the majority of the country, red for the blood shed for independence and green for the land which is very important to all Kenyans. The shield and spears are symbolic of the hard times but also for the defence of the nation.

Food????? Lets make it easy! Most Kenyan mums will prepare and cook in one pot. Why? Because they dont have a 4 ring electric cooker. So its down to one pot but let me tell you this the wonderful dishes out of one pot are awesome.

To make it easy for your son, the base of most meals in Kenya is onions, tomatoes and a little garlic. Add meat of your choice well chopped or even fish with some water and leave to cook for an hour or so. Prep chapatis or rice and all of a sudden you have a good Kenyan meal. Simple but good. Find some greens and that is it.

Ugali is another story and I wish my fiance would teach me. Its such a staple addition to all foods Kenyan. Maize flour, corn flour, milled corn or whatever you want to call it......you either hate it or you love it. Who needs knives and forks when you have Ugali? Just grab it in your fingers, make a hole with your thumb and grab gravy/veg or meat.

The most wonderful thing in so many eating places is to be presented with a bowl of hot water to wash my hands. I like that so much. At the end of the meal its the same again. I wish we could do that in my country.
So something else for your son to consider when its his turn to surprise the class.

Kind Regards and please let us all know how your son gets on with his project

Archie

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Pictures of a typical home in Kenya?

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Pictures of a typical home in Kenya?