I had a hard time waking up this morning. I was tired, I had a cold shower to look forward to, and a long day ahead. But, I opened my front door, and a metallic purple bird flew into the path in front of my house and chirped at me. Then another, which seemed like a good omen for the day. Then, after shower and breakfast, I walked to work and saw mongooses-- a big, social business of mongooses. Some scampered behind a bush when I walked by, but a lot of them just stayed where they were, and watched me with faint interest. Sort of like my cat. It was awesome.

I'm at my site after half a weekend in Kigali, and half at my husband's site. Kigali is expensive, especially if you want to eat something different from simple Rwandan food, food that's very good, but pretty repetitive. By the weekend I'm craving something else, but if I eat out the way I want to at restaurants in Kigali, I spend as much as I would in DC. It was nice to go back home, spend time in the kitchen with Tom, and make Indian food, which we did on Sunday night. Daal, chapati, and green pepper curry.

3 coves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1" of ginger, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds

4 green peppers, cut into 3/4" squares or so
8 med tomatoes -- skins removed and roughly chopped

1 tbs ground coriander
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt to taste.

heat a few tsps of oil in a frying pan. Add cumin seeds and fry, let them sizzle for a few seconds, then add ginger and onion. Fry until onion browns at the edges. Add garlic and saute for a few seconds. Add peppers and stir fry for 4-5 minutes. Then add tomatoes and the spices, and some salt. Stir, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the peppers are a nice soft-but-not-too-soft consistency. salt to taste and serve with rice or chapati. It gets even better the next day.