The makings of an African kitchen
Friday, April 1st, we started our lease of the property for Dreamfish Place Nairobi. I’ll share our startup adventures with you….
The kitchen is the heart of a home, gathering people to it, it is an environment for connection. (In a former life, I taught gourmet whole food cooking to adults and managed a large kitchen. Seriously, not April Fools). The source of heat, the oven, is especially important as the place where alchemy happens. So, our first items to find for the place had to be a fridge and a gas cooker (oven). Environmentally-conscious and working on a lean budget, we looked to either purchase refurbished used items or find donated items. And, the less we spend on appliances, the more we can spend on changing lives. We figure that these appliances will serve hundreds of meals a month to dreamfishers, groups and teams visiting. (Lunch for local Dreamfishers will cost Ksh 120 (USD $1.50) and for visitors USD $7.)
Sometimes though, buying new is the best way to go. We browsed online forums, checked the UN office, posted to Dreamfishers, made phone calls. Finally, Robert Murati, dreamfisher, says he has a friend that sells used appliances in Rongai, a local town outside Nairobi. So Robert, Irene and I borrowed a car from Sietske and Guy for the search. But, even with Irene’s skillful bargaining, the prices were only 10% less than new appliances. So, we headed back to the shopping mall and purchased them new at Nakumatt. There, we met Nakumatt worker, Joshua Mwa,who explained that electrical appliance prices are regulated to be high in Kenya. It easily costs a family two month of salary to buy a gas cooker!
And as we got to talking, Joshua talked about his dream of being an entrepreneur and signed up to be a Dreamfish member 
. With Joshua’s help, we bought a small LG fridge for Ksh 18,000 ($220USD), because hearsay is that the brand is more reliable and a Universal 4 burner gas cooker for Ksh 21,000 ($260), 50-70% less costly than other models because it was not electric. Yet, actually, this means the cooker consumes less energy and is better for the environment and our monthly budget.
Next day, Steve, Fred and I bought a 13KG gas canister to fuel our gas cooker. The canister plus gas cost us Ksh 8,000 ($100). When the canister runs out of gas, about once a month, we refill the canister at the petrol station for Ksh 2,000.
Today, we are cookin’! We had tea with milk, fresh from the fridge, and then boiling potatoes, we stood around the cooker and marveled at the gas flowing from the burners. I sure am grateful for a hot meal.