No Need for Miracle Gro!

I always tell people I have a missionary nose. Either I don’t smell very well, or I just don’t notice (the latter option is more consistent with my character J). My friend Cristina has a very sensitive nose, which is unfortunate, because she lives in Bolivia, where I’ve experienced some of the worst odors I’ve smelled to date. I’m really glad Cristina wasn’t in my house this week when I got back from Nakuru. There was a little science experiment growing in my kitchen in a pot. Two weeks ago, when I was here last, I made some oatmeal for breakfast, then put the cover on it and promptly forgot all about it (see what I mean about my character?). Now, this isn’t the first time a dirty dish has escaped my notice for a couple weeks. But this is the first time it’s happened in an un-air conditioned apartment on the equator. Whatever grew in that pot produced an odor even I couldn’t miss! I had to wrap a bandana around my face to keep from gagging while I cleaned it out.

While traveling with our visitors from Denton, we remarked a lot how small potted plants in the US grow to almost Jurassic proportions here. For instance, Americans have little potted poinsettias on our tables at Christmas time. Here they grow into 20-foot tall trees! Lantana, those sweet little ground covering flowers that sit just a couple inches off the ground in so many Texas lawns grow into giant bushes in Nairobi. Below are a few pictures of the mammoth flora we saw. Most of the time, it’s a good thing that things grow bigger and faster here. Unless you’re talking about that pot in my kitchen. But I won’t show you a picture of that.

A poinsettia tree!

Gayle said she has one of these, but it's tiny!

Schneicky, that's big!