Nutella Status and Fancy Pants

I have some random updates.  The first and perhaps most pressing is an update on my Nutella status. After two weeks, several spoons, and considerable self-restraint, the jar now looks like this:

So tragic!

That foe having been conquered, I decided to tackle my next great nemesis: underpants.*  I know what you're thinking, "..." scratch that.  I have no idea what you're thinking, but it's probably not good. Anyway, here follows the story of Fancy Pants (or "My Formal Pants" depending on my mood).

Before leaving Seattle, I carefully packed my backpack and placed 5 nicely rolled pairs of underpants somewhere in the middle of the pack with a plan to add more once the laundry was finished.  At this point, you are likely worried that I forgot to add additional underpants and are thinking that, with access to laundry, 5 pairs of underpants is probably doable.  After all, compared to some Kenyans this may even seem quite rich!  That's not what happened.

When the laundry finished I decided to add 3 more pairs of underwear to an outer pocket of the backpack.  This seemed fine: it got me through my visit to my parents over New Year's without having to unpack the whole huge backpack.  Unfortunately, when I did unpack in Kijabe I discovered that those original underwear had been stolen by the Underpants Gnomes.  (Or I forgot them, but I blame the gnomes).  

Doing laundry worked OK, but I still wanted to have more than 4 pairs of underpants.  So when Rochelle and our friend/guide/driver/cultural liason Philip were going into Nairobi for some errands and shopping, I asked Philip (because I felt this was a guy thing) if he could please pick up a couple of extra pairs for me.  He agreed and, very kindly, picked them up. 

When Rochelle and Philip returned, I was grateful to discover several fresh sets of underpants.  I was slightly alarmed that they were XXL.  Philip assured me that these were made to Chinese standards, not bulging American waistlines, and that this size would be fine.  I don't know if any of that is actually true or not, but the XXLs fit perfect.  Great.  For the last pair, Philip had decided to get me something with a little panache; a little color.  When I opened this package, I discovered this last pair were not exactly underpants but looked a little something like this:

Thus were born Fancy Pants.