Battening Down the Hatches

What does battening down the hatches mean anyway?

Had a nice pre-Thanksgiving meal with some other PCVs last week. We made
pineapple curry, pizza, cheesecake, ice cream pie and stuffing. We went over
to one of the staff houses at the Indiana University campus in Eldoret,
which is like a little oasis of America, to use their kitchen and dining
room. Wireless internet!! (Currently broken) Flushing toilets!! Dogs!! I
went into the walk-in pantry where the school has stocked up on provisions
in case the referendum goes haywire, and caught another Peace Corps
volunteer, who will remain unnamed, with a 2-gallon Tupperware of cashews
between her knees and her mouth stuffed full of nuts. Who's been in the bush
too long? "Hands off the parmesan cheese and pumpkin pie mix. Those are for
the students," someone warned us. We were only allowed to use the items that
can be found locally.

Anyway, the government re-opened the Kalenjin radio station under heavy
pressure, so people here have calmed down. Both teams have also called for
peace after the referendum, and have appealed to everyone to accept the
results as they are announced. It's a bit worrisome, though; lots of people
have switched to the Yes side after receiving bribes, so no one is really
sure if the election results will be a truly democratic expression of the
people's will. But at least I've recovered a bit from my bout of bitterness;
the ice cream pie and stuffing may have had something to do with it.