Every-day fun

Sometimes we miss the good things that are right in front of us.


Bananas growing right next to our yard

(note: this is not a banana TREE, it is a banana STEM; its "trunk" is very weak, and it reproduces through suckers that grow right next to it)










A delicious home-cooked meal

This one includes ripe bananas and a salad.  Salads are definitely a treat for us, as our groceries are usually very limited due to very bad roads.

Fun found in making a fort out of a bunkbed, using living room cushions, and bedding; and creativity in figuring out how to make crocheted finger puppets without a pattern.









K & L cracking egusi with their friends - something that needs to be done, but which has become a favorite pastime :).

Egusi is similar to pumpkin seeds, but is ground up.  We like egusi as an addition to some of the non-American food we eat - like cabbage stew and njamanjama.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egusi for some info on this amazing food.

And of course, there is our kitten, who provides hours of amusement for everyone.  We laugh as she discovers a mirror (and the kitten on the other side!), and as she plays with everything in sight.

Critter update

Is this a mouse?  I chased this guy around the shower one evening.  His bush tail is the only clue that he is NOT a mouse, but a pygmy squirrel!  Maybe he got in during the solar power system update, or maybe we just need to critter-proof our house a bit more.  He is pretty small....





 But not as small as the critters who made a mess on my desk!!  This "dust" filtered down from the ceiling, until Mike took pity on me and tacked up a strip of wood to cover the joining between the ceiling boards.  This seems to have at least contained the "dust" for now.

The battlefield - the dead and dying....

Then there are the weevils...!  Not content to stay in the flour, they can be found in most of the packaged starches in our storeroom.  I was trying to make stroganoff one day and realized that it was going to be a lot more work than I had figured on....

 But it was worth it.  Finally we were able to enjoy the cooked noodles with the delicious stroganoff sauce.

Then there are the bigger surprises, like this cricket-type critter with super long antennae.  It might be a "camel cricket" - it lives usually in dark surroundings (nocturnal) so moves around a lot by touch, using those long antennae!


Kenneth is a real lover of critters; he was thrilled to have a regular lizard in his room, and worked hard to catch it.  We usually let the little geckos stay hidden in our house to catch insects at night, but regular lizards are too bold and large for our liking.  Kenneth was called on to catch the other lizard in the house - he likes to feel their skin (when you move your finger the wrong way against it, it catches in little spikes) before releasing them outside.

Updating the solar (power) system...

I'm not going to make a whole lot of comments in this post, mainly because I don't know what I'm talking about!!  I do know that Mike has done a lot of research and has some good resources (including my brother-in-law!) which allows him to install and/or upgrade a solar power system.  New parts were ordered and arrived on a shipping container; they finally made it to the village, and Mike worked hard to get things swapped with minimal down-time for our electricity.  He also swapped out a very decayed wood ceiling panel in the process :).

The "old" equipment

The ceiling panel removed
in order to get access to the wiring.

The new ceiling panel got installed
(after a lot of maneuvering!)

The "new stuff"

The batteries were swapped out later.  Here are the old ones (no picture of the new ones right now).

 And we're back up and running.  Others in the village appreciate it as well, as we've become a center for charging cell phones :).

Biking and other exercise

The kids don't have to look far to find ways to get exercise here (it's more difficult for us adults!).  Kenneth has wanted to learn how to use a machete, and has tried to cut some grass a few times, but his friends laugh at him because he didn't grow up with a machete in his hand like they did.


As rains become fewer, "traffic" (motorcycles and people walking) along the paths in the village increases.  And with that increase comes more... LITTER!  We as a family collected quite a bit of garbage just within one block; and the next day there was more already - sigh!  This might become a family tradition....



















 When it DOES rain, there is always the fun of playing in the mud :).






But the kids were REALLY happy when Mike took time to fix up their bikes.  All the bikes were in pretty sad shape from sitting for 5 years - not only flat tires, but disintegrated tires - and other parts!

A few new parts and a bit of work (a couple different times, for the smaller bike) made 2 of the bikes useable again.





Now our family "walks" sometimes include a bike or two.  No bike helmets, but you can't go very fast between the extremely bumpy roads and the foot traffic.  There are always stops to make on the way, like watching a game of what is probably "draughts" (often this is played by older teens and young men, and includes gambling).  Often our walk takes us to the field at the elementary (primary) school, and the scene there around sunset (~6:30pm) is beautiful.

Birthday Art

This past Monday was the birthday of one of our teammates, and our kids took up the challenge to use their creativity.

K. came up with a design for the cake, using only the colors that I knew we could create - "red", brown, and white (I later found we did have other colors - for next time!).  "Games" was the theme, with the outside design referring to "Railways of the World", and the inside design showing some "Carcassonne" tiles.

 And so he went to work, helping mix the different shades of pink and brown, and going through the various "weapons of choice" to find some cake decorating tools that would work for what he had in mind.  This was his first cake-decorating attempt, but he was a good sport and the birthday lady recognized what the designs were referring to, so it was a success :).





















Meanwhile, Laura was busy making a birthday card.  And not just any card!!  This had a cut-out window, and small strips of paper (hand-cut) curled around a pencil and re-formed into just the right pattern so they could be glued down.  Repeat this process enough times, and the result was a beautifully hand-crafted card, certainly better than any I would have made!