Lazy African Day

We both had the day off today due to an island wide clean up.  People are cleaning the streets and other odd things as well.  Rachel spent the morning writing letters, and I drew a map of the United States. I'm working on a whole collection. First I started off drawing a map of Europe for Rachel's class, but it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be;  it came out so much better than I  thought also.  I drew the States today, and next I'll probably work on Africa.  By the end of the two years we want to be able to know a country and find it on the map. Rachel has the States down, and next we are moving to Africa.

We spent the rest of the day walkin' around.  We went and ate pizza for lunch, and after I had and ice cream cone with  three scoops.  We spent about an hour just sitting in the prasa (plaza) enjoying what was actually a cool day.  Rachel found her toilet brush, and we bought a couple things for the kitchen.  I know... living the crazy life.

Our First Package!

Today we received our first package.  My sister, her husband, my brother, and my mom and dad sent us a package from New Mexico.  Check it out: 

It looks bad, but everything inside was great, and it was unopened.  We were super grateful.  Here is what my awesome family sent us:  three HUGE bags of candy (M & Ms, multi-pack of mini-candybars, and a bag of mini-Snickers), two bottles of St. Ives lotion, two bottles of contact solution, a world map, an anniversary card, and set of queen sized sheets.  Freaking awesome!  Here is a picture of me enjoying the goods....

Mom, Dad, Alisa, Mike, and George:  Thank you!  It was like Christmas in Africa in November.

Love, Lamar

Hi, Joyce, George, Mike, Alisa, and George Adam,

I just want you to know how great it was to get the package from you all.  Everything you sent was so thoughtful and so nice.  But more than the things, I really appreciate you taking the time and being so thoughtful.  It means a lot to know you are thinking of us.  We miss you lots.  Thanks for taking such great care of us. 

Love,

Rachel

DIYN(IA) (Do It Yourself Network In Africa)

Check out our kitchen before the DIYNIA work.....

And after....

 

So, when we first arrived to our new apartment, we had ants!!!  They were everywhere and into everything.  We thought one way we could help get rid of them was to regrout the kitchen so the ants could not travel in between holes in the grout of the tiles.  Lamar went to the hardware store and bought some grout (masa), and we set to work.  We finished most of the walls of the kitchen.  Later, Lamar came back and finished the walls and regrouted the entire floor.  Doesn´t it look so much better?

And my favorite DIYNIA project to date.....my new toilet lid and seat.  We took a picture of the old lid and seat, but it was just too gross to post.  So you get to see the new one.  Notice the crystal clear water in our toilet.....ha!

Our next project....we are growing some seedlings.  We will post pictures of them soon.

Wanna See Something Crazy?!

Wanna see what wearing Chacos everyday in Africa will do to your feet? First look at this...

Now it takes me a really long time to tan...Now look at my wife´s feet...

 

She should get a free pair of Chacos for that right there!

Food!

 

 

 

Well, we finally have internet in our home.  We are using the computer Pastor Paulo loaned us.  We are in the process of getting a new laptop....a whole other story.  But we thought we would post some pictures.  The first picture is of our very first dinner in our home.  We had eggplant, grilled cheeses, and water by candlelight.  Notice the wooden sporks! (Thanks, Martha!!)  These things saved our lives the first two weeks we were here.  They were all we had.  You would not believe what you can do with sporks, especially strong wooden ones. 

We have been experimenting, and we have come up with some pretty good concoctions, mostly thanks to a cookbook I have from my time in Senegal.  (thanks Mrs. Cortimilia).  We made popcorn the old fashion way, and it was awesome.  We have this fairly regularly now as a healthy snack.  It is nice to eat popcorn without all the crazy preservatives and such.  The pizza recipe is from Lamar´s mom.  Thanks, Joyce.  Your dough recipe works so great.  We have pizza once a week or so.  I also made a vegetable quiche with a homemade pie shell.  It was super good, and I was so proud of that stinkin pie shell.  Finally, I made homemade cinnamon rolls this morning.  The bottoms were a little burned, but other than that, they were pretty good.  We ate them without icing; we will have to try icing from scratch another time. Baby steps. 

I have also tried my hand at lasagna, homemade fajitas and tortillas with guacamole, chicken casserole, and homemade spaghetti sauce.  Lamar made an awesome homemade shells and cheese with tuna.  We feasted on that for a couple of days.

All in all, we are eating very well.  So no worries about us wasting away.  And we are learning a lot about how to cook from scratch.  And George, the picture of popcorn is just for you!  Dad, the picture of the cinnamon rolls....just for you.

For our parents....you cant see us on SKYPE, but here we are.  We miss you and love you.

Goal!

Today was a good day at Nho Djunga. During break I played soccer with the kids. I scored a goal, and my team won 7-1.

After break, I teach my kids English. It is funny, they want to learn English more than they want to learn about electricity. Today I taught them colors, days of the week, and months. I also did some geography. They were blown away that it takes three days to drive from Boston to Albuquerque.

Lamar