TRYING to Explain a Regular Week

So this past week has been bit African regular/American crazy…which means most of what I planned didn’t happen but I got lots of stuff done and had many unexpected surprises along the way!!!
Many family and friends from home ask me what a regular day or week for me looks like. I try to explain that things don’t always go as planned and the unexpected can become part of our daily routine often times.
So with that in mind here are a few highlights from my week:

• The vehicle that we have been using (which isn’t really ours but we are “looking after it” for our friend Wes) is being used right now by his daughter in law, who is here in TZ. Soooooooo, I will venture to say that I have logged about 25 walking miles in the last week…all unplanned but necessary because in Africa people often call you at the last minute and need you to come to them right away!
• Keeping with that theme of us having no vehicle – it has rained A LOT over the past week and there is sooooooo much mud all over so we had to walk on the main road (the mud on the dirt road as we exit our house was too deep and thick) carrying our trash (lots of trash in boxes) because the trash was smelling up our kitchen and we don’t have trash service at our house and we refuse to light gigantic burn piles and burn our trash in our yard. I did not enjoy carrying that smelly trash but at least that smell from the trash is no longer in our kitchen. Also walking on the maid road offers its own challenges the way people drive around here!
• Our refrigerator broke AGAIN and we called the repairman who came to our house and “fixed” it but then that evening it was still broken. Then Jodie called him again and he said he would come back the next so she waited for him all day (literally about 6 hours). Finally he called and said he wouldn’t be able to come until the following day. So she waited the following day and he didn’t come…but he promised to come the following day after that and guess what? NO SHOW! So he finally showed up on Saturday morning at 8am and low and behold that morning when we woke up to take everything out of the fridge we noticed everything inside the fridge was cold…he he! Go figure! He showed up and our fridge wasn’t broken any more. All our food had gone bad all week when it wasn’t working, but our fridge works now!
• We had electricity four days last week! Can’t remember the last time that happened. All week my computer was charged and my phone too! Then the power went out on Friday night around 8pm and was out all night and I didn’t mind at all because I was still so giddy from having power for four days straight!
• Jodie and I found out about an outdoor market that sells veggies grown by Catholic Nuns. We were told it opens at 7am and that we should be there early because it is quite a popular spot. So we woke up extra early and walked to the market (remember no vehicle) and guess what? The man at the gate said we were an hour early…yep! So we walked home and then walked back later. It was a nice market with cabbage the size of three heads put together! We also got some corn and had corn on the cob for dinner that evening! Yeah! That was a fun treat!
• So since the cabbages were so big at that market I thought it would be a great idea to buy a couple of them for TOA. We carried the cabbages to our house and then I walked to TOA and drove the TOA van back to my house to pick up the cabbages because they were really too big and heavy to carry there! I took them to TOA and showed our cook and asked him what he thought. He said he didn’t like them because they were so big and that they were too big for him. I told him I didn’t understand what he was talking about since big cabbages would mean more cabbage to eat and he said they were too powerful. Hmmm, I am still trying to figure that out!
• Ok, so a couple days later I had a follow up conversation with the cook at TOA regarding what he meant when he said the big cabbages I bought were too powerful. Eli was with me this time. So in an effort to explain what he meant the cook said the cabbages had too much stamina and that is why he didn’t like them. Eli looked at me when he said that and burst out laughing and then he asked me, “What does ‘stamina’ mean?” I told him that in relation to our conversation regarding the big cabbages that I have no idea. I am done trying to figure that one out!!!
• Jodie and I made chocolate éclairs this week. Last Saturday we walked about five miles to a “yard sale” and there were some Taste of Home magazines, 2006 editions. So we bought four of them. We were so excited to experiment with so many of the recipes. We made chocolate éclairs, potato and leek soup and mocha cappuccinos. On our “next thing to try to make” list is: chicken and broccoli casserole, apple crisp, glazed carrots, and good morning buns.
• I know I just mentioned the chocolate éclairs but I didn’t mention that they didn’t exactly come out like the beautiful photo on the magazine. Jodie turned her back on them when the dough came out of the oven, but I trudged on and completed the job of piping in the “custard” filling and glazing them with a warm chocolate sauce. Jodie wanted us to use the “custard” filling for cement on the brick wall at the new TOA property. I can’t really describe the way the pastry dough looked once it came out of the oven and cooled but I can tell you that something went terribly wrong. Taste of Home people would not have been proud of our éclairs.
• I got a good workout this week! Between the rain that has created MASSIVE mud and my flip flops that seem to be mud magnets, and all the walking I have been doing…the mud sticks to my flip flops so that it feels like as I am walking that I am wearing platform shoes and all that mud is quite heavy so I am getting cardio and doing weight lifting at the same time!!!