Water (and Breakfast) in a Dry Land

Blog Post about June 2021

Two weeks after Karis' birthday, we were able to take her out for breakfast to celebrate. Breakfast is her favorite meal, but with her trying to finish school and us trying to prepare to leave for America, we were short on available mornings.

June 3, 2021

Usually for a Middle Eastern breakfast here, you just say, "Breakfast for one," or "Breakfast for four," etc.

Unless you order a la carte, you don't get to pick what you get for breakfast (hence the weird olive pizza on the table. It's a fun experience, and every time we go, we always get different things...it's never the same.

Also, it was getting hotter here back in June, and this is the time that the city decided to dig up all the grass on this huge field and prepare for some building project.

Keira and I saw the dust flying every morning on the way to school.

Let me fast-forward momentarily to January 2022. We have already had two floods this month, and the dirt has nothing to hold it to the ground. 

On the first flood, mud ran out onto the highway along with two feet of water, and it was hours before bulldozers could remove all the silt and people could travel again.

We thought with all the dryness and lack of rain, it had created a water issue. Water is usually scarcer in the summer as a rule anyway, but...

It turns out that some pipes were broken in our neighborhood and no one knew it, so for a month, our neighborhood was not getting water sent to our homes.

On June 13th, Doug called a water truck to fill up our tanks on the roof. We had not been able to wash dishes, hands, shower, or flush toilets for a couple of days as we waited unknowingly for water that wouldn't come.

June 13, 2021

The price was very cheap (equivalent of $17).

When Doug ordered another truck a month later, the prices had jumped a bit (~$23). Apparently, more people around the city were having water issues as well. 

It was a blessing that a friend of ours "knew a guy" and got us such good deals, because I think for most people, the prices started at $34 and went up to about $68 for a truck of water.

Supply and demand.

All of our dirty dishes...

Finally got washed!

I wanted to have breakfast with a friend of mine before we left for America, and we decided to try out a new place for breakfast.

This is the "Breakfast for two" at this particular place.

June 14, 2021

And this little thing wasn't running around like a chicken with its head cut off because she knew Caleb and Doug weren't going to America, and they would be staying behind and could care for her. 

However, she does sort of LOOK like a plucked chicken.

Things I see (Vol 3)

Welcome to "Things I See."  If you want to see the previous two installments, you can click on Volume 1 or Volume 2.

A letter a parent is really excited about receiving from their child's school: 

Chinooks that used to fly over Caleb's soccer field every night.

A truck that drives around with material you can buy to make your next fancy outfit.  When he gets going down the road, it's amazing that all of it doesn't blow away.

You just THOUGHT you knew what K.F.C. stood for.

You see that road sign...

You must "Reducet" your speed.  This reminds me of the way people talked in Uganda ;)

There is no rule to parking in this place.  I haven't gotten pictures of some of the more crazy ones.  Double, triple, and quadruple parking on busy, large streets is not unheard of.  People just put on their flashers and leave their car, backing up all kinds of traffic.

This car was parked over the corner, but usually, cars are parked on both sides of a narrow street, so you have to really watch your rearview mirrors as you drive down neighborhood streets.

I took this while Doug was driving right down the middle of the stripe, and I said, "I will never do that when I drive," but alas, I drive like the locals do now.  

The lanes mean nothing.  You just drive wherever you want.  It's like Mario Kart ALL the time with obstacles to swerve around, people to watch for that run across the road, and someone who is on the far right, but wants to be on the far left, and he just thinks he can do that with no blinker and no consideration...

Sweeping rocks.  'Nuff said.

Toddlers play area. 

Just kidding.

I'll keep looking to see what "Things I See."

One Random Day in the Life

Not that you're interested, but I chronicled part of a random day here, and I thought I might share.

There are different things about every day, but of course, there are also similarities.

When we first wake, there is no power, and when it was more "winter-ish," there was no light.  Breakfast was made by lantern-light.  

There has generally been power from 7am to 8am since the middle of January, and then it goes off until late afternoon.  This picture was taken around 8:15, after the kids have gone to school.  We are very fortunate because we have windows in our house.  So many people have to use lanterns even after 8 am.

This is the view outside my kitchen window.

If the blinds are closed, this is my "view."

Usually, we're pretty good about washing dishes from dinner the night before so they are ready to put up the next morning, like this.

 But sometimes,  I wake, and I'm met with a mess from a lazy night.
 


Since I only have one sink, I put all the dirties in the red basin and boil water on the stove.



Very soon, it's all done...till lunch.


We usually have pretty good power at night.  It shuts off until midnight, but until then, I can usually get all the wash done for the day and hang it on our rack and on the stairs.  This is what I see the next morning.  And yes, we still have "crunchy" towels, just like we did in Africa.

I get everything folded into piles, ready for the kids to pick up after school.  The trunks are my "pantry."  These are where I keep goodies that are sent from America, multiples of an item, or salsa and pickles that I make.

 Now, the rack will sit empty all day until the power comes on again at night.

And, I wait until the kids dutifully fill it up again by throwing their clothes down from the second floor.



Throwing their clothes down must be a lot of fun because I never have to remind them to do it.



I also vacuum in the late afternoon when there is power.  For some reason, someone tiled this house with WHITE tile, so every speck of anything or hair from anybody's head, is noticeable to the downcast eye.

If we have had city power the night before (versus generator power), that means our hot water heater was working and a hot shower can be had the next morning.  But getting prepared for a shower is quite a shock to the system when your house feels like 50 degrees or colder.  We also try to take "military showers."  They need to be short, and while we're soaping up, we turn the water off, so that the rest of the family will have enough hot water, as well.

*cold*

This picture was taken in January, when I used to hang a lantern on the door of the shower.



It gave me pretty good light, but I realized with water running over my eyes, I keep my eyes closed most of the time anyway, so I stopped taking a lantern with me.



Next, I try to pick out an outfit and put on make-up in my room by lantern or iphone light.  Even with the door open, it doesn't get a lot of light in there.  Recently, I've been taking my make-up into the living room and applying it there.  I stuck myself in the eye several times in my room trying to hold an iphone light in one hand and apply mascara with the other.

Since our afternoons get busy with kids coming home, their activities, and our language tutor coming to the house, I usually go to the vegetable stand in the morning and start prepping for dinner.

My door to the vegetable stand and the outside world.

Looks like we had a dust storm, and somebody needrd to hose down the front porch area.  

I believe after I took this picture, Doug cleaned the porch.  I'm sure the neighborhood ladies get a kick out of seeing him do "women's work," but again, we want to be different, and this is one way we can show how to humble ourselves and be a servant to others.

When I return from buying vegetables, I homeschool Keira until lunch.  After lunch, when I'm ready to go for visits, most everything in my neighborhood is shut down for naptime, so visits have to wait until later.  Most everything in this culture happens late at night, anyway.  

For example:

The girls finish their dance classes around 10pm.  

Caleb gets home from soccer around 8pm.  

Doug gets home from teaching around 8:30pm.

Dentist appointments here START around 9pm.

Late night dinners are a regular at our house.  It makes for short nights, but we are getting used to it.

I left a ton out, but you kind of get an idea of a no-nonsense day.

Happy random day to you, too.

Clean up

Talk about a day that made me feel a little old.  

After lunch, we were trying to clean up...the woman's three daughters, my two daughters, and me.

I was working to clean the plastic off, and continually I was scolded by the woman of the house.

When I reached her end of the table to start rolling up the plastic to put in the trash, she grabbed my arm (with a smile), and told me to sit.  Apparently, she and I were not supposed to be doing the work.  The younger girls were.

So, I decided to take pictures for you :)

This is Karis trying to decide what to do with all of the left over food and remaining plates.

The "girls" got it all clean, and one of them started the tea for the men.  Can you see it on the left?

I had never seen a heater like this.  A heater for the house and a burner for the tea.  Interesting!

I showed you a picture of the kitchen in the last post, and this is where we were trying to take the dirty dishes.  Nice, roomy, etc.

But they pulled us with the dishes to another "kitchen."

Why, oh why?



We have one of these rooms in our house, and we put a sink in it so Doug and I could have a semi-private place to shave or brush our teeth.  The room's roof is a plastic covering on the roof that allows some sunlight in.  That means that the room rises into the second and third floors in an area of open space.

This is a picture of our room taken from the bottom floor (back in the spring)

Our neighbors have a sink, too, and a stove/oven, so that when they are cooking the heat goes up to the second and third floor.  I will say that's not a bad idea.  The heat in my kitchen during he summer was stifling.

Apparently, the middle daughter of the house always washes the dishes, and she told Kylie that she usually doesn't have any help.  She was so glad to have Kylie as a partner on this particular day.

And Kylie was so proud of all the work they did, she went back and got me some pictures of the drying dishes.



 


 While Kylie washed dishes, Karis and I watched the oldest daughter make tea for all the men. 

When they finished, one of the brothers put the tray, full of all the empty tea cups, outside their door.

The oldest daughter crawled toward the tray, slid it over to where the tea pots were percolating, and she proceeded to fill them up again...without washing them. 

I guess it was like Russian roulette with the sipping action that went on in the room when the tea cups went back in.  I could have texted Doug to let him know, but the cell service wasn't working so well that day, so "bottom's up!"

"Be Our Guest"

All I can say is, "Thank goodness these dishes aren't dancing."




Can you imagine if all of this glassware came to life like it did during the "Beauty and the Beast" scene where they sang, "Be Our Guest?"

These are a couple of the stores in the bazaar where I went to look for and buy our dishes.

I was trying to describe  to a friend the heart palpitations I was having with Keira walking around these stores with all of this glass.





And my friend simply said, "I'd love to see pictures of the dishes."

So the next time Doug and I went down there, I took my phone and tried to be discreet.





I think you get the gist.


It's pretty crazy how good they are at using the small spaces they rent for stores.

These glass tower displays were the ones that caused my heart to beat at an even faster rate.

These white ones on the bottom left are the ones I ended up buying.  I figured if we broke some, a simple pattern would be easier to replace than something more decorative.

I hope to show you  more of this bazaar as time goes on.

These pictures were taken in  only three different shops.


There are also shops for scarves, shoes, clothes, house dresses, plastic wear, etc.

It's quite a sight for the senses.

Not just sight, but hearing and smelling as well.