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.

One Special Thursday...an End and a Beginning

Thursdays are special for us. 

It's the last day of the week, and our tradition is to have pizza and a movie.

It started a long time ago with nachos and popcorn on Fridays in America, 

but in Africa, we started making homemade pizza every Friday 

because it was hard to get cheddar cheese and chips were near-impossible to find.

Now we are back to pizza, 

and even though many in the family would prefer homemade pizza, 

buying it is SO much easier, 

and Thursday nights are pretty busy already with ballet, gymnastics, and soccer.

On May 7, 2020, I drove to pick up pizza for the first time since March 12th, 

and it was clear that they were not taking dine-in customers.

Can you tell what gave it away?

This particular Thursday we were celebrating something bigger!

Earlier that day, we had all joined together in the kitchen as Kylie turned in her last assignment for her senior year.

With sketchy internet delaying the turn-in and "Pomp and Circumstance" playing on my phone, we celebrated our first graduate in the Taylor household.

Kylie, when this posts, you will have almost completed your freshman year of college.

We are so proud of who you are, your accomplishments, 

and how you have allowed God to work in your life.

We love and miss you!

May 7, 2020

Dinner AND a Show

The last time we tried dinner and a movie on the roof was New Year's Eve.  It was FREEZING!

We decided to try it again on a nice Spring evening, and it was wonderful weather.  Doug had some material sewn together in the market, and we propped it up with our Christmas tree pole.

Doug had a nice fire going, and it made a perfect romantic atmosphere for the Chick Flick....

 "The Lego Batman Movie."  😄

After a long week, all of us fell asleep during the movie except Doug.  He helped carry Keira downstairs, and Caleb and Karis got up and walked down.  I slept with Kylie on the roof until 3am, and then my hip was feeling the cement more than I would like, so I headed down.

The morning after, I went up to check on Kylie.

The fire was out

and so was Kylie.

The sun comes up around 4:30am, so I was impressed that she was still sleeping.

Dinner and a show #2:  Successful

Celebrating the kids

Usually awards for schools take place at the end of the year, but the school that our kids are attending, doesn't do any "honoring" in May.  However, they principal scheduled something for January 18th, and awards were given based on their first term's performance.

All three of our kids were given the same two awards.
One for maintaining a 90% average or higher, and one for maintaining a 95% average or higher.

It seems strange to me, because if they had just been given the one for 95% average, it would have covered both of them, but oh well.

The lower one was presented by the US Consulate General, and the higher one was presented by the principal.

This is the principal with all of them.

It's so rare that I get a picture of all of them, so even though this was taken in a cafeteria with some strangers in the background, I figured I would let you see it.

 Thanks.

Afterward, to celebrate, we visited a place that we had heard was in town, but we really weren't sure whether to believe it or not.

It used to be called "P.J.'s Pizza," but now...




This is pretty amazing!  The pizza actually tastes the same!!  The only "wrong" thing about the night was that they served garlic mayonnaise with the pizza instead of garlic butter sauce.

As I checked out, I asked the man if there was any chance they were ever going to serve the garlic butter sauce, and he said, "Yes!"  Apparently, the garlic butter sauces were "misplaced" in shipping.  He said in few weeks they might arrive.

We shall see...

Happy days

Sno Cones and a Lost Shoe

We usually make pizza on Thursday nights (equivalent to your Friday).  However, the dough that we use isn't being made during the day anymore.  They start baking around midnight.  So, we decided to buy the dough on Wednesday, so we could actually have some for our earlier dinner on Thursday.

On this particular Wednesday, we had a single lady over for dinner, and we talked until around 11pm.  That was also the time we knew that the bread ovens around the neighborhood were getting fired up.  So she, Kylie, and I went to the bread shop at 11, and asked for dough and some bread.

The dough was ready, but the bread hadn't started to be cooked yet.

The locals here go get their bread late at night so they can have it for their 3am breakfast.  Bread spread with a type of thick butterish-yogurt is a very common breakfast.

We took the dough, said goodbye to our guest, and went home to roll out and cook four pizza crusts.  If we had let the dough sit in our fridge, it would have grown and spilled out like a science experiment gone wrong.

When Kylie finished baking the crusts, it was close to 2am, and then everyone went to bed (don't worry, Keira had already been asleep for awhile).

About that time, I sat down to study language, and I realized the street was a little noisy.

The kids come out to play around 6-7pm, and they stay out until around 1 or 2am.  Granted, they go in at 7:30ish to break fast with their families, and then they return to the streets.

At around 8pm, 9pm, and 11pm, the sno cone man comes down the street yelling about his wares.  Kids treat him as if it's actually a blazing, hot afternoon, and they flock to get their sno cones as usual. 

We're so used to hearing the sno cone seller's voice yelling throughout the day, that the first few nights, we didn't even realize how strange it was that he was advertising his product in the middle of the night.

But this particular night, it was a little louder at 2am than the normal kid-play I hear as I fall asleep.

I went to the gate to peek into the street, and about 4 boys were having a fight in front of my gate.  Hitting and wrestling.  Very normal in this culture, but it just seemed louder.

I turned to go inside, and I saw a man's sandal on my porch.

Remember when someone threw a shoe at George Bush, Jr., in 2008?

It was to insult.  Someone was angry.

I'm guessing some neighborhood gentleman had had enough of something (maybe the boys???), and he had tossed his shoe, and it had flown over my wall.

I didn't want to put it outside my gate for fear that the boys might take it or play a trick with it, but I knew someone needed it.

So, I opened the "chicken gate" (as I call the one we don't use that is buy the chicken butchery), and I quietly set it down.  A young boy saw me do this and started yelling something.  I hope he was telling the gentleman where his shoe was, but I will never know.

Samoon Dough

Well, I told you before about samoon bread that we like to eat.

The last time I went, I asked the baker if I could take some pictures, and he said, "yes."

He has helpers that put the samoon dough laid close together down the length of these boards.

You can see the many sacks of flour in the back.

The store makes bread twice a day. 

At lunch and at night.

So since the locals eat this for breakfast, they buy a double portion at night.

The way this works is that when the bread is gone, they close.

Simple.




The baker works by the fire taking the dough out of the tray, putting it on a long wooden paddle, shoving the dough into the oven, and then scooping it up again with the same paddle.  Another worker then scoops them off into a large tub where they are bagged by boys who work the order windows for the different genders I told you about in an earlier post.

All the parts work together like a well-written symphony.

This particular samoon shop is next to the laffa shop where we buy the samoon sandwiches.

This man cuts open the bread, scoops in the meat (chicken, beef, or falafel),

and then you can put on whatever toppings you want.

Another favorite way we like samoon is to order just the dough.

Yep...the dough.

In a bag...

and then knead it.

 

Then roll it and put it on a pizza pan.

We bake the crusts and chop onions, garlic, and jalapenos, and also add pepperoni that some amazing people in Texas sent us, and then we put it all together.

Before we had pepperoni and even now, we make buffalo ranch chicken pizza, and it's pretty good.

Then, the leftover dough is a gift that keeps on giving. 

As it grows in my fridge each night and spills out over the container, I can decide whether to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast or rolls for lunch

That's a good problem to have.

Getting Settled

We survived the 24-hours without a toilet easily, and it prompted me to go outside and clean the squatty potty.  I washed the walls on the outside and the floors on the inside.  While scrubbing the acutal squatty, I found some "residue" tucked under the edge that had been there for awhile, which was probably causing the smell.

So glad that's over!

Also that first night (as we experience every night at some point), the power went out.  We had the solar lanterns lit on the dinner table, and just as I got ready to snap this picture, the power came back on.  But you get the gist.

After one night sleeping on the doshaks, Doug was prompted to walk down the street and investigate mattresses.

Lo and behold, he returned within two hours with a truck following him.

He was a little disappointed that he didn't get as much discount as he thought he could have gotten, but when the only thing you know how to do is point and look at a man's calculator when he types in numbers for you,  you pretty much get what you can.

We like the mattress!

Also, on this day, we went to a government office (think "closet with one man and a heavy cloud of cigarette smoke hanging in the air") to have copies of our passports made and stapled to another sheet.  That's it!

I had my mobile taken away and a full pat down to go to that office for a total of 3 minutes.

Then, we headed to a clinic (on the other side of town) run by the government to have our blood drawn and tested (for malaria, HIV, bilharzia, etc).  We paid about $50 and then stood in line for the needle.  The sign says "Blood Withdraw Exit", but it also happens to be the entrance, which makes it quite crowded and complicated.

We were told to return to the "Smoking Man's" office in two days, and he would have the results of our blood test and we could get our permits.

Well, that didn't happen...

But to continue on with setting up our house, the next day, Doug went walking down the street again, and this time when he came home, a truck followed again very quickly.  This time it was carrying a washer and dryer.

I love this man.  He knows the way to my heart!

The dials have pictures on them, so I don't even have to know how to read the language yet to operate it.

 The amount of dust on top of the packaging was enough to give anyone pause.

But the following day, a very nice man helped us hook them up.

That's the nice man, climbing out the inner second-story window to get to our water heater and some pipe he needed access to.

Since the door to the laundry room (that's what I call it) opens to the inside, the washer and dryer wouldn't fit in there, so Doug and the other man re-situated them under the stairs.

I'll be honest.  I hated to lose that under-the-stair storage.  Or on second thought, I could have put Keira's bed under there!! :)  However, since I will only need the dryer during the winter months, I could, realistically move it up to the third floor landing and retain some of the space under there.

We'll have to see.

To finish up our week, since this was Thursday (their Friday), we went to pick up our permits at the government office.  Smoking Man had our papers and it showed that we had had our blood tests done, but he said he needed to see our receipt for the $50.

We took a taxi back to our house.  Found it.  Took a taxi back to the office, and Smoking Man released us to go upstairs to see the "Big Man" who makes all the decisions.

The Big Man couldn't decide if he should charge us a lot of money, so he sent us home and told our translator to come back the following week.

Long story short (and awesome), today our translator went back, and he said we were only charged a fee to process and laminate our ID cards (about $17).  Nice, huh?

No more paper work or blood given for one more year :)

End of the week also meant homemade pizza and a movie.

I have some tweaking to do to get these better, but it was a good first start.

 

 We all sat at the kitchen table and watched a movie on a laptop while eating pizza.

Sounds like a good night to me.