Oven NOT ready Christmas Turkey

After searching high and low, in three different countries, an oven ready turkey was not to be had. On the Saturday before Christmas, it became painfully obvious that if we wanted a bird on our table for the traditional Christmas Day feast we were going to have to go live. Abi trundled off to the market and poked, prodded, weighed and examined the array of live turkeys on offer from the local villagers. What an unfortunate surprise when she returned with a bird in hand. Then it was my turn to continue the process of preparing the object of our eventual main dish. With an audience of Mummy, our friend S, and 2 of the 3 children it was off with its head. Let me tell you, chopping a turkey’s head off is not as easy as it looks. The thing doesn’t just lay there; it resists to the end, a very short end mind you, but resist it does. S was holding it's flailing wings while the axe was swinging!! We would have paid good money for a "Butterball" at that point. Our daughter was in tears after the deed was done. When I asked Abi why Ezzie was crying the reason was not the cruelty of the act, but that she had missed the act of chopping itself!!! (What kind of children are we raising we wonder???)
Following the killing then there was the plucking, soaking, injecting and the cooking. All of which was also less than conventional. In the end, we had a fairly tasty bird on our table, albeit smaller than we are used to and alot more boney!!

If you ever find yourself in a similar position to this then do get in touch and we will share our tips with you, which according to those who gave them to us is the difference between the turkey being edible or not!!!

Food for the journey

Haven't posted for a while as we have been entertaining a run of guests.
Things are ticking along as normal really and we are looking forward to Christmas when we can have a bit of a break.

An interesting cultural observation as far as our children are concerned. Abi overheard them playing playmobil the other day and they were talking about how their playmobil people needed to take enough food with them for their journey. Quin then said "We need to make sure we take a goat and a cow. I think that will be enough!!" How strange it will be to return to packaged meat in the grocery store rather than heading to the local "Mishtore" - butcher - and pointing to the part of the hanging carcass that you require.

Lazy, hazy Summer days???

So Summer has finally hit us and don't we know it?? It has been 40 degrees + (in the hundreds) for several weeks now. We definately prefer this to the Winter weather but you do feel like your skin is sliding off your body!!! With no air conditioning and sporadic electricity to run the fans you do feel like you are chocolate melting pretty much constantly!! The down days are those when there is no electricity or water so sitting in front of a cool fan or being able to have a cold shower is not possible. On those days we head to the pool!!

The swimming pools here are an interesting cultural experience. If you arrive when they open you can pretty much guarantee a few hours of tranquility with only a few people around. By the time you hit noon it is nothing short of unpleasant with bodies everywhere and children begging for food at the tables all around. A couple of the pools have filter systems which we have decided is a positive step forward. We favor those frankly. If the water is clear and you can smell chlorine then you are more than excited!! If the water is green and sludgy looking we tend to bypass the pool altogther!! The great thing is you always bump into people that you know (generally young children who are mostly there unaccompanied or with a slightly older sibling.)The other good thing for us as Internationals is that the pool is extremely affordable being 1.50 for us all to get in and then 75 cents for ice creams for everyone. It makes for a cheap and pleasant way to spend the morning.

Where we have been in the world!!

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

Guns and Rose

We are recovering from the wedding flurry this weekend. We are glad to say that it was a huge success!! Organising a wedding here is certainly an experience. Where else in the world would you be able to book a banquet hall 48 hours to "I do"??
Abi was concerned when the wedding rehearsal ended in rain, especially as there was no back up plan - the ceremony and the reception for 120 guests were both planned to be outside. The stressed out couple were strongly advised to come up with an alternative venue, which they thankfully did. It was decided that the reception would be inside regardless of weather, but we were still planning to try to hold the ceremony outside. On Friday night we were frantically dipping strawberries in chocolate and trying to make 20 floral centrepieces for the tables with a few wilted flowers and lots of random greenery cut from equally random gardens around the neighbourhood. Thankfully, Ben, one of our gap year students had spotted a pink wild rose bush earlier in the week and thought it might come in handy so we despatched a crew off to the river to "hunt and gather". They came back with tales of wading in sewage and revolting smells which made them wretch but it was all for good as they returned with armfuls of very prickly pink wild roses!!! We immediately set to and filled the holes in our oasis which had been soaking in the bath all day!!
At 9am on Saturday morning there were grey clouds looming but we were still optimistic. The wedding wasn't until 4pm so we decided to wait for an hour until we made the final decision. Primrose and Abi took off to the vegetable market to buy the fruit and Abi was soaked to the skin whilst buying the bananas in a total downpour!!! At that point there was no alternative but to mobilise the forces and decorate an inside venue. With the help of the guests from Northern Ireland and the missionary community we were ready to go with a few minutes to spare. As the bride drew up in the car the heavens opened once again, confirming it was the right decision to hold the ceremony inside. It was a wonderful service and there were many tear stained faces. Snacks, drinks, photos and tray bakes were the order of the day and a small crew took off to get the tables filled with appetizers for the hungry guests at the reception venue. The final guest count came to about 130, but there was more than enough food and lots of traditional dancing into the night. We arrived home, shattered but amazed that we had pulled it off at such short notice and very thankful for God's grace. Ezzie was delighted to have her photo taken with the bride and thought the pepto-bismol pink cake with silver glitter all over was like something from Cinderella!!!!!



















Meanwhile, the day after the wedding a motley assortment of people from all over our region were taking to the mountains for a camping/hiking trip. The weather continued to be brisk and rainy at best but they were not to be deterred. Our gap year guys were among the crew and Matt somehow found himself in the possession of an AK47! How he managed it we are still not sure but it makes a great photo. They are pretty much standard issue here so it is hardly surprising, but not something that you would find behind a bush in Harpenden that's for sure!!