Pleasant surprise!

We received a care package from my mom recently which included several bags my mom made for the kids.  But it also included Frosted Flakes and Parmesan cheese (the kind in a shaker…not fresh!).  The Parmesan cheese was used that night on the pasta we had and we had cereal the next morning.  I felt like a kid again having Frosted Flakes with toast (a little cinnamon and sugar on top of course)!

It also included several other nice surprises….mac & cheese mix, coffee, stationary, hard candy and much more.  Most were items I wouldn’t have thought of asking for but enjoy having….that’s exactly what my mom sent!  Love my mom’s thought process :)

Now, one item I was certainly happy to see was the pepperoni, although one had blown a hole in the package…darn :(  Can you guess which one is bad!?

We’ve been out of electricity for 3 days now (which also means the water situation isn’t good either) but I’m hoping the electricity is on when we get home tonight to actually use the pepperoni on a pizza.  Love you mom and thanks for the yummy package and great bags for the kids!

Group photo time!

Since the kids are now off school for a month (approximately) I decided it was a good time for a group photo and Chuck decided it was a good time for sausages and soda (a few of the kids’ favorites!)

Dan sanitizes before sitting down to eat! I was practically giddy seeing all the kids sanitize before sitting down to the table!

 

looks like an army mess tent!

 

Waiting patiently for their sausage - everyone was able to have 2 sausages...a real treat!

 

Then it was photo time….try getting 27 kids to stand up straight, stay in place and not give their goofy hand signs all after a good meal of sausage, cabbage, chapatti, soda and a chocolate chip cookie bar!  But eventually it happened!

The gang's all here!

 

Back row from left – Roman (farm manager), Bosco (project manager), Moses, Erastus, Chris, Peter (social worker), Edward, Jacinta, Ann (house mom), Nancy, Kelvin.

Third row back from left – Kevin, Scholar, Morris, Elijah, Frank, Ceceliah, Doris, Jane, Doreen.

Second row back from left – Francis, Caleb, Pius, Isaac, Ben, Naomi, Mercy, Esther.

First row from left – Chuck, Dan, Emma, Bonface and me.

It was fun and a good time was had by all!

 

Saturday

A typical Saturday:

Boys will be boys....pile of dirt and shovels and they are ready to "help"! They were basically shovelling from the bottom of the pile to the top!

 

Meanwhile Esther picks tomatoes...isn't she colorful!?

 

Cabbage & spinach are coming up well and tasting very delicious!

 

The Lord blessed us with a plentiful amount of peppers...some will be sold to the community.

Variety

Variety, oh how I miss you.  The variety I’m talking about today is food variety.  I readily admit I like food and I like a variety of food (unlike Chuck who could eat the same thing EVERY SINGLE DAY).  Every few months I get into a “food funk” and when I hear peeps on Facebook, TV or in a book talk about food I get a little bummed…Chinese, Italian, Mexican, seafood, etc.  Having the availability of food at the touch of a button is not an option here in Tala and even the ingredients to make a variety of food isn’t available.  Lately even the one ingredient we normally use, cheese, has become nonexistent in Tala.  It’s not like we can choose a different cheese either, there is (was) only cheddar cheese at the grocery store, now there’s nothing.

For variety we usually get some things from Nairobi but we can only purchase and stock up on so much and we run out long before our next trip to Nairobi.  Mozzarella cheese, ham and tuna fish are a few items not available in Tala but we can get in Nairobi.  Or as most of you know we enjoy receiving pepperoni from the US as this is something we have not found anywhere here.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the food I have and I’m definitely not going without food but I have to be honest and say I’m in a “food funk” state of mind.

 

 

Yeah, new hats!

Today’s post will be brief…new hats and food purchases.

Just so you know, we do NOT get snow in our area!  The kids, and most of the adults, complain about being cold if the sun goes behind a cloud.  If there’s a stiff breeze many will shiver and put on a sweater.  So it isn’t uncommon to see parents wrapping up their babies in thick clothing then a blanket and a stocking hat or to see kids walking around with knit hats, sweaters, down jackets or even snow suits while I’m walking around in short sleeves or tank top!  Always answering the question, “aren’t you cold?” with “nope, this is absolutely beautiful weather!”  But since they feel cold we got all the kids a knit hat and most of them will wear them all day long with the sun blaring down…makes me sweat just looking at them!

A few days ago we stocked up the kitchen again, something we do once a month in bulk.  It’s always fun to watch the kids’ eyes light up as if to say…yes, we get to continue eating!  Ann has also been making a weekly menu and I’ve seen a couple of the kids staring at the menu, seeing when their favorite food will be served that week!  This is just a small part of the shopping…the 90kg bag of rice and other large items were already loaded into the truck.

To get an idea of how much food C4KK goes through, you can check out an earlier blog entry.   So there you have it, my brief blog post!

Good eats!

C4KK now has kitchen space to hold bulk items

and that’s exactly what’s been done.  Today I thought I’d give you an approximate break down of how much food C4KK uses on a weekly basis.  The amounts will vary depending on how many kids are there….right now the 10th-11th graders are away at school and in February 5 more kids (the new 9th graders) will be leaving for secondary.  But in April all the secondary students (9 kids) will be at C4KK so amounts will increase.

Tea leaves – .2 lbs  The kids have tea every morning for breakfast and Ann makes tea 6 nights a week after dinner.  This is “British” tea, meaning they make it with milk, water and tea leaves

Milk – 5 gallons  This is mainly used for tea purposes.  The kids normally drink water with their meals or juice if Ann purchases it

Bread – 25 loaves  They will eat 5 loaves per day for breakfast and a couple of days Ann makes donuts instead of having “loaf” (that’s what they call bread)

Wheat flour – 26 lbs  This is used for making chapatti (which they have once a week) and the breakfast donuts

Eggs – 90  They will begin to have eggs approximately 3 times per week for breakfast

Rice – 29 lbs  This is a staple food and is eaten about 4-5 times per week

Soy pieces – 3 lbs  Soy is a new item for the kids and they really like it and I like they are getting another source of protein

Spaghetti – 12 lbs  No pasta sauce for the kids, they simply boil the spaghetti and add tomatoes, onions, etc. for flavor

Beans – 26 lbs  They either have red or black beans throughout the week.  Githeri (another staple food) is normally served on Sunday and it consists of beans and maize

Maize flour – 21 lbs  This flour is mainly used for making ugali (flour and water cooked together to form a cake-like consistency)

Maize – 11 lbs  Used in githeri

Green grams – 9 lbs  A veggie much like a pea, but smaller.

Meat – 7 lbs  Ann purchases beef (bone in) once a week for the kids.

Sugar – 18 lbs  This seems a bit high in my opinion and we are working with Ann on bringing the consumption of sugar down.

Then throughout the week there is the purchase of onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic, ginger and other spices and veggies.  Also from the shamba (garden) they get tomatoes, sukuma and cabbage.  Ann will also begin purchasing fruits, she’s partial to apples, for the kids to have during the week.

We are estimating the food we purchased in bulk to last at least a month and that (along with the cost for cooking the food) was approximately $890.  Which, of course, doesn’t include the fresh stuff (i.e. fruits).  As we move forward we’ll get a better grip on those costs and at that time I can give you all a better monthly estimate of food costs for C4KK.  If you’d like to help with this monthly cost, either with a one-time  or recurring donation, please visit our secure donation site to set up your gift (please choose “Children’s Shelter (C4KK) and Farm Project” from the Allocation drop down list).

Thanks everyone!

Stocked kitchen!

Now that the kitchen is almost complete (cupboards and drawers are being fixed as we speak) it was time to stock it.  We worked with our friend in Tala, Sumil at Sunny Lucky, to get bulk items and he always gives us the best price.

The kitchen is now stocked for about a month…that, of course, doesn’t include the daily needs of fresh items like garlic, ginger, potatoes, etc.  But as we get the crop rotation going in the shamba they won’t need to buy sukuma, cabbage, tomatoes, spinach and soon bananas.

getting stuff organized (that's Mary in the photo, Ann's helper)

Bags of beans, sugar, flour and maize

Milk, tea, spaghetti, flour, salt, soy pieces and green grams

Haul it all in!

Jacinta and Doris arrange the dishes

I brought magnetic letters recently and this is what the kids have done:

They also have enough clothes washing soap, bathing soap, toothpaste, valon (a lotion they use on their skin) and shoe polish to last the month.  Thank you Lord for the providence of a month’s supply of food and non-food items for the kids here at C4KK.  It looks great looking into the full cupboards!

I like!

Lately I’ve noticed the kids we work with are “changing” their preferences.  I say change but it might actually be broadening their tastes.  When ugali was the main food available (ugali is flour and water mixed and cooked until it becomes a cake-like consistency) we told them we just couldn’t eat it, tasteless basically, but they said how very much they loved eating it and it was their favorite food.  Also, if they saw Chuck or I drinking our water or soda with ice (ice that we made with bottled water!) they couldn’t believe we could or even would drink cold drinks.  They preferred room temperature.

That seems to be changing….electricity is now here at C4KK and it seems they like putting their water bottles in the freezer!  Wait a minute, I thought you liked room temperature drinks?   And when Ann said they would be having ugali one night for dinner it was like she spoke fighting words.  They were getting used to spaghetti, rice and soy for their meals, what was she suggesting…ugali!?  Now hold on, you told me that was a favorite food!

I love the fact they are experiencing different foods and cold drinks and I believe as a people we all convince ourselves at times that something we have is the best simply from not having any other option.  I see that a lot here with the kids.  They are not exposed to the world, let alone the village next door, so their vision for the future is very limited.

Slowly we are teaching them there is a big world out there….encouraging them to open their mind to different experiences, tastes and ideas.  I’m praying for a couple of laptop computers to teach the kids, Ann and Bosco how to use them and to see the world through the world wide web.  What a thrill it is to hear their questions like “what’s the use of having an email?” or “what does a boat dock look like?” or “how does Facebook work?” and to see their understanding kick in, which sometimes leads to more questions!

Ugali isn’t on the menu much anymore and water bottles continue to fill the freezer and for that I am thankful.

Chapatti time!

Today the kids (and Ann) made chapatti for lunch.  Fresh chapatti is simply yummy!  As you can see it helps to have many hands helping to make it and Naomi seems to really enjoy rolling out the dough!  She’s on the left.

It really is a blessing too that they can make chapatti more often, not only on special occasions.  The Lord blesses with fresh chapatti!

Pizza, Kenyan style

Before I get into the real pizza issue in the blog you need a bit of background info.  First, there is NO place in Tala to get pizza…no restaurant makes/sells it, grocery stores don’t sell the ingredients and we haven’t found pepperoni ANYWHERE in Kenya (hence the reason we love you all for sending us the stick pepperoni!!)  So one day when we had to go into Ruai for supplies for C4KK we saw the local grocery store had opened up a very small take out place inside and yup, they sell pizza!

Now before getting all excited for us let me explain some more.  Ruai is approximately 20 miles from where we live (it’s past C4KK) and it takes about 45 minutes to drive that (yea, road conditions are horrendous here).  The only time we go into Ruai is if supplies are needed which we can’t get nearer to C4KK or in Tala.  But when we go we like to sample the pizza (which isn’t half bad even if there is no pepperoni).

The other day was no exception.  We ordered our pizzas and were told to wait 20 minutes.  No problem, I could get a few items there.  I came back 20 minutes later and he said there was still a wait, 10 more minutes.  Ok, we looked around the store a bit more, came back and I began waiting.  Then I noticed he was just beginning to make our pizzas!  Literally rolling out the dough right then!  I told Chuck and Bosco what was happening and they decided to head out to the hardware for another item they needed.

I stood (no place to sit down and wait…a table and chair would be nice for just such an occasion) watching the guy roll out our pizza dough on their chest freezer, answer his cell phone, not wash his hands and come back to working on our pizzas.  That’s when I had to just open up my Nook Color (got this a while back, but thanks friend!), ignore the proceedings around me and pray the baking process would kill anything he was putting on the pizza.

We eventually got our pizzas with apologizes (which really surprised me) and we were off to eat in the truck, remember no chairs or tables to sit at to eat.

That’s pizza Kenyan style!  Oh and I noticed on the menu board….peanut butter pizza. Haven’t had the nerve to try that one!