Another bike story

A few days ago my bike skills were expanded when I managed to pop a hole in the front tire on my way to school. After asking a local shop owner where I could get air where things got lost in translation and quick call to J, I was starting to walk the bike home since I had no repair kit with me. Seeing the long walk ahead of me I decided to ask one of the local boda (motorbike) drivers since I could better explain what I needed by pointing to parts on their bike and chances are they had needed some repairs in the past as well. It turns out the closest repair place was just down the road (down a hill at that) and they only charged me 25 pounds for the repair (about $8US) and a new tube. The only problem, I needed to pay cash (no one out here takes MC or Visa and even the airlines want cash for a ticket) and I had only 13 pounds on me (I figured it was enough for lunch and a bus ride if I needed it). Even J who had come to help push the bike home didn't have any cash. Needless to say that meant walking home (thankfully without the bike to push) and coming back with the money. Bonus was that the compound manager was just leaving for a meeting near where I left the bike so I was able to catch a ride with him back to the shop. In all I was only about 45minutes late for my first day at the school... oops. Next time I'll travel with more cash.

A trip through town

What does it mean to ride a motorcycle through the city? In general it means navigating through crazy drivers and people who break every traffic law that exists. It also means that as a female on a motorcycle there are many that are somewhat surprised to see me riding around. A few weeks ago I went to the airport to see a friend who was flying through. At the airport there is an area where all the motorcycle guys park their bikes and hang out until someone needs a ride so I thought it best to park there and wait until her flight arrived as I wasn't sure if I could bring the bike up to the main parking area where all the cars/land rovers are (out here there aren't many signs about what can and cant be done and even if there is, one never knows if its correct as rules are always changing). I pulled up and the conversations started. They all wanted to know if the bike was mine and how much I charge for 'transport'. They also wanted to know why I didn't have a car/land rover to drive instead. Soon the conversation turned to the standard marriage questions and how since I'm married I can't marry any of them. Skin color and why my skin is light and thiers is dark was another conversation which thankfully this time I at least didnt get told I look like a pig (previous conversation with someone else and that was what she compared my skin to). I also was told I need to learn one of the dominant local languages in addition to my arabic. It also became a bit of entertainment for the guys I was chatting with to tell any new comers that "no, she doesn't need a ride because she has a bike" before they asked if I needed a ride just to see their reaction (which ironically is the same reaction they had when I told them I had my own bike). I suspect that my market reputation of being a white person who speaks arabic has now been expanded beyond the market to the city overall as a white woman who rides a motorcycle and speaks arabic.

Sewing

Recently one of my friends from D asked me to post some pics of the alterations I did to J and I's mosquito net. Mosquito nets are one of those things out here that are essential and useful but also very annoying. Malaria is a huge issue and the nets are one way to prevent malaria. Tucking them in at night is a hassle though. I got tired of going to bed and tucking it in everytime I got out through the night. Thus I came up with the idea that if I could sew a hem in the bottom that I could run an elastic through creating something like a fitted sheet effect things would be much easier. So the next time I took the net down to wash it I did some sewing and installed the elastic. BEST THING EVER. Now I just slide under the net into bed. grab the mattress and roll slightly and it tucks itself in.

After photo (sorry no before shots but they look the same)

 here you can see the folded portion. There is approx 3.5-4m

of 1cm elastic in it that I brought from Canada.

End result underneath. As long as I lift the mattress it will 

pull the net to something like this. If I don't lift the mattress 

then  it will pull to the edge of the mattress but there are tiny gaps.

I also did some sewing of curtains. I haven't seen any curtain rods anywhere in J but instead we  have long springs (like piano wire) with hooks on the end which attach to screws in the wall. all this was in place when I first arrived but J had never hung any curtains. Although our place is fairly high up from the ground, I still felt  like I was in a fish bowl and I didn't like that. So off I went to the market and found some material for approx $3US per meter. I had  initially calculated that I only needed 4-5m of material but they prefered to sell the patterned material in 6m chunks so I bought all 6m which was a good thing as I needed it ALL and there would have been no going back for more as the "rolls" are only 12m long and I took the last 6m. Once I had them hung I realized that I needed some way to tie them back. J  likes to keep them open during the day for the breeze to come through so he decided to fix them....

J's answer to pulling back the curtain utilizing the rope he hung a long time ago for an indoor clothesline. 

My answer was a little different. 

1/2m of solid blue material (this comes in actual rolls and thus I could buy less than 6m) and some snap buttons I brought from Canada. 

J's solution on the left, curtains but no straps on the right.

Started by sewing a strap, putting the snaps on

sewing the strap into the edge of the curtain

 hooking the snap together. 

 finished result on the left. 

very convenient and looks much better. 

You cant tell very well in the pic but the blue in the curtain and the strap are 2 different shades and don't match very well. This is a result of not very good lighting when I bought the material but it works for now. I'll use the rest to put curtains on the door. They are done but I need to get screws so I can tie a rope to hang them off of. Hopefully its not to hard to find in the market.

Medical days

I don't have a set schedule as for now I'm only doing the part time medical care for the team that works here on the compound so for the most part many of the staff will just stop in and chat about thier concerns. working here is very different than in my home country but also different than things in D. in my home country if I want tests done I just order them and the patient can go without having to pay for them while in D, there simply were so few tests that we treated based on their medical symptoms and our examinations. Here in J things are somewhere in the middle, many tests are available however everything costs money. The local clinic nearby has a wide variety of tests that they do and if you go to the medical center on the other side of town there is Xray, ultrasound, and possibly even a CT machine. My biggest challenge here is balancing the need for tests and medicines with the staff's ability to pay for them. One way I've been able to help reduce these costs is by finding out what medicines they use regularly and buying them in bulk at the wholesaler which has drastically reduced the costs for them. Another thing I've been working on is how can they treat themselves with what local things are available. One good example of this is using aloe vera plants instead of buying creams for burns and minor cuts. Although this is one of the more wellknown natural treatments there are many more out there and I've been researching them one by one to see what can be of use. This alone has been a challenge as there isn't a whole lot of good, reliable, research out there for many natural products.

food post

Baking has been another thing I've been doing more of. Since most things have to be made from scratch, I'm learning how to bake bread and other things. I could actually buy bread from the local bakery but its a 10 minute walk there and I can just as easily make it here and fresh warm bread straight from the oven tastes amazing. Instead of making an actual loaf of bread I've been making buns which cook amazingly well in our toaster oven. I've also made tortillas, pilau (kenyan dish), french fries (last night), cookies (turned into a sheet of them instead of nice separate ones), potato chips, and a few other things. 

One of the challenges of baking is that many recipies call for things that simply aren't available here. I've enjoyed the More With Less cookbook but also have found some pretty good recipies on allrecipes.com that I've had to do minor alterations to. My biggest challenge so far was making scalloped potatoes for the Thanksgiving dinner that one of our US team mates invited us to. Most of the recipies I found called for cheese, something that I haven't seen here in a long while and when I do find it, its expensive. I found this recipe online (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Old-Irish-Scalloped-Potatoes/Detail.aspx?evt19=1) but some of the comments indicated there wasn't much flavor/spice in it. After a bit more searching I found another recipe that did call for cheese but had a variety of spices (garlic, onions, paprika, and thyme) I had for the most part. I added the spices(except the thyme which I didn't have) from the 2^nd recipe and it turned out amazing. 

 

Toaster oven with hotplates on top and induction hotplate beside.

Recipe called for 1/2hr, this is the result after about 15minutes.

Using the toaster oven really speeds up the process. 

I learned the toaster oven isn't the best to make loaves. 

Although it was cooked on the inside it was burnt on the top/bottom

and since I don't have tin foil to reflect the heat, I've gone with buns ever since. 

(tin foil is available but very expensive)

 A much better result. They don't look fancy but E (a 3yr old that from another family)

is always asking for more "bed" (bread) every time he visits so it must be good. 

Gardening

Gardening is another thing that has been interesting to do here. Although life here in J has much more selection than D where the main things available in the market were tomatoes, garlic, onions, flour, rice, tomato paste, and pasta; there are still many things which are simply not available. Thus many of the team have started small gardens and are growing a variety of things. when I first arrived I thought I'd try my hand at a few things and planted basil, catnip, rosemary, and lemon balm since my internet research suggests they are good to keep mosquitoes away. A few weeks later and only the basil had come up which was kind of surprising as the catnip can reportedly be a bit of a nusance and hard to control if not in a pot. Since then I've planted many more different plants and have already notice that after just a few days I had some cucumber and watermelon shoots. I've been keeping things watered but have since noticed that the basil has had some sort of animal plant its eggs on it and soon after removing them  both plans have started to wilt. I've also noticed that the pots are either really wet or dry out really quickly which is making me consider getting a real garden and not the  small pots I've got now. I'll still start seeds in them but soon I hope to dig up an old garden that hasn't been used in a while and do some work with the compost pile which is growing. hopefully with the better dirt and water system I'll get bigger plants that will produce lots of food. Then I can pick food as I need it and not have to  get it at the market and use it in a few days.  Out here even the carrots only last a few days before  I have to freeze them or eat alot of veggies (not J's favorite idea).

Basil

 

just a few pots (there are tons more now)

 

 Garlic

Watermelon

 cucumber on the left, basil on the right

?Cilantro, parsley and basil (starting to die here)

 

 ?beans or bell peppers

 Tomatoes

Life so far

Well this past month I've been busy doing a variety of thing from medical stuff for the team to looking for a job in the city. Cooking from scratch, gardening, and sewing are a few things I've been doing as well. Over the next few weeks I thought I'd post a little about life here in J and what it looks like overall. 

I thought I'd start with a little about the Arabic language and some of the things I've found so far. One of the big differences is that the Arabic I spoke in D is different than the Arabic spoken here in J. I don't know how many times now I've used my Arabic and have it still get lost in translation even though it worked just fine in D last year. That being said, the little Arabic I do know has left quite an impression on some people in the market. Last week when wandering around the market looking for fabric some guy called "kawaja" (white person) and then turned to his friend and told him in Arabic that I am kawaja that speaks Arabic. While the locals may think I know lots of Arabic, the reality is I don't know much at all. I can get by in the market but beyond that I really struggle which is why I was happy to find a Christian bookstore that has lots of books in Arabic. I was able to find an Arabic/English Bible for less than $20US (which is a great deal considering the prices I saw while back in Canada) and even found the Arabic version of some books that I read as a child. I bought both with the plan to slowly do backtranslation and learn the words. This worked well when I was learning Spanish but I expect Arabic to be more of a challenge as even the letters are different.

In the mean time I've been using my Arabic/English Bible when I'm out and about as its easier to share with others who don't know the English but know the Arabic. With both languages side by side it works well for the most part except when I start looking up things and go to the wrong end of the book (Arabic is read right to left thus Genesis is where I would expect Revelations to be and so forth). Its taking me a bit to get used to but I'm sure I will.

anyone remember the books on the right? This one is the story of Martha and Mary, I have the Ruth one (and a few others) at home back in Canada.