Yesterday I only snapped a few photos with my point-and-shoot camera as we were getting ready to run errands in the morning; my DSLR never left the desk. So this isn’t all that thrilling for my #clickaday photo but it does show Max’s new bag that he got when we went to the Arusha Summer Fair last weekend. Continue reading
Wednesday lunch on our weekly menu is usually leftovers. But this week our fridge was oddly bare so I had to do some fast thinking for what Max and Elly could eat for lunch. In addition, they had cut their nap short, so lunch prep needed to be participatory.
So I reached deep into the recesses of my mind to recall a Pinterest post I had once seen involving hot dogs and spaghetti, both of which we had stocked in our kitchen. Enter: hot dog surprise (although here we actually refer to beef franks as sausages and eat them for breakfast).
I shared yesterday that we spent much of our weekend at the Arusha Summer Fair. Although Max and Elly had scored cool new bags when they were with me on Saturday, Kakasii could not resist getting them something when we were there on Sunday so we came home with two of these toy trucks cleverly made from bottle caps. Elly’s truck is made from Coca-Cola caps; Max’s is made from Tusker Beer caps.
On Monday we went to play at the Family & Friends Restaurant’s playground and Max had great fun running his truck through mud puddles and loading up the gravel from the parking lot.
And, just when I thought I might not come up with a shot for today’s #clickaday, Max, Elly and Anita all came through with great poses for me. I’ve been wanting to experiment with that haze effect that’s so popular in portrait photography now and Anita gladly served as my model. (Anita is our live-in nanny who helps me with Max and Elly.)
While we were taking Anita’s pictures, Elly helped out by holding her sunglasses. (Stay tuned for a future post–hopefully soon–about Elly finally giving up her pacifier!)
Our favorite story these days is The Tickle Monster by Josie Bissett. In it the Tickle Monster takes a break from tickling to make silly faces. This is Max’s version. (By the way, this is a great book. Super fun to read and act out with all the tickling.)
So, what I thought was going to be my first #clickaday without any clicks, I ended up with five to share!
I’ve made it halfway through the #clickaday challenge this month!
This weekend we spent both days at the Arusha Summer Fair, which is a bit oddly named since technically it’s our “winter” now and quite chilly, especially at night. In fact I would consider it downright cold at night.
On Saturday Max, Elly, Anita, Ney and I ventured out together to the fair. There was a kids’ corner with crafts and activities so we hung out there for a while. It was interesting to me that Max and Elly were especially interested in playing with the play dough–something they can do anytime at home. From there we did some shopping and each got a cool new bag made by a women’s sewing group called SEW–Supporting and Empowering Women. The bags are made from recycled flour or rice sacks and scraps of kitenge–brightly colored cloth with bold patterns. My goal to get a photo of Max and Elly modeling their new bags for one of my #clickaday photos.
On Sunday, I intended for Kakasii and me to return to the Summer Fair sans children so I could do a little more leisurely browsing but Max and Elly had a different idea. They weren’t interested in staying home so they came along with us, first stopping at the market to do our weekly grocery shopping. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the fair.
Back at home Max and Elly played upstairs in our bedroom for a while and Elly came across this silly hat that a friend had given Kakasii last year while on safari. Kakasii looks pretty ridiculous wearing it but Elly looks beyond cute!
With a few exceptions, we eat mostly the same menu every week. And our menu is primarily Tanzanian foods.
While there are certain Tanzanian foods I really love–nyama choma, for instance–there are a few I absolutely cannot stand. So when those particular meals come up in the rotation–like dagaa and ugali* for lunch on Fridays–I seek out an alternative. This week I pulled out my last box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. When Max and Elly–who happen to love dagaa and ugali–see the iconic blue box, they refer to it as “mzungu food.” Mzungu is the Swahili word used to refer to white people, which Max and Elly do not consider themselves to be.
The truth is I don’t really even think Kraft Macaroni & Cheese tastes all that good. But it does taste familiar. Some days that’s the most important thing about what I eat.
And even though they tease me about eating mzungu food, Max and Elly still want their share.
*In a future post I’ll explain exactly what dagaa and ugali is.
This afternoon we went to our usual hangout after I got home from Bible study. My intention was for us to have some fresh mango juice and play for a while, but Max had a different idea. After the juice came, he drank part of his glass and then said he was saving the rest for when the chipsi come (chips–what Tanzanians call french fries). Then he called the waitress over himself and, without consulting me, ordered chips. He and Elly plowed through the first order so he called the waitress again and ordered another (both times the waitress did wait for me to give the nod before putting the order in to the kitchen).
Almost as much as Max loves chips, he also loves ketchup (which Tanzanians call tomato sauce). You can see from today’s #clickaday photo just how much he loves it.
Today I got the rare treat of some one-on-one time with Elly. She helped me bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies while Max played outside with Anita and Godson. She loves to help stir in the chocolate chips but, more than anything, she loves to taste test the cookies–before and after they’ve been baked.
It’s a little-known fact that Tanzania Choice Safaris clients often get home-baked cookies from the Kimaro kitchen to take on safari with them. I love to bake, but since Tanzanians don’t have much of a sweet tooth I’m usually the one who ends up eating most of what I bake. So now I time my baking sessions to correspond with our safaris and send the goods along with our clients. Win-win.
Although I haven’t been posting the last few days, I have been keeping up with taking photos for my #clickaday Photography Challenge. But on Sunday evening my laptop froze up and my online life has pretty much come to a screeching halt without it. I’m not sure what the fate of my laptop will be, but it can’t be a good thing that the Startup Repair has been chugging away for more than 36 hours and showing no progress, right? (Heed my warning, friends: go back-up your computer right now. I hadn’t for a while so it’s going to be a pain if the data can’t be saved. Fortunately, I never clear photos off the memory cards until they’ve been back-up so at least I won’t lose those.) Godson is out of school right now and not needing his laptop so he’s kindly lending it to me until I figure out what to do about mine. So, back to the photos.
Day 8 (above): On Sunday, Kakasii and I went to the Karibu Fair, a big travel trade show here in Arusha. I took this photo of the snake dancer there, not so much because I thought the snake dancer was cool, but more so because of all the people crowding around to take pictures using their phones. Smart phones are all the rage here and it seems like just about everyone has one. Just after I took this photo, the crowd almost completely swallowed up the dancer as they kept getting closer and closer to take their photo. I was more than happy to stand back and get this shot instead.
Day 9: On Monday we spent the afternoon at our favorite hangout in town, Family & Friends Restaurant near our house (commonly referred to by Max and Elly as “the twiga place” because of the giraffe slide). I have finally made it a habit to bring along Max and Elly’s plastic cups so that I don’t have to be constantly on edge that they are going to break the glass cups that their fresh mango juice gets served in.
Day 10: I have nothing else to say about this photo except that I have watched enough episodes of “Criminal Minds” to be more than just a little bit creeped out by what Max and Elly did to these peeps.
Today’s #clickaday photo was taken at the Farmers’ Market this morning. We bought potatoes, tomatoes and carrots, but also enjoyed sampling several locally made cheeses (which Elly loved) and getting a big cookie from the bakery stand (which Max loved). It started raining while we were there so we didn’t linger long, and we ended up changing the rest of our day’s plans, too, because of the rain. Hoping to pick up again on our plans tomorrow if the weather cooperates.
By the way, the basket was empty at the time this photo was taken. Once it was full of potatoes, tomatoes and carrots, Daddy gave Max a hand in carrying it to the car.
I caught today’s #clickaday photo just shortly before bedtime–or at least what is supposed to be bedtime; Max and Elly don’t always cooperate.
Our compound is short on grass but long on concrete pavers so Max and Elly take advantage of all that room to demonstrate their artistic abilities. I was gone most of the day so they wanted to be sure I got to see their artwork before it got too dark.
The Joy of Life is Love 