Fruit Tasting

Last week we had visitors from one of our partner organizations. The plane that picked them up flew in from Uganda and the pilot kindly brought us some fruit which we can't get in our area. I received half a dozen oranges and apples as well as a pineapple.

I decided to share the fruit with the kids in my class. They know the names of these fruits and have seen them in pictures, but none of them had seen them in real life.

My assistant teacher, Pastor Kerubino, took the pictures I'll share here. The lighting wasn't great but they give an idea of the fun we had.

The "fruit tasting" was a surprise. First I had the kids all go outside and wash their hands. Then I had them gather round me at a table at the front of the class. They had no idea what I was going to do. I started taking things out of a big bag. It was great to see their reactions when I brought out an orange, then an apple, then a big knife. I cut the fruit in half and showed the kids the seeds inside.

Then I bought out the pineapple. Pineapples have such a unique shape that the kids recognized it right away and several burst out laughing. I had them touch it to feel the sharp little spiny bits, then I cut it up and gave them each a piece. Some were a little hesitant to try it, and all were extremely interested to see the reaction of the first ones who tasted it. There was a lot of laughter (and relief?!) when the first tasters gave it the "thumbs up."

I then gave the kids pieces of apple and orange that I had cut up at home that morning. In the picture below, the kids to my right are bending forward to see the reaction of the first kids who tasted the apple. It was declared just as tasty as the pineapple, and they also really like the orange. Overall, it was a really fun experience.

Sleeping Outside

This time of year daytime temperatures are quite high and it doesn't cool down much at night. This can make it quite difficult to sleep, so many (most?!) of my neighbours carry their beds or mats outside and sleep there. Even if there's not much of a breeze, it beats sleeping in a hut with almost no ventilation.

One morning this week I snapped the picture above of a yard that I pass each day on my way to school. The beds hadn't yet been taken inside for the day. You can see a few metal beds, a wooden bed (just beyond the red metal bed in the forefront) and a mat on the ground. These are the three typical things my neighbours sleep on.

Metal beds are somewhat of a luxury. Most people use wooden beds instead, or simply sleep on a mat on the ground (if there is a bed, it's usually an adult and a baby or small child/children who sleep on it, and older children sleep on a mat).

People here don't have box springs on their beds. For both the metal and the wooden beds, a grid of plastic string is "woven" across the metal or wooden frame to make the support for the mattress to be put on or for people to lie on. (This picture is of the string grid on a metal bed frame I have on my porch, supported by bricks, for people to sit on.) The string grid is usually very firm at first, but it wears out and can get really saggy.

The mattresses here are foam, of varying densities depending on the money people have available. Some of them get soft very quickly and don't offer much support.

Many people don't have money for a mattress so simply sleep on the string grid, usually with a sheet or cloth of some kind on it to make it more comfortable.

The yard photo above also shows the three main kinds of houses in my area: the traditional hut (back left), the mud/cement brick "modern" house with tin roof (back centre) and the grass mat shack (back right).

Magnificent Mahogany

There's a beautiful African mahogany tree in the centre of Parot, the village where I live. It dwarfs all the other trees for quite a distance, and it stays green all year round. It's so refreshing to see such a huge mass of green during this very dry time of year!

The main road (not an official one, but a very well used path/track) from several outlying villages to nearby Wanyjok market passes through Parot next to the tree. So there is a regular flow of people and vehicles going by this spot. Also, the Parot well is near the tree--you can see it on the far right in the photo above.

Some people have tables set up under the tree to sell things like roasted groundnuts, cookies, tea and sugar. It's a pretty good location since so many people pass by every day.