On vacation!

School’s out until July 7. This last week of school, Jon’s family came to visit! We’ve had fun hosting them and watching their boys play with our neighbors!

Jon and the boys

An oreo sandwich

the best bath we can give

after explaining that I am vegetarian, they told me they were bananas and carrots so I could unwrap them and eat them

the boys making a fort in our living space

Jeff bought a goat and we had a party of goat for the teachers. After picture.

Visitors

We have two visitors that like to come by on the weekend. Our first visitor is the son of the principal of our school. His name is Ben and he’s 7 years old. He used to be very misbehaved when he would come around, but he’s really started learning that if he behaves well, he can come and play whenever he wants. Ben brings his best friend named Yona (short for Jonathan) who is 6 years old. Yona is the son of our school cook. When they come to play, they like to do my hair and try on my shoes. Their favorite toys are Lia’s toys. They take them and play with them for hours. They especially love the laser pointer cat toy. As they shine it on each other, they scream and yell, as if the red light will actually hurt them. Recently, they have been going through our magazines, laughing and being amazed by the pictures they see from American magazines. On this same note, they really enjoy looking at pictures of our friends and family and wanting to know who everyone is. If there’s pen and paper, they draw me pictures. They take my garbage and make toys out of it. It’s also a great way for Jon and I to improve our Swahili. The boys speak quickly but very simply. They’re also very patient with us and will repeat if necessary. I’ve grown fond of them coming over. Although, they often lead to me procrastinating from doing real work!

Yona being my hair stylist with clothespins

Yona (in red) and Ben (in blue) loving to touch white person hair

Ben, on the left, Yona in the middle, and their friend Rashid .They love us taking their photo and looking at it on the camera afterwards.

Hot buns!

Jon & I were informed of a secret bakery in our banking town. We went on the mission to find it and sure enough, we found a little space where there were about 7 mamas baking bread and other delicious baked goods such as these buns shown below! We are so excited to find a local bakery. We often make bean burgers and use bread for the bun. It’s okay, but now we have real, actual buns! We bought these fresh out of the oven. The mamas were really excited that we found their bakery that they gave us one extra bun for free. We will definitely be giving them our business again. I honestly think you can find most things here, it’s just a matter of discovering them.

Topetope

I know that I write about food a lot, but it is one of the best aspects of living in a new place. Whether it’s restaurants or new food altogether, I love putting it in my belly! One afternoon, Jon came home with a peculiar looking fruit to try. I’d never seen anything like it before. It’s  called topetope (toe-pay, toe-pay) in Swahili. As you can see from the picture, the outside is a greenish color and when it’s ripe it’s soft. Some appear bumpy from the outside. You dig into the skin and start pulling away the skin to reveal the sweet, white fruit on the inside. The fruit is basically pod-like. You put a pod into your mouth, eat away the fruit and spit out the black seed inside each pod. It’s by far, my favorite fruit that I have tried here. Apparently, in English, topetope is called Custard Apple. I can see how one might make the analogy of it being custard-like, but I am not quite sure I agree with the “apple” part of the translation. If you can find this unique fruit, I highly encourage you to try it!