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April 2013 Newsletter

Its Bananas!

One advantage of living in Tanzania is that fruit is fresh and readily available. Granted - I miss apples, berries, oranges, peaches, pears and other fruits that I grew accustomed to in the States. However, having a mango tree, lemon tree, guava tree and an avocado tree in my backyard more than make up for the fruits I miss. Oh, I forgot one type of tree I have in the back...banana!!!
About a month ago a banana tree dropped her fruit. (there are 3 more trees which will be giving us more fruit in the near future) The odd thing was that the bananas disappeared immediately. I could not locate them anywhere on the property! Upon asking the guard where the bananas were he gave me this box with all the bananas inside.

Apparently bananas ripen better when in an enclosed space

By the time we had the box in our hands though they were already ripened and heading downhill. So, what else was there to do but make as many banana-centered dishes we could over the weekend. These dishes included banana bread (not pictured) and banana pancakes:

We had also made a pound cake over the weekend and decided to make a banana syrup to top the cake with. I tripled the amount of bananas called for.

We have also successfully frozen a bunch of bananas for future use, as well as having bananas with granola and yogurt for breakfast. Just think, three more trees are going to drop bananas in the next month! Its a good thing that the bananas here are so sweet and flavorful.

The Creature in the Corner

The place: Living room.
The time: Early morning during quiet time.
What I heard: An animal scratching in the corner of the room.

Here in Musoma we live very close to nature. If you leave a house vacant for more than a few weeks you are liable to return and find that it has already begun to be taken over by nature.
Lizards falling on my head as I open curtains in the morning...not an unheard of occurrence. Even a bat has taken the liberty of flying around my head, inside the house (although, he would come to regret that liberty the next day).

So, on Friday morning as I was having my quiet time I didn't leap out of my chair in terror when I heard the distinct sound of an animal clawing around in the corner of the room. I serenely eyed the corner to ascertain the source of the sound. I was bracing myself for a mouse, or even worse, a rat. What I discovered was not what I expected, but maybe I should have expected it. It was a hedgehog and hedgehogs are all the rage!

There is a trend amongst the missionary community here in Musoma to have a hedgehog as a pet.  The school where Crystal teaches the missionary kids recently found a hedgehog in the yard and have adopted it as the class pet. This past weekend the hedgehog made its home with us. I'd forgotten that he was coming to stay with us, but he has been a most hospitable guest (and very low maintenance...which is how I like it).

It is fun having an animal around, but I am glad that it is only for the weekend because I am not the most attentive care-giver. It spends most of its time sleeping in its cage but has also ventured out and nearly escaped under some chairs.

Lemon Tree

 This past weekend a friend pointed out the existence of a lemon tree in my yard. I don’t know how this tree had gone unnoticed to that point, but such is life. Sometimes we don’t know what we have available to us, even though it is staring us in the face...with bright yellow* fruit.

*The truth is that lemons here can be yellow, but often times remain green even when they are ripe.

This same friend challenged me to retrieve the top-most ripe lemon saying, and I quote, “I would pay money to see you get that lemon.” Well, get ready to pay up buddy!

There was some urgency in retrieving this lemon. The power was cut all day long this past Sunday and I needed lemon juice for cooking...and the lemon juice was in the fridge. Now, when power is cut and you have no idea when (or sometimes if) it will return you don’t open the fridge. EVER.
Thanks to the forethought of my house-mate Crystal there are pictures and even a video documenting the lemon-retrieval. Crystal was also the one to suggest using my truck ‘Aladdin’ to give me some additional height.

Then came the addition of a long pole with a hooked wire at the end to get the riper fruit higher up.

The wrap was worn so that the neighbors would not see me brazenly baring my knees.

That still wasn’t long enough for the lemon that was the ultimate goal. A second wire was found that was attached to the previous pole and wire...the following video will bear witness of my ultimately victorious attempt.

This one lemon provided all the lemon juice I needed for what I was cooking!

February 2013 Newsletter