Brick Making

Aside from three planned language sessions per week, I, Erin, try to get out each day to experience an aspect of daily life in our community.  Most days the boys and I walk down the street to a small stand where a neighbor lady sells fried bananas and fried cassava.  Women will often gather here to chat  providing a great opportunity for language and culture learning.  Plus the boys usually enjoy a fried banana or two. 


The 'fried banana seller' and I at her road side stand. 



The wood 'stove' and frying pan she uses.

Last week I joined another neighbor in her usual afternoon work.  She cleans the house we are staying at in the mornings then proceeds to her mother-in-law’s house to make bricks in the afternoon.  In the states I always just assumed brick making was an automated process.  Here it is not.  People work and live on land owned by another, then share in the profits.  Caedmon and Whitman joined me for a three hour adventure in brick making.  The boys mostly just played with other kids who live in the area while I did a lot of watching. Near the end of our time Caedmon decided to try it.  He thoroughly enjoyed the work and did not want to stop.  I too made a couple bricks.  The process itself isn't hard, but I am very slow.  The two women took about 2 1/2 hours to make hundred of bricks. 

The very spacious area of brick makers.  There are more than 20 shelters such as these, all used to dry and fire the bricks.  Middle right there are some pits where they dig out the mud used.

Our neighbor on the left, her son on the bottom and her mother-in-law on the right.

Walls of bricks already dried but waiting to be fired surround them.  All of this is under the large shelters.

Whitman in front of a shelter.  The walls again are dried bricks waiting to be fired. 



Caedmon making bricks as the other children help and play.

He didn't want to stop, but I got the sense the ladies just wanted to finish as there where only 2 piles of mud left, out of 6.

After the shelters are full and the bricks are dry, 7-10 truck loads of firewood are brought in.  The wood is piled in the middle of the shelters.  A fire is kept burning for at least 3 nights to 'fire' all the bricks.  These bricks are then taken away by the truck load and used in all types of building.

A house being built behind ours.  We like to watch the progress from our back balcony. 

New Friends, Coffee, and a Wedding

On Friday we were invited to eat dinner with a co-worker of one of our tutors.  The co-worker is a mother of 7.  Three of her children are married and all but one still live at home.  We ate traditional food and made many new friends.  The family themselves own a boat and took us straight to the beach after dinner, inviting us on board for a quick boat ride.  Apparently this was an invitation for Caedmon and Whitman only, but my mother hen instincts kicked in and I immediately followed them into the water.  Everyone on shore (and we had quite the following) was yelling to be careful where I stepped so as to watch out for sharp objects.  This was only after they had told me to take off my sandals on the shore. 

Both the mother and John joined us, which was very fortunate as they both insisted we should not leave the small inlet.  The waves during the evening are quite large.  Thanks to her and John's persistence we didn't leave the inlet!

The eldest daughter, Caedmon, our tutor, and Whitman at dinner.

The mother of the family in the middle.

Dinner: from the left, tortilla like things made of cassava flour and coconut, grilled fish with spicy sauce, fried bananas which we dipped in palm sugar (mmmm), and tuna cooked in a broth.

 

At the beach, first just looking at the boats.  Notice our following behind us, they mostly just watched us without much talking.

One of the daughters is currently pregnant.  It is a common belief that having a westerner rub your pregnant belly might give your baby our white skin and big noses, which are highly desirable!

The next day, Saturday, I, Erin, was invited to join the mother to roast coffee.  As I had never done this before and I thoroughly enjoy drinking coffee, I was quick to accept. 

They all said fire roasted coffee tastes much better.  So using a traditional clay burner, they lit the fire and placed a traditional clay pot on top

The raw coffee beans, bought at the market, where then washed.  The mother on the left and her oldest child on the far right. 

The beans where then added to the pot.

We stirred and stirred, maybe for 20minutes or so.  This all took place behind their house, somewhat under the neighbor's house (most houses there are stilt houses).

When they all appeared roasted, one bean was broken open to check that the inside was dark as well.  They said you want brown, not black.

While we roasted the bean I was served a traditional dessert, 'green banana.'  It is a banana wrapped in a thick crepe like thing, then served in sweet flavored syrup with ice. 

Finished and cooling.

Then we used a very large mortar and pestle to grind the coffee.  This took awhile and a great deal of arm endurance.

They where going for 'very fine.'

That evening they invited us to a pre-wedding event at the groom's house.  I unsuccessfully tried to decline.  After the boys where in bed the family showed up at our house to pick us up.  John thankfully was willing to attend alone.   

At the groom's house family and friends gather to eat and drink tea or coffee.  Traditional drums are played as well.

After many attempts, they finally succeeded in getting John to join in on the drumming. 

The following day, Sunday, we all attended the wedding.  The event begins at the groom's house, with a meal.  This usually is attended by the groom's family and friends.  The bride does not take part. 


Groom's house with drummers on the balcony. 

The groom and his mother.

Then all the guests and family caravan to the bride's house for the actual wedding.  This was about a 30 minute drive.

We parked about 200 yards from the house and walked the rest of the way.  The family carries all the gifts the groom's family gives to the couple to be.  This included fabric, a wardrobe, pots and pans, and clothing. 

The bride's house.  Close friends and family (of which we were included) go inside. 

The marriage ceremony, between the groom and bride's father. 

The bride and groom.  The bride waits in her room until the ceremony is finished, then is greeted by her now husband and brought out as his wife. 

Cooking outside for all the guests.

Baking

 

    Here the typical kitchen has a two burner gas stove and that is it!  Last month the family’s stove only had one working burner.  Thankfully it has been fixed and there are now two burners.  On top of that they bought an oven while we were away.  Now, not an oven life you might be thinking.  It is an aluminum box that sits right on top of one of the burners.  It has a nice glass window in the door and holes to open and close on the top. 

 

The kitchen stove and work space.  I did most of the dough prep on the dinning room table.

The oven!  This is the 2nd smallest of 4 sizes you can buy. 

    Saturday we went out with the specific purpose of finding yeast to make bread in the yet to be used oven.  Third time is a charm because only at the third convenience like store did we find yeast.  Flour on the other hand was not a problem.  Upon coming home we started the bread right away.  This was my first time using an oven like this.  When it was time to bake the bread I wearily placed the oven on a burner and turned the burner on.  The instructions were lost so we were all flying blind.  I had heard the hottest ovens such as these get is 350-375 F, so I closed the door and the small holes on top, then let it be for 10 minutes or so.  Then we placed two loaves of bread, side by side on a cookie sheet, into the oven.  About 20 minutes into the cooking time we heard a crash in the kitchen.  The glass in the oven door had broke.  Thankfully no one had been in the kitchen at the time and the glass fell out of the oven so the bread was ok.  But now we had two half cooked loaves in an oven basically without a door.  The mom figured we could just continue cooking the loaves as is, so we did and THANKFULLY we ate bread that night!  There were many hypothesis as to what happened.  First it was said the holes on the top shouldn’t have been completely closed as it must have gotten too hot inside.  The next thought was it must have been the inch or so of dough that was touching the glass, thus putting pressure on it.  It was the strangest experience and I felt terrible the first time the oven was used, I broke it.  I still hold to the thought there must have been a flaw in the glass as the oven was new and is made, supposedly, to get hot enough to enable baking. 
    Sunday the dad got a piece of glass cut to fit the door and it was like new again.  So, after going to the market for ingredients, I taught them how to make pizza.  It only took 3 ½ hours as we had to make the sauce from scratch, only small pizzas would fit, and the holes on the top of the oven where kept open in hopes of not breaking the window again.  In the end we were so hungry the pizza tasted pretty good.  Most of the ingredients can be found here in Barat, except cheese.  Ok, there is cheese, but it is Kraft, highly processed cheese, sold off the shelf, not from the refrigerated section, and it does not melt.  When the pizza was done Caedmon looked at it and asked, “Why did you put noodles on it?”  I did agreed to have corn be put on it (very common here, even at Pizza Hut in the big city), but not noodles, it was just the cheese!  Maybe some day we can introduce them to home made pizza with real mozzarella (found in the big city).  In the meantime I will continue baking!

Caedmon, the oldest daughter, Whitman and a friend playing while waiting for pizza.

Pizza already cooked.

Eating Pizza!

Our one cheese option.

Simple Pleasures and Stresses

We have returned to the small city, Barat, where we are studying our second language.  We arrived early Thursday morning, 3:30am to be exact, and John jumped right back into his language sessions that morning.  I, Erin, was not as excited about our return.  We had a schedule and a comfortable home of our own in the large city.  Here in Barat we are again staying with John’s future boss and his family.  We are still trying to figure out language helpers, schedules, and now we’re adding on home-schooling.  All of this with one-large-suitcase-per-person-limit on a night bus made me feel unorganized and in limbo, as if we were moving without moving all our stuff.  Thanks to a sensitive husband we took 3 suitcases, a book case (broken down), a portable armoire, 3 Rubbermaid tubs, a whiteboard, and Caedmon’s desk and chair.  As it turned out we didn’t have to pay for any extra baggage! 

Back in Barat, the items we’ve brought along have really helped with our transition.  The bookshelf allows all our homeschooling stuff and books to be put away.  The portable armoire enables our clothes to be put away so we don’t have to live out of suitcases.  There are activities for the boys.  We created a similar environment for homeschooling because of Caedmon’s desk, posters, and whiteboard.  We brought a top sheet for our bed so it doesn’t have to be swept.  We brought a couple Tupperware containers to keep the ants out of our snacks and oatmeal, which is a staple as the family here doesn’t eat breakfast.  Lastly I brought a sarong to wear back to my room after showering, which I learned from the family here, therefore I don’t have to put on clothes with wet feet in a wet bathroom.  These may be simple things, but with life so different and in someone else’s home, they have been a very nice transition help. 

As with anywhere, living in someone else’s home can cause stress, let alone in a completely different culture.  One such experienced occurred yesterday as I helped the mother cook.  I often helped last month while she prepared food for the whole day about mid-morning.  Yesterday I felt as if I appeared like I didn’t know how to cook at all.  All I was doing was chopping vegetables, taking kernels off the corn cob, and grating carrots.  I felt like a novice as I didn’t have a cutting board which I am so use to using, the knives where very dull (which kept my fingers safe), and in the states I would just buy frozen kernel corn.  Then as I grated the carrot, the mother instructed me to pull the carrot towards me on the grater instead of push it away.  I didn’t fully understand why, but again her method was not my method, slowly me down and keeping me in the place of a leaner.  A funnier experience was when she pulled out a bowl of something that looked maybe like seafood.  I did not understand the word she used, but knew right away when she said it apparently is very expensive food in France that we would be eating escargot for lunch!  She paid a dollar for about 2 cups of shelled snails… not rich people food here. 

Please continue to think of us as we figure out a good schedule for home-schooling and language study, living with another family, and as we both look for language helpers who use the local language in their home (many just use the national language or a mixture). 

A Tropical Holiday

Holiday airport display on our way to a vacation.

It seems on any road there are ruts on both sides.  Over the past few weeks in the States people tried to remember the ‘reason for the season’ amidst all the parties, shopping, and festivities.  Here we face a similar problem in trying to remember the reason for the season, yet we find ourselves not in the rut of busyness, but instead just plain forgetting it is Christmas time (or was).  About the only place we even get a hint of the Christmas season is at the mall.  There are stores with a few Christmas decorations and even a few that sell Christmas decorations.  Otherwise the weather is still warm, houses aren’t decorated, and there aren’t parties or events to attend.  So as many in the States had to be intentional amidst the crazy busyness of the holidays, we too had to be intentional amidst the lack of awareness that it really was Christmas time. 

We were blessed to be able to spend the whole week of Christmas on another island, probably the best known tourist destination here.  The big draw for us is the vast amount of western food and the ability to blend in a little as there are so many westerners.  John was again surprised when we came home on Sunday with the stares we receive here.  We had a great week playing in the pool, relaxing, and celebrating.  We hope you too had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I, Erin, brought our own decorations to celebrate (an extra for a friend that met us there)

The place we stayed... surrounded by rice fields and lot of beautiful plants!

Caedmon became a pro at catching frogs that visited us inside the house.



We visited a monkey forest.  Whitman was content to pose many steps away from the monkeys.



Caedmon on the other hand wanted to have one on his shoulders.



Pool Time!

Making a ginger bread house!  We ate it that night as the humidity and ants would have destroyed it.



A day trip to a dormant volcano.



A small garden we visited that specializes in coffee made from beans ingested then excreted by a small animal called toddy cat.

Ants in our pants...

And everything else.  We’ve been drying our clothes outside for more than a year and a half.  Not too big of a deal, expect during raining season as we have to find a spot sheltered from the rain and things just take longer to dry, occasionally leading to a sour smelling towel or shirt.  Other than that, we’ve gotten use to the initial starchy or scratchy feeling of hanged dried clothes.  Since living with a local family in this smaller town, we’ve had to adjust to another aspect of drying clothes outside.  The clothes line is next to the house above over grown plants.  Quite frequently the clothes line is used as a major highway by ants.  So when it is time to take the clothes down they need to be shaken out well.  Even still the ants end up coming inside.  I frequently will place all the clean laundry on our bed to be folded, but this then leads to ants in our bed.  There are enough ants other places it is hard to know if the ants we actually find on our bodies are from our clothes or elsewhere.   In addition to ants in our clothes John has been bitten multiple times while hanging up clothes, this has then led to a very swollen foot and difficult language session after taking Benadryl and fighting drowsiness. 



Caedmon on the way to take down dry clothes.

A couple days after we moved upstairs we were given a broom.  Small wicker brooms are usually used outside to sweep porches, driveways, streets, and even lawns.  At first I was a little confused as to why we where given this broom until it was explained it was for our bed.  Who knew you need a broom for your bed.  It has come in quite handy as we do not have a top sheet or comforter (not that we’d want one in this heat) and our room is not sealed off well from outside.  So our bed needs a frequent sweeping.  Though I still think if our bed truly needs sweeping there are other preventative measures I should take, because it is really that much cleaner if I’ve just swept it with a broom?

our bed broom

Substitute Teacher

Our host is a high school art teacher who recently opened a language center (where John will work).  His heart is for people from his community to understand other cultures to then enhance relationships and development within their own community.  His center currently offers English courses and TOEFL prep courses.  A English conversation class currently meets three time per week.  The majority of the students are nurses or midwives within the community.  Our host invited John to the Thursday class, but John suggested I go instead since I previously worked as a nurse.  I had a language session from 2-4pm on Thursday, then was planning to stay to be a guest at the 4pm English conversation class.  It was never discussed as to what I would be doing during the class, but I assumed at least speaking in English.  Prior to the end of my language session, John called to inform me our host was not coming to the class and I was THE teacher.  5 minutes prior to class our host stopped by to briefly explain what he had planned for the session. 

At 4:15 2 people, out of 9, had arrived for the 4pm class.  One of which was a visitor interested in the class.  Finally at 4:30 I started class with two students.  Over the next HOUR, 5 other students trickled in.  I spent the majority of the time doing a Q&A session.  Then we discussed characteristics of local names versus names in the States.  It turned out to be a lot of fun, though next time I would prefer to plan for the 1 ½ hour session. 

Language Learning

We are a week and a half into learning the local ‘village’ language.  We are still students sponsored by the University, but there isn’t any ready-made curriculum or any designated tutors.  So how in the world do we go about this enormous task?  I, Erin, was feeling quite overwhelmed by this fact last week.  Thankfully we have both received great training for this particular task.  We’ve begun with a lot of listening and recording.  We each meet with a local language speaker 2 hours a day.  We ask for a couple common phrases, record them, then memorized them (even if we don’t quite understand them).  For example, “what is this?”, “good morning,” and “how do you say that in the local language.”  That is about all the actual speaking we are presently doing.  The majority of our time is spent with an activity called Total Physical Response (TPR – the more you move the better).  For example, to learn colors, we set on the table a red crayon and blue crayon.  We point to the red one and ask, “what is this?”, thus eliciting a word or sometimes a phrase.  Then repeat for the blue one.  We continue pointing and eliciting the two words until we feel we have a good grasp on them.  We do not repeat or say them, just listen.  Then we have the tutor ‘test’ us by saying the words or phrases elicited, such as ‘blue,’ then we point to the correct one.  After repeating multiple times in mixed order, we add a color and return to asking “what is this?”  We continue adding and being tested until there are 10-15 items.  We record the final ‘test’ to use for our own practice at home.  So far we have learned colors, numbers, farm animals, wild animals, insects, terms for people, and house parts all in this manner.  We aren’t saying them ourselves at this time, just listening and pointing out the answer.  This methods promotes better pronunciation later and good auditory comprehension.

On Monday we had a quite unusual language session.  We had one language tutor and lined up a second to begin on Monday so John and I could trade off studying and watching the boys.  Our tutors have jobs of their own so our meeting times change from day to day.  On Monday, one of the tutors had to postpone a morning session until the afternoon.  So John and I met at the same time, taking the boys with us to the center where John hopes to later work.  Upon arriving we found out there was already a class scheduled at the same time.  So the pre-scheduled class met in the one class room, while John and I, our two tutors, and the boys met in the front reception area at the same time two people arrived inquiring about the center.  The reception area is not air conditioned, so with 9 people in a space about 12 x 18 feet it got pretty hot.  We eventually opened the front door to let in some air, but that also let in the noise of all the vehicles passing by.  Instead of trying TPR with two tutors and a lot of noise we asked for multiple dialogues from our tutors in the local language, which turned out well thanks to a great microphone on our recorder.  Otherwise the session was very chaotic and not very beneficial. 

On another note, last weekend we moved upstairs!  Before arriving we were expecting two bedrooms upstairs.  One bedroom was ready this past weekend.  We are all still in one room, but now there is enough room for us to have our own beds!  There is also a great deal of room upstairs for the kids to run around.

Our new bedroom upstairs, big but slightly unfinished!

Upstairs area, with a nook to later be enclosed for a second bedroom.



The bathroom for two families.  There is a sink, it is just outside the bathroom door.  The blue tub seems only to be used to store water if needed.

The kitchen and washing machine/area at the far end.  There is a fridge next to the dish rack on the left.

 

Safely in a new city!

We arrived safely in the smaller city to study their local language.  We rode a night bus, after a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with other ex-pats, and arrived at about 4:30am.  THANKFULLY the boys slept really well!  We were graciously picked up by the family we are now living with.  They offered us their eldest daughter’s room to sleep in until morning (or at least later morning), which we were all able to do for a couple more hours.  That morning we ate pastries (the local version) and coffee (with sugar).  Mid morning I, Erin, along with Whitman joined the wife on a trip to the traditional market.  It was great to see all the produce, meat, household items, and even toiletries they had.  The wife bought blue nail polish for her daughter, yes, at the traditional market.  The rest of the afternoon we spent just hanging out at the house. 

We are trying to get settled, yet still very much in transition.  The second floor, which we where first offered, isn’t quite finished.  So the daughter’s room we were graciously offered is our room as a family.  The firsts two night we slept well, but last night the four of us in one bed began to be more uncomfortable. 

Our current sleeping situation... becoming local!

Thanks to our host we have lined up a language tutor.  He works for the department of tourism and a local museum.  Due to his work schedule and there only being one tutor, John and I are attending a 2 hour language session together.  That means the boys get to come along and try to be quite!  Movies, books and snacks are very helpful. 

The rest of our time is still pretty unscheduled.  I often will help the wife cook at 11am, when she prepares a few different dishes for lunch.  Later we eat the left overs for dinner.  We’ve eaten at least four different kinds of fish thus far.  Today I did laundry.  My first time using a twin tub washer, do those even exist in the states?  When we arrived I was very glad to see it, then I noticed laundry being done by hand and figured it must be broken.  Apparently the wife prefers laundry to be done, by her house help, by hand.  Shortly after I hung up the clothes it began to rain.  Mid-day it cleared up only to rain again early evening.  I brought our laundry in before the second rain, though some of it was still damp.  Once inside I struggled to find a place to dry it, so I just laid it all out on our bed and pointed our 6 inch fan it. 

We are in the middle of an incredible learning experience as we get to live with a family and focus on language study.  Even teaching Caedmon is on hold as I arranged his lessons so he gets the whole month of December off, a perk to homeschooling!  But it is also becoming challenging as we try to maintain some of our normal routines for the health and well being of our family. 

We will be here with the local family for 3 weeks, celebrate Christmas on another island, then come back to the same city for continued language study.  So here we go!