I am including some miscellaneous pictures of home life that I took last week.
My first attempt at baking bread in my oven. I was thrilled to be able to fit 4 loaves in (3 side by side and 1 in front). These cinnamon loaves from Simply in Season cookbook were tasty though I find baking in Ethiopia always results in a denser texture. I will be experimenting with a lot of solar baking in another month as it will just be too hot to bake in the house.
This mesob we purchased at a roadside stand on the way from Addis to Gesses. It keeps injera and bread cool and fresh for several days.
I brought tomatoes and green peppers from Addis. I stayed up late one night making 6 quarts and 6 pints of salsa!
The children and I planted some seeds and have enjoyed watching them grow. As soon as we can prepare a garden with a fence, we will plant them in the ground. The wandering sheep, goats and cows will destroy any garden without a fence! They even eat wet laundry so presently our laundry and our plants are on our back porch.
Our washing machine. Because it is a top loader, it uses very little energy and can run off solar! I am able to use a ECO setting which uses very little water. I am also able to choose how much water I want to add depending on a small diaper load or a large load of clothing.
I usually do 1 or 2 loads of laundry each day. There are different standards here in Gesses and I have rarely seen a Gumuz person wearing an item of clothing that is clean and without large rips in it. So the 35 min Eco setting will certainly do.
Presently it takes 1-2 days for clothing to dry which is why I do a little laundry every day (and that doesn't include any heavy cloth like jeans because we don't wear them here) but in dry season, it will take a much shorter time.
Bathtime for the younger ones works well on our back porch in a large basin. It is also a great way to keep cool in the warm afternoons. I am sure that we will use this as a daily way of cooling off in the dry season.
Mesalech is doing a great job of preparing our lunches. She makes injera 2-3 times each week on a metat (large clay frying pan that is used over a wood fire that we purchased in Dibate). We then have 2 bean stews (one spicy and one mild) and 1 vegetable stew prepared. This allows me to do language learning in the mornings. Lunch preparation is not so simple without the luxury of sandwiches.
I usually do 1 or 2 loads of laundry each day. There are different standards here in Gesses and I have rarely seen a Gumuz person wearing an item of clothing that is clean and without large rips in it. So the 35 min Eco setting will certainly do.
Presently it takes 1-2 days for clothing to dry which is why I do a little laundry every day (and that doesn't include any heavy cloth like jeans because we don't wear them here) but in dry season, it will take a much shorter time.
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