My 12th Birthday - August 4th

I had a great birthday in Gesses. My mom made pancakes for breakfast which is our tradition on birthdays. She had saved some blackberry sauce for the occasion. After breakfast, my dad took me to the chicken coop and showed me my hen. I named her Blackberry (after the sauce we had for breakfast). 


 She is speckled black and white. At first, Blackberry and Butterscotch (Joel's hen) were not happy to see each other but they have now become friends.


 After breakfast, one of our teammates, who is a vet, spayed our neighbour's dog. Charlotte spends half of her time at our house so most of the time she seems like she is our dog. This is the second surgery I have been able to watch. It took a long time for Charlotte to wake up and she slept most of the day. I used to want to be a vet but I prefer spending time with animals to operating on them. 


 
In the afternoon, my dad took all of us kids to a nearby river. We went tubing with motorcycle tire tubes and had a great time floating down the river. It was an unusually sunny afternoon for rainy season so we had a great time. My dad almost lost our car keys since he put them in a plastic bag in his pocket. He thought it was a good idea to put some air in the plastic bag so that if the bag fell out of his pants pocket, the bag would float. But BECAUSE he put air in the bag, it floated out of his pocket when he was wading through deep water. When he realized it was gone, it had already floated down the river but he found it stuck in a branch of leaves hanging in the water. Meanwhile my mom made one of my favourite meals - taco soup with cornbread and she baked an angel food cake for dessert topped with chocolate mousse and homemade ice-cream.








We had some guests over and played frisbee and badminton, then we had supper and ended the evening by playing a couple of rounds of Cludo. Someone acts out a person, a weapon and a place and then two other people (who are in another room) have to take their turn at acting out the three things. The last person has to guess the three things. It can be pretty crazy. Since our guests brought treats from the States, I gave all the kids treat bags to take home. (This is pretty special and we all try and stretch out the treats for as long as possible.) Even though I couldn't invite any of my (peer) friends over this year, I had a really special birthday.  Kalia





Kalia, you are full of love and laughter. You are a great communicator and love to share about your animals and adventures with others. Even though you don't particularly love the kitchen, you are a willing and competent snack maker and tortilla baker. Music is a great way of helping make mundane tasks enjoyable and you always know when that is a necessary addition! I love working together with you! You know when you need to get away and immerse yourself in a good book. Your knitting has already blessed many people in our family! Your creativity and generosity is a gift to both our family and the Gumuz that come to our door. We love you. Happy 12th Birthday

Double Digit Best Birthday Ever by Joel Kruse

On Wednesday, July 23rd, I had the best birthday ever. I turned 10 and I woke up really early. My dad was up and he took me behind our house and gave me my birthday present. It was a live chicken. My favorite color is orange and this hen had orange eyes and orange feathers. 

 We had pancakes with butterscotch pudding for breakfast so I named her Butterscotch. I spent the morning fixing the old coop which is off the ground on bamboo stilts so that predators can't get her. My sister and I made a bamboo ladder so she can climb up into her house.

Our garden is not growing all that well since a herd of cows came through and ate all our corn but our okra is doing great! It is my favourite vegetable and so my mom and I picked large handfuls of okra so she could make okra stew with rice for lunch. My sisters all made me things and my grandparents gave me a baseball, glove and badminton racket. We don't have any stores near us so gifts are pretty special and unexpected.

 I really wanted to have an angel food cake for my birthday but my mom tried making it from scratch once and it didn't work well. It also needs a lot of eggs (which are hard to get) so I didn't think I was going to have that kind of cake. My mom kept it a surprise but she asked some visitors from Canada to bring a cake mix a month ago and so I got an angel food cake with blue whipping cream for my cake. It was awesome! We also had tortillas for supper and another missionary family joined us. We played some games and got treat bags with candy from America.

 Two teams racing to collect 2 L water bottles from all over our large yard.  We had to follow clues.

 Shooting at 2 L water bottles with slingshots.

 My mom didn't think it was going to be the best birthday ever because I couldn't invite my friends over but I think it was special because there were so many surprises. I think when you can't get stuff easily, it is even more special when you do get something special. I am 10 now and even though I don't look different, I feel a little older. It was a great birthday.  By Joel

From mom - We are so proud to call you our son. You received a card on your birthday that said you are Jovial/Joyful/Joker, Optimistic, Enthusiastic/Energetic, Likeable/Loving. 
It's true (though your sisters may not always agree).  You are growing up without all the privileges that so many boys your age have and yet you are thankful, creative and serve those around you cheerfully.  You are a blessing to our home. Happy Birthday Joel! We love you.

A Mouse in My Shoe by Nadia Kruse

My mom always tells us to check our shoes and rubber boots before we put them on. Especially if we leave them on our porch outside. That is because something bad might crawl in like a scorpion or a fuzzy caterpillar. But a few days ago, I forgot. I forgot to check my shoes. I wiggled my toes inside and then I screamed. I jumped back and out came a cute little fuzzy tailed mouse. We got to keep it in a box for the morning and then let it go in the forest. My mom said that it was a good reminder to always check my shoes. Next time I will remember.

My Roasted Sunbird by Joel Kruse

One early morning last week, I decided to go hunting with my Gumuz bow and arrows. I walked up to the top of the hill to hunt a rat but I saw a bird land in a fig tree. It was v

ery small and black. I pulled back the bow string with my bird shooting arrow. It has an arrow with barbs attached to the top of the shaft and eight pointy thin sharp pieces of wood surrounding the arrow tip a little lower. The arrow hit its target. The arrow went through the bird and it was stuck in the "cage" made by the eight pieces of wood.

The arrow took the bird a far distance away. I ran to get my arrow and bird and sprinted home to show my family. It was almost school time but my mom (teacher) said that I could roast the bird and eat it for breakfast. I built a small fire and started plucking the feathers. 

 A Gumuz lady passing by helped me (I didn't actually want her help). She told me to just put the bird on the fire and not take off the feathers. So that's what I did. The feathers just burnt off. Then my sisters, Micah (our 3 year old neighbour boy) and I ate the bird. We ate all the parts even the head. The feet were burnt off so we didn't eat them.

Later we looked up what kind of bird it was and it was a sunbird. It was really small maybe 14 cm and had black feathers and its chest was kind of a shimmery purple. It was a good breakfast but wasn't very filling so I went inside and ate french toast with strawberry sauce. Then we went to school.

Green Mamba Dies by Ariana Kruse

One day, last week, when we were in school, we heard a great commotion. Our teacher (mom) said we could go outside to see what was happening. There was a group of 6 Gumuz men by our mango tree. They had their bows and arrows and were all shouting. They had seen a snake in the tree and were all taking turns shooting at it. Some of their arrows got stuck in the tree and some of their arrows went flying into the forest. Then they shot the snake and it was wriggling in the tree and they dragged it onto the ground. It was a long, bright green mamba snake which is very deadly.

Then the Gumuz took rocks and hit the snake on the head until it was smashed and cut off. Then they all took turns spitting at the snake. They put the snake onto an ant hill so it would get eaten up. I am sad that snakes like our mango tree because we can't sit in it anymore.

Shelly's Adventure by Kalia Kruse (two weeks ago)

Kalia: One sunny afternoon, my mom walked out of our classroom and saw a surprising sight. It was a tortoise crawling at quite a speed. She called us to come and see if it was one of ours. It was! But how did Kufkuf, Joel's tortoise, get out of its enclosure? We went to see and sure enough there was a gap in the fence. Then we saw that Shelly, my tortoise was also missing. We searched and searched. We searched around our house and through the forest but we couldn't find her anywhere. We were really scared that Gumuz children might find her and cook her for supper. They eat tortoise stew. Here is Shelly's adventure from her perspective.

One day, I escaped from our large but boring enclosure. It was exciting! I climbed up a slippery rock and there it was....an opening. It was like Kalia left that for me so I could experience the great outdoors. I slid down the other side and voila! I was out.

I started out right away. First, I discovered the big fig tree. A perfect, juicy fig sat in front of me! I ate until I was full of the delicious fruit. After several days of wandering through the forest, I felt warm hands touching my shell. Up, up, up, I flew! "Oh great." I thought. "Now I am caught." The young Gumuz girl brought me to a different home. I liked my old one better. Then after another day or two, she brought me back to my old home. Kalia handed over a leaf and I was hers again. It was good to be home.

Kalia: I was so happy when Yampu brought Shelly back to me. She is one of our closest Gumuz neighbours. I gave her ten birr (the leaf) as a thank you.

An interesting breakfast in the village - by Joel Kruse

Our Gumuz guard, Bachunk called us to a keya party in the morning at 8am before school had started. He said, "Come to my father's house right now to drink keya." (Keya is a grain drink that Gumuz drink everyday along with their neighbours or after working together. They don't drink water. Instead, they drink keya.) So, mom, dad, Karissa, Sonia and I decided to go. Mom let me skip school but my sisters wanted to stay home.

When we arrived, we went into Bachunk's dad's house. We sat down on rocks. They washed our hands and then gave us keya in cups. They washed our hands again and served us porculaca weed that we dipped into hot spices. They said, "After you drink another cup of keya, we will give you milk." Before they served it to us, they looked into a gourd and started talking about it. They said, "What are we going to do? We said we would serve it to the guests but it is really sour. Maybe it is two or three days old." They poured it into cups but it looked like cottage cheese. It smelled like rotten eggs.

They put some in a cup and gave it to dad. He took a sip and gave it to Sonia but she didn't want any. Then she gave it to me but I didn't want it and then Mom and Karissa each took a sip. They said it tasted really bad. Then Bachunk washed his hands and he scooped chunks of the sour "cottage cheese" into his mouth. He said, "This is disgusting" but he kept on eating it. His kids said, "we could eat this everyday." Some other kids went outside and spit it out. Gumuz have just started drinking cows' milk in their homes.

Then they served us peanuts and after that nga (thick sorghum porridge) with opa stew (large ground beans with mashed porculaca). We dipped the nga into the stew but I didn't like the stew so I just ate the nga. At the end, I pretended to eat the big chunk of porridge because it is so hard and heavy that I could pick up the whole piece. We were really full but Wohiis started giving us gurshas. He fed us more nga and stew by his own hand. Karissa was giggling. 

After we were completely full, Wohiis said, "Come to my house." He got up and we followed him to his house. We were served nga and opa stew again. We couldn't finish it because we were so full. He was really happy that we ate at his house. Then we went home and we did not eat lunch until 2 o'clock. I was happy I got to eat breakfast in the village. I also only had to do an hour of school when I got home.