Cordon Bleu?

 Last Friday was a very exciting date for Joel, as he turned 6 months old! For the past few days, he has been trying out some solids- above is a picture of his very first taste of baby porridge (imported in my suitcase from the UK- I have yet to see any pre-made baby food on the shelves of Dodoma's "duka"/shops!). He seemed to quite like the experience of eating!
Today, Joel is a little more used to his porridge. Here he is, posing this morning in his baby chair, with some lovely decoration on his face to demonstrate how much he enjoyed tucking into breakfast:

Joel should be quite used to the idea of food, as he has been getting some experience in the kitchen, courtesy of Jane, who uses the Tanzanian method of getting on with our bread-making while also keeping a noisy baby calm:

On the subject of food, the banana trees in our garden continue to thrive, with bananas galore this year- so much so that we are eating more banana bread than I have ever consumed before! The banana bread turns out quite nicely- and for a bit of variety, this one below had some sunflower seeds added in. I bought the seeds from a neighbour and then wasn't really sure what to do with them, but I have to say that they added a rather nice crunch to my Dodoma banana loaf! 

 Baking in Dodoma sometimes has its challenges- Ben and I got busy making some chocolate chip biscuits recently. There are no chocolate chips for sale locally, but not to be outdone, we found some cooking chocolate (only white was available) and set about smashing up the very thick bar of chocolate with Andrew's hammer on my strongest chopping board- much more fun than simply buying chocolate chips!! Plus a free muscle work-out too- and the biscuits turned out to be delicious- they didn't last long!

 Sometimes, however, my cordon bleu skills seem to be lacking- like when my ginger biscuits turned into one giant ginger biscuit, all stuck onto the baking tray! The recipe called for white sugar- and this was one occasion when my improvisation methods of just using what we have available (ie. using rough brown sugar) did not work. This not not bother Benjamin though; he had a great time scraping the enormous biscuit off the tray, out in the garden, with many delighted ants swarming round his feet to pick up the crumbs spraying all over the sides:

 Fortunately, the chocolate cake for my birthday tea last month, with Andrew and the children, turned out nicely and we all enjoyed it:

When the idea of all this cooking and slaving in the hot kitchen seems too much, we do have the exciting option of a meal out at the local Italian-run pizzaria. On the weekend of my birthday, part of our family celebration with Claire was lunch there together- very tasty!

There is also the non-cooking option of a picnic lunch in the garden- a home-made bread roll, home-made cake, fruit and a refreshing cup of water- just right for a hot Dodoma day. No doubt Joel will be looking forward to joining in with the picnic-eating soon, along with his big sister and brother. 

Esther's Class Assembly

On Friday morning last week, Esther's class had their Class Assembly, so I went along to watch along with the other proud Year 1 parents. As it started at a bright and early 7:55am, I also took Ben and his friend Aleah, before dropping them off at Nursery. Joel came along as well to watch his big sister, not to forget Auntie Claire, who was, of course, present with her Year 4 class- so Esther had quite a big party of supportive fans cheering her on! (Andrew was already air-bourne on his way to take doctors on a medical safari to the remote area of Gorimba).

The class stood up to tell us that they have been very busy learning about the different parts that a body is made up of and about their 5 senses...

 ...as well as telling us a story about the "Gruffalo" bear, who apparently has been very busy travelling all over the world, sending photos of himself to Year One at various locations. Esther stood up to tell us that he has even been on safari in Tanzania with the elephants:

 Then came time for the usual Friday morning assembly Class and Work Achievement Awards. Imagine my proud delight when Esther's class teacher presented her with a certificate for "fantastic story writing" and she stood to receive her certificate next to other certificate-winning pupils from the older classes:

 However, that was not all- as the school's art teacher then stood up to announce that last week's "Artist of the Week" was also Esther! This certificate was for "expressing excellent lines...on portraits in art". I am no artist, so I am not too clear about the details of such art work (Mr Simon Vernon, could you elaborate??), but I do know that I was very pleased to be at school that morning to see our little girl glow with pride at receiving her double certificates in front of the whole primary school!

Uncle Tim's Visit

It was great to have Andrew's brother, or "Uncle Tim" to the children, here with us in Dodoma for a week, after his trip to Malambo with Andrew. We always love having visitors out here in far off Africa! Ben was particularly excited to see Uncle Tim again, as he had heard that Uncle Tim now lives in Hong Kong and had convinced himself that Uncle Tim must therefore be Chinese and would come to Tanzania to teach us how to use chopsticks (with all the carefully thought out logic of a 3 year old!). 

Ben was rather disappointed to see that Uncle Tim was actually not Chinese!! To compensate, we all went out for lunch at Dodoma's very own Chinese restaurant at the main hotel in town- and Uncle Tim shared with us all his experience of eating with chopsticks- much to Ben's great delight!

  

Tim also got to see more of the sights of Dodoma, even though he has visited us once here before (during our very first Tanzanian Christmas).By the way, those are live chickens in the basket on the back of the bicycle, on their way into the market- for the very last time!

  Tim helped me out with a trip to the market, with a few more pictures here for you of our Dodoma "shopping centre", the market, as we bought some spices, peanuts, veg and fruit...

 ...and even a new bin, storage container and basket at one of the plastic stores:

 Tim poses with the heavy basket of potatoes and vegetables outside the main market entrance:

 ... and a shot of a nearby city street with some local "duka" -or shops:

 There was also time to drop Ben off at Nursery- and we are so pleased that Ben has settled in well and is thoroughly enjoying his new school- here he is registering his own name on arrival at school with his MAF friend, Aleah...

 ...and posing with his (kneeling!!) Nursery Teacher Miss Marion:

It was good to show Tim a bit more of our life in Dodoma, and spend time with Andrew's brother AND sister Claire all reunited together here in East Africa for a short time! (Thanks again Tim for the photos :-) )

MAF at work in Malambo

 Exactly two weeks ago today, Andrew's brother Tim arrived in Dodoma all the way from Hong Kong, to pay us a visit and meet his little nephew Joel for the first time. The day after arriving, he was whisked away by his brother Andrew to the north of Tanzania, in the Malambo area. He joined Andrew for 3 days of MAF work amongst the Masai people and was able to observe Andrew at work and help out with some of the practical aspects of the work. Above are are the Parker brothers, ready for action, by the MAF plane usually flown by Andrew...
... and following on from this picture are some of Tim's great photos. (Thanks, Tim!! I appreciate you letting me use your pictures!!). Seeing as I never go on these work safaris, it is always fascinating for the children and I to see a snapshot of Andrew's working life. I thought it might be interesting to share some of them with you as well. Andrew works for 3 days each month up in the north of the country with the Masai, flying their Evangelists and church workers to remote villages to assist them in their work, as well as being available to help out with medical emergency flights should the need arise. There are many rather difficult and remote airstrips to navigate as Andrew flies between isolated villages, but it seems that there is always a warm welcome for the MAF pilot!

 Safety is of paramount importance and part of Andrew's role is to carry out regular checks on the aircraft, sometimes with assistance:

 On a 3-day trip, there is also the need to refuel from the jerry cans kept up in remote Malambo for that purpose- an activity which apparently creates a lot of local interest:

 And here is the MAF pilot at work: meeting and greeting at various airstrips, flying over rugged terrain, organising passengers, making 32 take-offs and landings over the 3 days on dusty, sometimes challenging bush strips, taking the workers and supplies to places where land travel would take significantly longer- it's all in the 3 days' work!

 

 

At the end of the day, the pilot's hut in Malambo provided shelter for the weary pilot and his brother, after a meal shared with a local family in their nearby home. The plane is neatly parked outside- although Andrew and Tim are up at sunrise, to get the day's work underway!