I thought I would walk you through what we did on our first real "work" day here at Galmi. Marc went into the hospital to begin in the outpatient peds area. He will be focusing on pediatrics this month. We had taken a tour of the hospital which was my first real look at the suffering that is very common here. We saw people with diseases like tetanus, HIV, tuberculosis, and malnutrition. The language difference is certainly a barrier and all we could mostly offer was a warm smile with a "sannu" which is the common way to begin a greeting here.
While Marc was in clinic I began my first project of learning how to make yogurt. There is no pasteurized milk here so everything that involves milk is made from powdered milk. I don't care for it much to drink, but it tastes fine cooked in things. I borrowed a bit of yogurt from our neighbors to use as the starter and then got going. I mixed 3 cups of cold water, 3 cups of boiling water, and 3 cups of powdered milk along with the starter and then poured it into jars to set. One tip I got for the current colder season (which still means high of 80s during the day) is to keep it in a crock pot with hot water around it and periodically add boiling water to it. It has to sit for 4-6 hours. Ours set up perfectly and I was delighted! I mix in a little sugar and a spoonful of strawberry jam and it takes very similar to a strawberry yogurt from home. Everyone in our family gobbled this up yesterday. I can make endless amounts of this since powdered milk is readily available so this was a wonderful thing to learn how to make.
After I got the yogurt all situated I switched gears to making my first batch of bread. I had a recipe from my great grandmother that my Memaw gave me as a potential slicing bread for our sandwiches. I had no idea how long to knead but the initial dough turned out well and I put it in bowls to rise. Then we decided to go to the swings to meet up with Dianna and Gracie and some of the other missionary kids that were playing outside. The playground has some baby and bigger swings, a fort with a trapeze bar, a merry go round, and two see saws. It is a place we visit every day and is right in front of the new duplex that is being built that we will move into in a month.
We came back to the house after playing and my yeast dough had doubled in size so I popped two loaves in the oven. The tricky part was getting the oven to stay at the right temperature since there are no number markings on the dial. It is a gas oven (that you have to self light), and it has a thermometer that hangs from the rack inside which is how you register the internal temperature. Anyhow, for my first attempt I had some very tasty but somewhat misshapen bread loaves. I sliced it up for lunch and we all enjoyed some peanut butter sandwiches with fresh pineapple and oranges.
Marc is able to come home from 1-3 every day for lunch if he is not on call and needed at the hospital. This is the siesta time and the clinic closes. His first morning of pediatric clinic was a bit overwhelming for him and he had a hard time even telling me the stories of loss and suffering. At one point in the morning he and another physician went to examine a child in a mother's arms who had been brought in to be seen only to find that the child was already dead. Death, even in young children, is a very real part of life here in Niger. Marc is going to see some very difficult things during our time here so pray for him to be able to cope with it all. We live lives here on the compound that are a stark contrast to the world around us right now even though we still lack some amenities and modern conveniences. It is very humbling to see all that we have been given when others have so little around us.
After lunch the rest of our trunks arrived and I spent much of the afternoon sorting through all our stuff. It was so refreshing for me to see all the food I was able to bring with us. In fact, there were even certain food items that I specifically remember pulling out of trunks because of weight concerns that were somehow all miraculously accounted for as I was unpacking. We have done without most of this stuff for nearly a week now but these things will certainly make our time here easier and more enjoyable. I think I forgot to mention in our last email that Delta waived ALL of our extra baggage fees when we checked in at the Wichita airport which was such a blessing. We had three extra trunks we were planning to pay for including the medical trunk which would have had an extra fee since it was 70 lbs.!
I let the kids play with some of their "new" toys that I had unpacked when they woke up from their nap while I started on our dinner. It is the dusty season here right now and near impossible to keep the floor or their play mat free of dirt. I am so glad I bought this mat off Amazon before we left. It didn't weigh anything and it was easy to put a few squares on the top of each trunk we had. The kids love having a soft place to play on these concrete floors and it wipes off very easily.
Shorty before dinner I heard lots of voices behind the bushes on the side of our house. When I went and looked I found a soccer field on the compound with some local boys playing. I took Eli and Hailey out to watch. I am not sure who was more intrigued by who. :)
Marc had a meeting after work and then was home for dinner around 7:30. We had a tuna casserole for our first meal that I cooked with some green beans. I had brought a few sauce packets out of the tuna helper boxes (left the noodles at home) for easy meal nights. I just used some spaghetti noodles that I bought here and mixed in a little shredded cheddar and we had some good comfort food. Eli ate seconds. I should mention that Eli is becoming a GREAT eater here. He is really getting over many of his food issues. He will now eat oatmeal, peanut butter, bananas, casseroles (he used to hate having all his food mixed together), and rice. He is also very willing to try anything new these days. We make him try 1-2 bites of every food before he can get down and then he can choose if he eats the rest (which he usually does). He is also beginning to like the powdered milk and drank one full glass yesterday. He loves it on his cereal and will usually eat two bowls of cereal (cheerios are a favorite of his to anyone sending a care package!).
We have been eating a little later at all of our meals which has been working out well. Breakfast is usually around 8:30 (the kids have been sleeping in because they have been going to bed later), lunch is around 1, and dinner is around 7. We have been getting to bed way too late as we been settling in but hopefully that will get better once most of our stuff is put away.
Well, I'm sure there are lots of things you are curious about with our lives here, and I hope to answer those questions as time goes on! We did figure out that a solution to not having a hot water heater (thanks to Dianna) was to boil a few pots of water and add them to the bath. Showers are still only cold water but at least we can have warm baths. Hailey was beginning to disagree with the cold water baths so she is much happier now. Eli still loves them cold. :)
Wishing you all a great day from Niger!
