Bitings and other forms of entertainment...

I've discovered a new favorite term: "bitings". I've seen it on a few menus and latched onto it as a new phrase. Basically, I think it means 'snacks' or 'appetizers'. But isn't 'bitings' so much cuter?

We've been busy home-making. This has involved starting a lot of bigger projects- one of the first things to do was clean out the water tank! All our water comes from a lorry (initially, it comes from the muddiest river ever, then magically gets purified then put in a lorry...) which fills our tanks. The tank, however, was filled with mud/sediment. Nathan's expertise in Water Resource Management came in handy as he and Geemi cleaned out the tank the other day. (Note that Geemi is talking on the cell phone while straddling the tank and the house, suspended about 10 feet up in the air.)

I've been cooking a little. We are without an oven which is definitely cramping my style. However, I did manage to whip these up the other day: 

(Sorry, the photo is blurry.) I'm a HUGE fan of savory pancakes. These were made by incorporating sun dried tomato in the batter, and topped with fresh avocado (the size of my head!) and lime-cumin yogurt sauce and sprinkled with chili powder. Yum! 

We're also cooking for others. 

You can sort of make out the blur of four skinny dogs lined up, salivating, at the door. We have been feeding the dogs about 3 times a week- we buy frozen packages of 'chicken parts' (ew) and throw in a few cups of rice. The dogs are thrilled. Feeding time is wild. We don't think they get fed otherwise, although one dog, Chief, gets fed by his owner (our guard Ezekiel) but the dog food is this powder that is mixed with water. It's kind of disturbing. The other three are still skinny but definitely gaining weight. 

Finally, we're spending time getting to know the area- there are several other families living on our compound and everyone's been pretty friendly so far. There are 5 kids living next door- we brought some gifts back from the States for them- a whiffle ball set (which led to a confusing though raucous game of 'baseball') and some crayons. The cutie below came over the day after our gift-distribution and stood outside our door for about half an hour. We kept going outside and asking what he needed and he replied in mumbled Swahili. Finally, his dad came over to retrieve him and translated the mumble- "colors". We realized he wanted more crayons! Luckily I had one box left and handed 'em over. He left. It was pretty cute. 

We're headed to Nairobi later this week- I'm excited to buy an oven (!!!!!!) and visit the very westernized mall- it had a bakery chock-full of pastries and really good coffee. We plan to hang out there for a while! We also need to stock up on some groceries. Last time we thought we'd scored with 5 different types of cheese (brie, cheddar, feta, etc.) but discovered once we were home that all of them were expired. Several months expired. Totally inedible. Very sad. We'll check the expiration dates this time!