(I didn't know Josh was taking this picture - I look really funny - but it gives a little glimpse of my kitchen.)You have probably heard that everything takes longer here… it’s true, for many reasons.
Everything is simply more work-intensive.
Today, I drove to the market (at least I have a car! That cuts two hours off the endeavor!). I spent just an hour buying 3 green peppers, 1 bunch of greens, 1 papaya, 1 bunch of bananas, 3 avacados, 8 tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 5 passion fruit. Each type of produce was purchased at a different vendor. Each interaction includes a greeting, laughing at my Acoli, asking for the words in Acoli and trying them out back and forth until I pronounce it right. Then I ask for the price, expertly feel and examine the produce, and then make my decision. Then, more greetings and pleasantries, more laughing, and I’m free to move on. It’s quite a nice experience, but there’s no quick errand.
Then I drove to another place to buy eggs and converse with that shop owner, his wife, and baby.
After a few more stops for bread and mail, Noah and I got home and I started the cleaning process.
I wash the produce to get the dirt off, then I soak in a dilute bleach solution for 20 minutes. The eggs have chicken-ness on them still, so I wash each one individually (unless I know I’m just baking with them, then I’m lazy and just careful to not get the dirt when I crack the egg). We go through about 36 eggs a week as we eat them for a major source of our protein. We would probably eat more if I got to the egg place more often to buy them!
Everything is made from scratch, of course, which is not unpleasant. It’s rather fun, but it’s time consuming and you know that mom cooking signals that every child needs mommy NOW and DESPERATELY. Right?! ;-P
The clean-up is not so fun. Josh has set-up composting and then we have buckets for various types of trash. Trash is burned for the most part. But we’re not set up well to handle our trash yet, so that’s been an issue. I have to wash and clean carefully so that we don’t get even more flies in the house. We seldom have electricity at night (it gets dark at 6:35pm), and I hate doing dishes in the dark, so that’s been an issue for me! I desperately try to wash every dish as I dirty it so that I don’t get behind. We sweep our tile floors multiple times a day to keep the crumbs out of the house.
Water: someone left behind a Katadyne filter so we’re thrilled to have that! Otherwise, we buy bottled water and boil water for cooking. No drinking from the tap, even to brush your teeth.
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