Chelisa and kids are in Utah

Well, Chelisa and the kids have left Tanzania and are now in Utah, spending the summer in Mendon (near Logan) at Chelisa's family's house. Chelisa would love to see any of our friends who may be in Utah at the same time. Ping us and we'll send you our phone number. I'll be there in August, as I'm still here in Tanzania for a few more weeks. Senator Bill Nelson from Florida is coming for a visit, so I've been asked to coordinate his trip. Hope to see some of you this summer.

Last Night in Dar

I just reread what I wrote earlier about moving, and it sounded really negative. The move has actually gone rather smoothly. The packers were slow, but seemed to do a great job. It was a long process, but it's actually kind of nice now since there is nothing in the house other than furniture and our suitcases. It makes it easy to keep the house clean. We're looking forward to getting on that plane tomorrow. We've met some incredible people here who we're really going to miss. I'm grateful for the internet, since that's about the only way I stay in touch with people. One more night with mosquito nets. Yay!

Tootsie Rolls

My friend Karen inspired me to get off my bum and start doing some fun summer kid activities. Here's one of my favorites from when I was a kid. It doesn't taste just like the tootsie rolls you buy, but the process is a blast. (Yes, if your kids are in the potty humor age group, it's even more fun.)

2 tsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup baking cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup white Karo syrup

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, mixing after each addition. Knead candy until it is very well mixed. Rollin into tootsie rolls. Be sure to store candy in an airtight container. This is a great project for kids because no heat is required to make it. They enjoy kneading the candy, and rolling it into different shapes.

Moving Update

Not much to report on, but I haven't written in a long time. Let me just state for the record, "I don't like moving." OK, I love the idea of moving back to America, but the whole moving out process stinks. They're currently loading all our belongings into crates. We've essentially ignored the kids for the last week as we prepared for the move. I am really looking forward to having some quality summer time with them. The kids and I leave next Tuesday. Poor Tim has an additional 2 and a half weeks here. I have a bunch of pictures I would love to post, but unfortunately, they are stored on our computer which is packed.

Backyard Swings and Pet Postings

I think I've been posting a lot recently, because the alternative is sorting through junk to pack. Here's one thing we LOVE about our house in Dar. The back yard has two awesome trees with tons of strong vines hanging from them. They make incredible swings and Tarzan ropes. The kids love to climb up on the wall nearby, then go swinging on the vines. (There are concrete blocks below, so I'm very thankful that none of the children have split their heads open doing this.) This has been a fun house for us, and we'll especially miss the yard. It's large enough that the kids are able to ride their bikes on the concrete, plus we have a chicken coop (no I won't miss the chickens), 3 rabbits and 2 turtles running around loose, a trampoline, and a tree house. We're particularly fond of our largest turtle, Kobe, as he now comes running (turtle speed) when he thinks we might have treats for him.
Here's a video of Chickenella trying to get some watermelon out from under Kobe. (Kobe has the brilliant strategy of laying on top of the food he wants to keep the other animals from getting. We think he's a turtle genious.) Chickenella received her name from my sister, Cheryl, because the other chickens are out to kill her. We have to keep her separate, so she runs around the yard with the turtles and rabbits. The other chickens literally pecked a hole in her head. She looked like Headwound Harry from Saturday Night Live. We never imagined she'd recover, but she's gone on to enjoy a pretty good life. In anticipation for our upcoming move, she's already been placed at a new home where she is no doubt pooping on their doormat. Her dream is to be a "house-chicken" and she attempts to go in any door left open to her. Unfortunately, the doors are closed in her face, so she waits patiently for her human "peeps" to come outside and keep her company. (All of course leading to the aforementioned...doormat poo.)

Tim and the Chimps

One of the things Tim wanted to check off his "list" here in Tanzania, was to see the Chimps that Jane Goodall studied. He was able to go to Gombe National Park for a couple of days, where he was lucky enough to see a ton of chimps. I'm sure he'll write about this later, then I'll replace this with his account, but... I thought I'd post a picture or two now, since it was pretty amazing. He loved watching how they're interactions were very much like people. (For example, one of the male chimps was pouting, and holding out his hand. So, the female chimp kissed him and took his hand, which made him look quite pleased with himself.)

Funky Orbits

Here's a picture of Tay, Colin and Britton at Funky Orbits, the Dar es Salaam kid's party hot spot. (I do mean hot, the weather is boiling here, so kids always return home drenched in sweat.) There is a playground, rock climbing wall, miniature golf, party room etc... It opened about a year ago, and now around 50% of the birthday parties around here are celebrated there.

Taylor went to a party there recently where they ran out of time to eat, so they carefully packaged up the food in take home bags. This consisted of half a hamburger, a slice of pizza, french fries (they call them chips here), and a piece of chocolate cake with icing thrown in a brown lunch bag. Personally, I think the icing complimented the half a hamburger patty nicely. My only question was, "why did they forget to squirt some ketchup in there too?"

Dirt is Good

With our move back to America being so close, we're running out of most of the consumables we brought with us. It was a sad day when we saw the last of our laundry detergent. (We haven't smelled the same since.) I've starting trying a variety of different local detergents. After pulling yet another dingy load of laundry out of the washing machine, I decided to read the box of the latest laundry detergent more carefully. It was then that I noticed their slogan, "dirt is good." I guess they really do deliver. I also love the directions of "put a handful in with the clothes." Gotta love it here.

Late Night?

Tay explained to us last night that she should get to stay up extra late. We questioned why, and she responded with "I slept at least an hour during Sacrament Meeting today."

Summer Plans

We're starting to wrap up here. The kids have 9 days of school left, not that I'm counting or anything. (They're bus comes at 6:35 in the morning, and we're all quite ready to make that a distant memory.)

The kids and I leave Tanzania on June 24th. We'll head to my parent's house in Utah. I'll try to set up houses to see with a real estate agent, so that when Tim joins us three weeks later, he and I can leave the kids in Utah, and hopefully buy a house in Washington. Then we'll go back to Utah until late August, then back to Washington in time for school. (You can read later on, I'm sure, how all this worked exactly as we planned it, with no complications this summer.)

We're all getting very excited to be returning to America. (Tim included.) We can't wait to be on the same time zone (or at least a closer time zone) to most of you.

Baby Girl Coming Our Way

Taylor was particularly excited when the latest ultrasound revealed that she would be getting a sister. Her due date is October 10th. We're thrilled.

Banana Bread French Toast

A friend recently recommended this, and we LOVE it.

Just make french toast using banana bread. Sure, it's like feeding your kids batter fried cake for breakfast, but I figure after the kids have their syrup and butter on regular french toast, I should get bonus points for switching to something with fruit in it.

I've been told this is also good with pumpkin bread, carrot bread, etc.

Colin's Time Out

Colin landed himself in timeout today. When I went to his room to release him from his 10 minute sentence, I was met with a tear-stained face. He explained that he had been hungry during his banishment, and had no choice but to eat his Cheerio necklace from playgroup. One longer and improved Cheerio necklace later, the world was right with our 4 year old again.

Maasai

By Taylor

In grade 2 I learned about maasai. The first thing you should know about maasai is they are very religious. They put big holes in there ears by pushing a needle and thread through their ear and then they take a small cork and put it in their earring holes, then they take a bigger cork and push it through. They continue doing this until it is the size they want it. They also put lots of really heavy earrings in, and that makes it bigger too.

A good maasai sheperd should have at least 1,000 cows. The maasai have a very important person called a laibon. A laibon is like a medicine man. He uses an artifact called an enkidong. An enkidong is made from a cow or rhino horn. An enkidong holds different colored stones. Those stones are used to tell the future by the laibon.

Maasai have many wives, especially the laibon. Once I saw a photo of a laibon who had 12 wives. I will give you some facts about maasai.

1. Maasai have a lot of children.

2. Maasai houses are made of mud and cow poo.

3. Maasai houses are called bomas.

4. A maasai village is called an enkang.

5. Maasai warriors are called morani.

6. Maasai take out their 2 bottom teeth

7. When a maasai boy becomes 11, they throw him out of the enkang for 2 months to see if he is strong.

At maasai day I was helping people make clay bomas and giving them name tags.
Taylor








Here's a video of real Maasai jumping with us. The Maasai are known for how high they can jump.

Starting the Blog

Here's our attempt at starting a blog. I went through old emails, and posted those that looked interesting. We'll add pictures and commentary as we get used to this.