On the Homefront

It's been another busy week in Moshi. Last Saturday, the 1st of September, we celebrated Lindsey's 15th birthday. The Richardsons, Charles, and John joined us for lunch, and we bbq'd burgers, and enjoyed chocoate cake and home made ice cream.

On Tuesday, George taught his last class of this session at Kilimanjaro Bible School. Wednesday, I had my last class with bibi Joyce. She will be returning to her home around the end of this month, and since we will be starting language school next Monday, a three week course, I'll likely not have another opportunity to meet with her. We bought her a tape recorder, so that she could listen to sermons and singing recorded at Moshi.

We are very happy to finally have some fresh milk. We can buy boxed milk here, but the taste is definitely an acquired taste, and none of us have acquired it yet. There is a man named Muro, who works as a lab technician at a clinic just down the road from us. Through casual conversation one day, George found out that this man sells milk. Muro lives in Machame. If you recall from a previous blog, we vsiited the church in Machame a few weeks ago. Once or twice a week, George takes a milk can to Muro, and the next morning (or whatever day we designate), George will go back to the clinic and pick up 7 to 8 liters of fresh milk, which Muro has carried with him from home. Then, we begin the process of pasteurizing the milk, to ensure that it is safe to drink. The process goes something like this:

First, the milk is strained. Now, the first couple of times we didn't do this. The very first time we brought the milk home, we were very impressed that the milk looked so clean. After all, this is Africa. There didn't seem to be anything to strain. But, after the second or third time we had milk, Luke just happened to be downing a nice tall glass of milk, and spied a grub or worm of some kind in his milk!! It was disconcerting, to say the least, and it definitely put a damper on Luke's enthusiasm for milk, at least temporarily.

After the milk is strained, it is put in the pasteurizer. Water is circulated around the stainless steel pail, and it cycles for about 40 minutes, bringing the milk up to a temeprature of 155 - 160 degrees. When the cycle is finished, the hot water is drained from the unit, and cold water is circulated around the pail for about 15 minutes, to cool the milk down. Now the milk is ready to pour into containers and put into the fridge.

We had a good laugh this evening. I started cleaning our bathroom, and as I lifted the toilet seat, I was quite surprised to find a baby lizard, which decided to find a nice, cool resting place on the toilet - between the seat and the rim. Little did this baby lizard know that the toilet rim would be it's final resting place, because apparently, he did not move quickly enough when someone sat down to use the facilities. Half of the lizard was flatter than a pancake! I suppose there is more than one moral to this story - if you are a lizard, find someplace else to rest, and if you are a human, look before you sit!

Have a good weekend everyone.
Love, Joy

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