A Cool Drink of Water

Have you ever wanted a cool drink of water on a hot day?  This happens to us often here in Musoma, but the process of getting a drink is a little different.  If we put a glass under the faucet in the kitchen, there's a good chance the water will come out looking like this:

Unfortunately, it's not just dirt in there, but lots of little creatures that could make us very sick.  So instead, we need to do a bit of work to get it ready for drinking!

First, we get water in a bucket.  (Many Tanzanians would get it from the lake, but we're lucky enough to have water faucets in our house.) 

Next, pour the water into a "sand filter" outside to get out the big bits of dirt.

Then, take the water back indoors.  Pour the water into a special filter that makes the water ok to drink.  Wait for the water to filter down to the bottom.  It'll take a few hours, so be sure to start early!

Next, use the filtered water to fill up clean, empty water bottles.  It's good to have extras around in case the water goes out for a few days!

Finally, if you want your drink to be cold, put it in the fridge for a few hours to cool down.

 Happy Drinking! :)

Go. Bananas. Go, Go Bananas!!!

Living in Tanzania comes with some great big perks!  In our yard, we have trees and plants that give us bananas, lemons, passion fruit, mangoes, avocados, and even pomegranates! 

A few weeks ago one of the clumps of bananas fell from the tree.  The bananas were packed into a box to make them ripen quickly, and we let the box live by the door to our house so we could check on them from time to time. 

Green bananas, right off the tree

All tied up, waiting to ripen

2 weeks later, they were RIPE!

Finally, they were READY!  All. at. once.

My roommate and I realized we had a lot of bananas to use in one week before they all went bad.  (I guess this is why people usually sell some of them at the market!)  We made banana bread and banana pancakes for our breakfasts, banana chocolate chip bars (yum!), and even found a maple-syrup-banana recipe to use on cake or pancakes!  It was DELICIOUS!!! 

We’re excited to find even more creative ways to use bananas when the next bunch drops from our trees… :)