Max the tortoise in greeny paradise

Max has a new home - surrounded by grass he can chomp. Or is it a she? That has been a burning question recently. We’ve found out she’s crazy for lettuce stalks, which occasionally market ladies will add to our purchase after they’ve finished laughing about it...

The quality deteriorated even from the digital camera video but you can see Max in her/his new home on YouTube at the link to the side.

IMS student for a week

Last week was full-time at IMS - but most of it as a student, not a teacher.

Joel, the IMS director, suggested I sit it on a course that is part of a Masters on leadership taught throughout Africa. Lots of the aspects that were highlighted brought back memories of working in Africa before.

It turned out to be a long week, leaving home at 7 am if I wanted to get some exercise swimming before getting a ride from the mission at 8am with Alan, one of the teachers, and getting back sometimes after 6pm. After a few days of missing out on my siesta during the heat of midday, trying to concentrate during the afternoons and as usual having irregular sleep during the hot nights I actually felt woozy and went home Wednesday midday to catch up on my liquids and sleep. I felt better Thursday (afternoon off while students teaching kids’ clubs), taught the Bible College class Thursday night, and faced another long day Friday.

I decided to dig into the savings and actually left the airconditioning on all night, meaning that for one of first times in Burkina Faso I actually slept nearly all of the night. I cut class early (12 instead of 1pm) since we were having company for lunch and came back to find the afternoon classes cancelled since everyone was feeling as wrung out as I and unable to concentrate. The weekend began early!

The long road home to Home-cooked food

After the ‘road-side food’ I checked out during the last few weeks living with Jane I’ve been finding out what local Western food can stretch to, including slivers of smoked “Capitaine” fish which would rival smoked salmon, and sausages all locally-made and available in a local European-established butchery (sausages were one of the things I really missed from home in Benin). After a determined search I now know I can get wholemeal rolls (5 for 90c) at a downtown supermarket and a round wholemeal loaf for $4 at a downtown patisserie that has a bakery in another suburb.

There are two small local supermarkets (about the size of a large lounge room) 3 minutes’ walk up near the tarred road where we can get basics while they stay on the shelves, but otherwise it’s a trip downtown avoiding running into taxis or motorbikes to the 2 larger shops there. Local missionaries say heaps more is available now than before, but still, sometimes the shopping list can’t be filled, and it’s a time-consuming job getting around to check. I tried all local and the city supermarkets for oats for my muesli as I had found a month ago (although the normal “freeze for 24 hours then roast” to kill the little beasties feasting inside was necessary) and couldn’t find any now. And though not in the 2 places they had been a fortnight ago, there was muesli in two other stores: at $12 for a 500g box, or finally hidden on the bottom shelf some bags of a fairly basic variety at $3 for 750g. I bought up 5 since there probably won’t be any next week, including one for someone else who had asked. They we tried another new supermarket we’d never been to before - and found Quaker oats at a higher price.

One thing about staying with Jane - we have company regularly for dinner, whether planned or on the spur of the moment. Last Friday was an all-out effort: a roast dinner. The carrots ended slightly darker than they should be and the chicken lighter than it should be, but a great time was had by all (me with my English heritage, Jane having a British father, and our two English guests). We felt we did our heritage proud, though all that heat of the oven on for hours added to the heat of the day did make us doubt for a while. A passionfruit yoghurt dessert (both local ingredients) topped it off.