Camel visit

There was a mumble from the gate, in the tone usually M. beggars used. I was a bit surprised that they knew I was home at this hour since we’d just paid for more bars on windows and to have the gate increased in height for security reasons and people couldn’t now see into my lounge windows while walking down the street.

Being just a few days from travelling away from a month instead of leaving at 7am I’d stayed back from work for an hour or so to talk to Esther about arrangements during my absence. While waiting for her I’d worked on my marking for the Bible school’s latest essay question (“what would you say to a M. who said Christians believed in 3 Gods, not one; and how would you explain the trinity?”) but was just packing up to go.

After hearing the voice I discovered the reason as soon as I looked up - and up - and saw that the man’s face was above the new higher level of the gate, and there was another face there as well: a camel.

Esther translated that the man was begging, and he offered to let me get on the camel for a fee. Being dressed in a straight skirt, keeping in mind work was waiting, and not wanting to have my hair eaten by a camel above me, instead of getting on the camel when he had gotten him to kneel I stood alongside. And of course gave him money towards lunch (and the camel’s).

An unexpected blessing this week: two nights with little showers of rain and an overcast day in between. After months of being so dry skin on your feet cracks so bad it bleeds it was a temporary humid coolness. Now the air is a bit clearer of the dust that is causing so much concern over the cases of meningitis - and despite being above 38C for more than a week now hot season really starts!

Ouaga and the heat

Ouaga is a funny mix.
I can order beautiful iced donuts and a great salsa and homemade herbed tortilla chips for a great price to be delivered to my door the morning after I order but butter has become so expensive that I think twice before buying and instead on my bread am putting mayonnaise or processed cheese (don’t even suggest local margerine - Yuck!) and have practically cut out cooking with it.

There’s a guy who used to cook for missionaries that now does home bakery deliveries, including hamburger buns, mini banana breads, and larger things like pizzas and cakes. It’s useful when your only cooking equipment is a 3-burner stove top (like the camping ones back home).

I looked at the standard (not even fancy) stoves here all priced around AUS$620 (same price as a chest freezer) and decided I didn’t need baked casseroles, grills, muffins or homemade baking that much. I’m waiting for the April/May sell-offs of expats leaving at the end of the school year to see if there’s something reasonable for sale (and if there’s a cheap freezer it would help out for those times of year when vegies are limited).

Even if I get one I’m not likely to put it into the kitchen (ie. the small bedroom now furnished with fridge, stovetop and cupboards) since the house already acts like a brick oven and hot season has barely started. I'll probably copy another misso and have it on the porch.

I’ve put cane mats above the windows in the hot cement area behind the house, and am growing passionfruit vines on a network of cables. They’ve just reached the level of cables, and seem to grow about 20cm a week now so it’ll be a while before there’s shade back there on the concrete bricks that absorb heat all day and radiate it back inside at night.

Birds large and small ... From vultures to finches

With the mason banging away at the concrete walls so hard that the house is shaking it’s surprising that today I’ve seem more variety of birds in an hour than for months before. I am enjoying their songs these days. In the big tree that seems to have finally finished shedding little yellow leaves like a carpet every day after they’re raked up, that now has an abundance of little green leaves on interlacing levels of branches I’ve seen today:
- the resident vultures
- yellow medium sized birds
- a yellow little bird (one of these yellow I think are weavers from the tree in neighbour’s backyard)
- some little grey/brown sparrow types (or are they female finches?)
- a red finch
- a blue finch
- a black finch (?seems the same from the distance I saw it)
- a red/blue/green honeysucker I think - small, with 2 longer feathers in the tail
- turtledoves

Some even stood still and looked like they were listening when I tried to talk to them, others just disappeared further into the foliage.