How to reuse a paper bag as egg container

Constraints lead to innovation and new possibilities.
Daily, I find here examples of creative ways to make a better use of resources.



That is the way we get the eggs here if we buy them in the market. This is simply an A4, previously used to print an e-mail, glued on the edges to create a little bag. Isn't it beautiful and simple?

And I can only think again and again that we are so spoiled in Europe! There we seem to demand more and more unnecessary packaging for our products, simply to throw it away after is has been used. Why?

Get ready for darkness

We do not notice how important electricity is until we do not have it. In our building it is normal that the electricity goes out for a few seconds. The first time it was a bit frightening, -how long is it going to last? -, but in fact, it is just a matter of waiting patiently for a little while and the electricity comes back.

Yesterday it was not the case. We had heavy rain; lights went off and they remained that way. Candles? I did not think about buying them. I remembered that I had bought in Hema a little flash light, so we went to look for it (I had Paul and Anna, of course, ready to follow me and help me around in the darkness). I found the flash light, Paul found the batteries (miracle!) and then we went back to Paul's bedroom. Where are the scissors to open the package? Back to my bedroom, I finally found a pair of scissors, again, in the middle of the darkness.



Flash light package open, batteries package open. How to assemble the whole thing together? Arrgghhh. I tried but I did not get more than a few blue sparks and the smell of fire, a bad sign, all in all. It seemed like the light bulb should be put in a particular position; but I could not see where.

So end of the story. I put Paul and Anna to sleep, a bit earlier than usual, but it seemed not to be a problem. Needless to say, when lights were on again, I had no issue in putting together the lamp in less than a minute.

Lesson learned:
To have always a working flash light and candles ready and in a place easy to reach

How to paint a child as a cow

Last weekend there was a fair at the school where Paul will go in September. So there we went, it seemed like a good activity for Saturday. There was a lady painting the children's face, and Paul decided he wanted to have his face painted. He was patient enough to wait for 15 minutes (it does not happen often), and then the lady asked: "What do you want to be? Maybe Spiderman?" Paul replied very sure of himself: "Nee, een koe" (No, a cow). OK! And the picture above shows the result of his wish!

Steps to be taken:
- Paint the face in white with a sponge
- Then add the black circles randomly
- Eventually, draw as well the "mouth" in pick

And above all, make sure that the paint is meant to be for children's faces and that it is easy to remove!

Banana cake (1st trial)

We do not have any shortage of babanas in Rwanda. So, I thought to put into practice my cooking skills, and I chose a receipt from Home Made, by Yvette van Boven, (by the way, winner of the cooking book in Dutch, year 2010). Together with imported yeast (found at a small supermarket here) and the children baking set from Hema, I felt totally prepared to start my little adventure.

I simplified the receipt, since it is not easy to find certain ingredients, and it came down to:
- 2 bananas
- 90 grams of flour
- half a little bag of yeast
- 70 grams of butter
- 70 grams of sugar
- 1 egg
- lemon rasp

Note that these are the amounts for a little children-size cake!

Steps:
- Warm up the oven (I have here a gas oven, no way to know which temperature I am using)
- Cut the bananas in rings
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl
- Put some butter in the cake set
- It is recommended to use baking paper, but since I cannot find it here, I skip this step
- Put all the mixed ingredients into the cake form and put it in the oven
- Wait for an hour, and check from time to time how it goes
- How do I know if the cake is ready? Insert a stick, if it is dry when you take it out, then the cake is ready

It seemed easy to me. First the cake starting to " grow" too much, then it started dripping into the bottom of the oven. I did not get much concerned until the gas fed into the drippings and a little fire started inside the oven. Augh! So I had to take the cake immediately out, and fix the little issue; luckily there was no need to call the fireman.

So, you can see the result below, not really spectacular! And that is why there will come a second trial soon!

Primus guma guma superstar?

Primus guma guma superstar? What is that? Well, imagine a mix between "star academy" and what we know as "operacion triumfo" in Spain. But then placed in Africa. A couple of weekends ago there was a performance at Gitarama, the second largest town in Rwanda. So, there we went to enjoy the show!



It is still something to get used to, that people look at us from time to time, the muzungu, instead of looking at the show...

An amazing amount of energy was displayed by the artists playing; I am looking forward to see the final in Kigali! To get an idea of the show, check this video in YouTube.

How to eat passion fruit

Since we moved to Rwanda we are eating more and more fruit. Many flavors are new to us, and we are happy to try them all!
One of the new ones is passion fruit. So far we are eating it by cutting it in the middle and taking the pulp with a spoon. Anna seems to like it a lot!



According to Wikipedia, fresh passion fruit is high in beta carotene, potassium, and dietary fiber. Passion fruit juice is a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and good for people who have high blood pressure. So, it is not only tasty, but also healthy!

Moving to Rwanda

This is not exactly a post where I recommend some genial idea on what to do with children. This is a post to announce that in two weeks we will be moving to Rwanda. Our house is empty and all our stuff is shipped in a container. First to Rotterdam and then to Tanzania. From there it will go into a truck to Rwanda (expected time is three months).

So, although being full time with the children does not mean I have a lot of free time, I still wanted to share a picture on the lake Kibu in Rwanda. We were there last January to visit the place and decide whether we wanted to move or not. We decided to move and therefore there was some silence in the My Mama Day blog; all my time was devoted to prepare for the moving!



Change is scary, but so exciting!