roosters crowing, turkeys gobbling, dogs barking and children chattering are the usual sounds we hear each morning as the sun just begins to rise and fill our bedroom with dim light. we really have to fight the urge to just jump into each day and let the busy-ness sweep us away – it is amazing how fast each day flies by, but yet each day seems to be so full. as we pull ourselves out of bed (by the way, we are now sleeping in our actual house, even though it is still under construction because the mason and carpenter are now occupying the mud hut we WERE sleeping in), we begin a life that seems pretty normal in some regards and very unusual in others.
first, we both tramp across the yard to our pit latrine to take care of some morning business. our pit latrine is a small brick outhouse with a regular toilet seat over a hole in the ground 18 feet deep. in the mornings, it is not a bad place at all, but as the temperature rises during the day, the flies and the odors tend to increase a little more each hour. since this pit latrine was built in 2006, most bush missionaries are now using a pipe system in their pit latrines that help keep odors and flies away from the actual latrine site. a pipe is inserted into the latrine hole that goes up and out of the roof of the latrine, basically creating a natural air duct that keeps the odors and flies going up and out instead of filling the outhouse. we are planning on upgrading our latrine like this in the future, but we are trying to take it one step at a time.
next, we brush our teeth and wash our faces at our water source, a 500 liter water tank with a small spigot that sits outside on the front corner of our house. during the rainy season, we have a gutter system that catches and channels the rainwater directly into the tank, keeping it full most of the time, but since it is dry season now, i have hired a very sweet neighbor lady named eliza to carry water for me. she goes down the big hill from our compound to najaling, the small forest spring, each morning with a 20 liter jerry can and fills it with water and carries it back up the hill 3 times, dumping the water into our tank at the top of the hill. for the Didinga women, fetching water like this is a routine part of their day. since i am a new arrival to the Didinga hills and i am not accustomed to carrying water like this, we decided that hiring eliza would be better. it provides a job for this sweet widow in our church and it helps me to save my time and energy for other tasks.
next, i go through the routine of making coffee and breakfast so that we can enjoy a some time reading God’s word and discussing our days. i fill the tea kettle from the water tank, but since this water came from najaling, it has to be boiled for at least 2 minutes before we can drink it. thankfully, we have a butane gas stove with 2 burners that serves as a quick and very hot source of heat. at most gas stations in East Africa, you can buy a gas tank and have it filled for use with a gas range like we have. it is a pretty typical system since the cities and utility companies are not providing gas like they do back at home. you can even use a gas tank to power an oven or refrigerator. we aren’t that fancy, however! my 2 burner gas range is just what we need. so i wait for the water to boil sufficiently, use a french press to make our morning coffee and store it in a thermos until we are ready to drink it. i never used a thermos back home, but here they prove to be very useful. most Africans prefer hot food and drink over anything cold (even though they live in very warm climates), so i can keep water hot for making tea for visitors and save our precious gas in the tank by not reheating water throughout the day.
as far as our meals go, we have very, very few pre-made meals or ingredients. for example, if we want toast for breakfast, that means i have to bake the bread the day before and then toast it on a skillet over the gas stove. everything is just much slower and more deliberate.
speaking of refrigeration and ovens, you are probably wondering how we deal without either of those. well, refrigeration is kind of a crock when you live in a place where the temperature rarely gets above 85 degrees, i am discovering. we have a large, dark pantry in our house that keeps things out of any sunlight and relatively cool. since the house was built with brick and concrete only, it stays cool even when the sun is shining. i keep mayonnaise, eggs,lemon juice and even some long-life liquid milk in our pantry for several weeks with no problems. we also use cheese that comes in wax wheels and store it in a tupperware container in a dark corner. it doesn’t keep quite as long, but 1-2 weeks isn’t bad for fresh cheese.
as far as baking goes, i learned a little trick from our friend colleen before she left. we have a small kerosene stove, much like the camping stoves most of you have seen before. i have become quite good at changing and trimming wicks as well as filling the stove with kerosene. 
i light the kerosene stove as it is the heat source for my ‘oven’. then, i take 2 very large metal pots (called sufurias) and put them together – mouths touching – to create a sort of pod, or dutch oven. one used tuna fish can turned upside down and resting on the bottom of the pod serves as the “oven rack” and i rest my loaf pans, cookie sheets, and glass bake ware on the tuna can so that they don’t sit directly on the bottom of the ‘oven’ and burn. there is really no way to tell what temperature the heat inside the pod is, so things tend to take a long time to bake. i just lift the top sufuria off and check the status of the baked goods until they seem to be done enough. and 2 hours later – voila! baked bread!
for all you tree-huggers out there, you will be glad to know that we are very loyal to our compost system and every possible egg shell or vegetable peeling makes it into our compost heap. since the compost heap is on the other side of the compound from my kitchen, i have a 10 liter bucket that i keep under my kitchen counter and i fill it as i prepare meals. every 3 days or so, when it is full, i take it and dump it on the compost heap and then cross my fingers that the chickens and dogs won’t eat all the good micro-biotics before they have a chance to decompose!
this time of year, we have a ton of great local and organic produce available. on our compound alone, we have tomatoes, carrots, squash, zuchinni, sweet potatoes, and onions. occasionally, someone will stop by who is selling lemons, avocados, mangoes, pumpkins, Irish potatoes, and even local honey. maize flour and wheat flour are also ground from the local harvests and provide staple foods for the Didinga. we can also get fresh meat a couple of times a week, as someone will come by with a chicken for sale or as a cow is slaughtered in the market. it works out well for us because the Didinga prefer the cuts of meat that have fat and bones in them and we get our pick of the lean steak meat. we have also had some great local dik-dik and porcupine meat! all other food items, we order from outside. that means they usually come in on the airplane, which is not cheap. until a reliable road is built to nagishot, we will continue to have to get our canned goods, baking supplies, bulk items and cleaning supplies this way.
bathing is another topic i have been asked to shed some light on. many missionaries are familiar with the term ‘bucket bath’ and we are also now very familiar with this form of washing. we are working on a crude shower system for our new house, but we are currently using the Laku’s shower room until ours is finished. they have a small tin room, next to their latrine, with a concrete floor and a drain. you can either take a shower by heating some water over the gas stove and then carrying it in a bucket to the shower room. then, you climb up the scaffolding they have holding a large drum up at the level of the roof and pour your water into the drum. the drum has a pipe drilled into it that allows gravity to carry the water into the shower room and out of a simple shower head. the downside of this system is that there is no control over the temperature of the water and you are kind of at the mercy of how much cold water is already in the drum from previous deposits and rainwater. you also have the option of a ‘bucket bath’, which involves heating your water and carrying it into the shower room in a bucket. you then stand in a basin and pour the water over yourself with a cup, using plenty of soap, until you are sufficiently clean. i prefer this system because i don’t get as cold standing there trying to wash my hair from the lukewarm, trickling shower head. we are both big advocates of bathing every 1-2 days. mostly for health and partly for sanity. while many of our other conditions may feel like camping, bathing regularly is just a must here for longevity.
let’s see – what else might you all want to know about our daily lives? electricity is a very funny thing here and we are still trying to figure it all out. we have a solar panel system that provides enough power on a sunny day for charging our laptops, satellite phone and occasionally playing music. in the future, we will also have enough power to have a few lights in the house. for now, we use two kerosene lanterns and our head lamps after dark for light, but once you get used to not having lights after dark, you hardly miss it. we do tend to go to bed earlier here, partly because we don’t have lights and power to keep us up late and partly because the days just seem to be more demanding and tiring.
i hope this has satisfied some of your curiosity about how we survive here in nagishot! it all sounds quite romantic on paper, but the reality is that these small lifestyle changes slow us down and tend to require more energy. they are not bad changes at all, but they are new elements of life and thankfully, God is giving us the grace to accept and adapt each day. please let us know if you have questions or other ideas for future blog posts – we love hearing from you all!
blessings,
lauren
ze toilette
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