A day in the life...

I thought I would give you all an example of a day in the life of us here in Mozambique. I think sometimes it is hard for those who have never been here to understand exactly what everyday life is like here in Mozambique. Things are just different and here is a synopsis of our day yesterday. It was a special day, Jurnee's 6th birthday. Birthday parties I know can be pretty big events in the States and a lot of work can go into them, but we are talking major events and lots of children. This is just a normal birthday at home for our family and a few friends living next door. I guess it started the day before yesterday, on Friday, the 1st of February...

First of all Jurnee requested fun fetti cake(? that kind of cake that has colored dots in it??? and only because we were just in the States a few months back and there was fun fetti cake there), and ice cream as well as cinnamon rolls for breakfast. She wanted hamburgers and french fries for dinner. Now this doesn't sound too complicated, but here in Mozambique...it is slightly complicated. So in preparation 2 days before we order hamburger buns, because you can only request a baker to make them for you here or make them yourself, not just buy them at a store. So Friday, I make a cake with blue food coloring (which actually turned out green because white cake looks more brown than white because of our unrefined sugar) because I have NO IDEA how to make a fun fetti cake and there is no such thing as a fun fetti cake anywhere in Mozambique. Then I also make frosting, the not too sweet kind, because that is what she likes, but it also takes a very long time to make. Then I start on the cinnamon rolls. While they are rising I wrap some presents that we have brought all the way from the US on our trip here, because there is nothing to buy around here for a birthday. The cinnamon rolls don't actually get done until 11:30pm. We are up at 6:00am for Tim to start making the ice cream, because also it is difficult to get around here. We had bought the cream last time we were in Malawi because once again, not something you can find in Lichinga. We eat our cinnamon rolls and continue to ice and salt and wait for the ice cream to be done. Meanwhile Jurnee says, "where is my party hat? Because birthdays are not any fun without party hats." Why couldn't she had told me that a few days ago, because party hats aren't something in the Lichinga market or shops either...So I go and make a party hat real quick because her birthday must be fun! 2pm we have ice cream ready and we have a small party with some colleagues who are living in the guesthouse on our property right now.  Oh and the party hat was only worn for about 5 minutes until it was just in the way and cast aside. Then we quickly move to get started on dinner preparations. We have to clean the potatoes and cut them. Prepare the meat and make it into patties. Go pick up our hamburger buns. We start the oil for the fries at 4:30 and dinner is ready at about 6:00. After dinner, we have movie night and the power goes out about 4 times, so that it takes about 3 hours to watch an 1.5 hour movie and Jurnee has already fallen asleep in the middle of it. Carry her off to bed and we crash exhausted from making cake and hamburgers and french fries...Ah birthdays are a lot less expensive here I must say, but a whole lot more work. And lucky us, 12 days from now it is Karis' birthday. At least she is a little less demanding at 11 turning 12 than Jurnee at 5 turning 6. I think she will survive without fun fetti cake and a party hat.

Here are some pictures of Jurnee's big day...

With the absolutely necessary party hat that was worn for 5 minutes.

Jurnee didn't want to hear us sing happy birthday to her because it was "embarrassing".