Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Back Home

We are back in Juba! We arrived home yesterday, with boxes full of food supplies and our heads full of happy memories from a lovely time in Kenya!

One of the items I was determined to bring back from Nairobi was a bunch of roses. It is not every day a girl gets red roses- and I have never seen a bouquet of roses in Juba- so I thought it was well worth trying to bring back this beautiful bouquet. Here they are, wrapped up in paper, complete with a bag of water secured around the stems, ready to travel on our MAF flight from Nairobi:
 I had already enjoyed these gorgeous blooms for 2 days in Nairobi, since they were given to me, but it seemed such a waste to leave them behind in Kenya. So I carefully tended them, as they trundled through the airport luggage-scanner and as they sat for 4 hours on the MAF plane.

I am happy to report that they made it! Here they are on our table in our Juba home! :-) It is something very special to have fresh flowers in Juba!

These roses are a luxury item to bring back. They really brighten our lounge! However, one of the necessities we were obliged to bring back was cat food for Woodlee, the cat we inherited from the previous occupants of our MAF house. Knowing that it will be a few months before we can get to a cat-food shop, we had to buy in bulk.
Last month, we ran out of cat food for Woodlee and he stubbornly refused to eat anything, growing thinner and thinner by the day, but rejecting fresh meat, tuna, chicken remains... what a fussy cat. This leaves us with no choice but to stock up on cat biscuits for him, so that he does not punish us by starving himself to death and leaving us with a guilt complex! Yesterday saw us staggering through the front door with 16 kilos- yes, sixteen kilos- of cat biscuits from Nairobi, to feed the fussy feline.
 Do you think Woodlee was grateful? Sadly, not a bit of gratitude was expressed. After feeding him today, he promptly threw up, all over my freshly-mopped floor..... grrrrrrr!!!!!

When we got home, I needed to get to work making bread for our meals. My fabulous bread maker was put straight to use.
The flour I was using has been in my larder since early October. I didn't think to check it for any possible "changes" that may have occurred whilst we were away, so I merrily threw 500 grams of flour into the bread pan and pressed the "Start" button.
It was only later, when Ben and Joel decided to "help" me by making some cakes, that I got the same flour out of the larder. This time, I realised it was alive! Sitting in my larder for a couple of weeks in Juba heat is not good for flour. All kinds of revolting little creatures had come to life and were having a party in the flour! I got out the sieve and cupful by cupful we sieved out the culprits: maggots and weevils:

This means our cakes are hopefully bug-free. But it was too late for my bread- which means that tomorrow we will be eating bread that may have a unique crunch to it and perhaps a slightly different flavour!?!

Anyone for some Weevil-Maggot Loaf?


3 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you arrived back safely and that you had a good break. It sounds like Woodlee needs to fine-tune his survival skills :) Hope all goes well, including the challenges with the flour. Tim

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  2. So glad you were able to enjoy your beautiful red roses. You always have liked to have some fresh flowers. I guess Woodlea may have gorged himself after his time of abstinence. Dad was quite annoyed to read about such a fussy ill mannered moggy. That loaf of bread looks so delicious. At least any germs, maggots, weevils will have been well and truly sorted by the heat of the bread maker but none the less I think I'll decline your invite to partake! Love nana xx

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  3. Dear !iz I wrote a comment but it's disappeared Here's trying again! Glad you had your beautiful roses. You've always enjoyed fresh flowers. Dad was quite disgusted with such an ill mannered, ungrateful moggy. But perhaps Woodley was so pleased to have his biscuits he overrate too soon? At least your gorgeous looking bread would have well cooked germ free weevils and maggots but I think I'll decline your invite to partake ! Love nana xx

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