Gaat

Hi to all. A short note as the connection is very slow. We're also busy trying to work out possible visits from my parents and sister including a possible trip to Kenya together to visit my aunt and go on a safari! We're thrilled that someone will actually be coming from home to see how we live here and meet our friends! Maybe they'll be treated to some gaat? More on this later.

First a quick apology to my sister for not including this earlier in my blog. I tried to but the power shut down just as I was about to send the message. Anyways, you may find this hard to believe after struggling through my mistake ridden, long winded, grammatically incorrect blogs to learn that there is actual writing talent in the Ryeburn family. I wanted to send a quick congratulations to my sister Sue who won the poetry challenge for CBC radio for the Vancouver region! Her performance was supposedly broadcast sometime in March on national radio and listeners can now vote on the best poet across the nation. If you'd like to hear her performance and vote for her, please check the following web site:

Here's my sister's page on the Poetry Face off website. Voting continues through Monday April 10 - winner to be declared April 17.

Now, on to Gaat. Last Sunday we were invited to some Belen friends' home for a meal of gaat, a traditional dish that is eaten for breakfast by many people here. I'd been warned about it and so I warned our hosts that foreigners don't always like it (to put it mildly) but that we'd love to try. Gaat is a porrige made from several grains ground into flour and cooked in water until it forms a hard, pasty dough. I t is served in a ball form with lots of not very nice yogurt, and tesmi (basically rancid butter) in the middle. You break off a bit of the porrige, roll it in some yogurt and then dip it in rancid butter before wolfing it down. Oh, and if you like, you can season it with hot pepper! I was a bit nervous but tried some and thought, this isn't bad at all. I ended up dipping several portions in the rancid butter and thinking, "what was everyone complaining about?". At home later, I learned from the rest of my family that yes, it was actually as bad as we'd heard but because of the cold I've had all week, my taste buds were out of function and I didn't notice the strong flavours! All in all though it was a great visit. They showed us the "sauna" they have, a hole in the ground where charcoal is made and women stand over it wrapped in a blanket. Supposedly it makes their reproductive systems strong. Our friend told us in her broken English that men don't do it because it's "hot for their "shinty" (pee), am I clear Barbara!" I can only imagine! We ended the evening with a coffee ceremony, lots of pictures and a video of various weddings, and of course, the nightly power outage. They are a wonderful family and will be excited to know they can repeat the gaat ceremony with my parents and sister in a few months.

Well, I should run now. More when the internet isn't working at the pace of a turtle.

Missing you all very much,

Barbara