Pop, pop, popcorn

This is a brief documentary on how to harvest corn.  And though my children have de-seeded many a corn cob, they have never had the experience of winnowing the seed.  This was a fun family/neighborhood experience.

 The corn in the wheelbarrow waiting to be de-seeded.... or removed.... or gathered....

whatever it is called.

 Inspector #44 checking to make sure everything was ready to go.

 The first batch being winnowed. It is an art that takes LOTS of practice to flip the seeds in the air juuust right, and catch them again, most of the time I flip and the seeds fly!

 Kent taking a turn a the winnowing basket with inspector #11 watching carefully.

 Another angle of the separating of the chaft and the seed.  I was fascinated by the whole process.

 It is beautiful watching the chaft blow away..... it almost looked as if it was snowing!

 Inspector #33 supervising our her fellow employees.  Many hands make for light work.

 The final pour..... filling the trunk one seed at a time.  ;)

 The final product..... a foot locker full of popcorn seed.  Another Yummy snack scored for the Foresters!

Of course when you are finished you let the workers take the cobs home to be used for firewood.

Face Paint

The mall in Kampala just recently opened a new playground.... they had face painters there this week and the girls wanted to rememeber their works of art.

Vacation

Everybody needs a little vacation time..... right? For MONTHS Kent had been talking about wanting to go to Mombassa and the beach. He finally got his wish! It was an incredible journey to arrive.... but we arrived none the less.So that Kent (and the family) could enjoy a week on the beach we made a harrowing journey from Gulu -to> Kampala, spent the day with friends in country adopting a baby. Then EARLY the the next morning we started the drive from Kampala -to> Nairobi. In Nirobi we brought in our extra matress (hillbilly flashbacks) so that there would be enough space for us all to stretch out. Next day we re-packed the van and headed out AGAIN. Nairobi -to> Mombassa! Don't be decieved we didn't stay there.... we just ate a nice lunch (something besides PB&Js), stretched our legs rented a local, non touristy, cheap hotel, and then headed to the Public Beach. (Picture wall to wall people! )

The next day we got BACK in the car for a quick trip up the coast from Mombassa -to> Malindi, the Italian vacation spot of choice. We had PB&Js of course.... this was not necessarily because we enjoy peanut butter, or that we were on a budget, it was more because there is no such thing as a Mcdonalds or Taco Bell ANYWHERE on the whole continent.... so PB&Js it is. Side note.....Malindi is a little Italy in Kenya: Italian restaurants, menus, signs, language. The Kenyans that lived there didn't learn Swahilli and English... they learned Italian. VERY interesting to say the least. Italian culture is very different from our American culture.

Once in Malindi our vacation didn't start right away. We stoped by countless (6+) hotels and resorts first. Most were either full or WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of our price range, some how $500 a night (even if all meals were included) is a little more than we budgeted for. FINALLY, at our last option, (we had reservations some where, we had passed the turn off, we wouldn't have been on the beach and there were only 2 restaurant options in the little town of Watamu) ... we scored. I mean really scored!

Under new management, still working out the kinks, we found the Ocean Beach Resort. We stayed in a one room villa, on the second floor. that overlooked the pool for LESS than what we would have paid where we had reservations. LESS.... can you believe it!.... It was beautiful!!!!

Now the vacation was really beginning. Only there isn't much to say about it. We slept, read, ate, swam, walked the beach, everyday..... that's it. and since sand and cameras aren't a good mix, all my pictures were taken from our balcony. We had a GREAT time. The return trip was just as long as our departure, only we stayed a whole day in Nairobi and did some shopping. That was fun, there were malls in Nairobi nicer than malls back home! We almost forgot we were in Africa.