day 2 et seq.

Hi Folks -

The radio silence was not due to us making a point about our unreliability, but due to our having moved to our house which *alas* doesn't have internet. Yet. That's 72 hours from landing to having a house, phone number, and foreign bank accounts in multiple currencies! But no, no internet.

But this letter isn't about our logistical hoops. At mom's request, this letter is about food.

Our new house is located across from the neighborhood soccer field, and right next to the soccer field is the local barbecued goat joint, and that's where we had lunch after we moved in. It was billed as the best goat joint in town, and it was fine. I really prefer pork, though. It was served with this totally tasteless stuff that is called ugali in Uganda and Tanzania, and maybe here, too. Really, it's like something that that Catalan chef would have come up with: imagine that you ran your food processor fast enough, and long enough, so that air itself started to form into an airy froth and then, if you keep it going lander and faster, it thickened up into an air-like paste and then, if you leave it overnight, it finally came out as a thick sticky dough of air that still tasted like air. That's what ugali is like. Some people find it's nothingness to be so mysterious as to be actually unappetizing, and I really sympathize with those people. But you can also look at it like snails and lobster, as a vehicle for goodness. The ugali was served with sauteed onions liberally dahsed with a pretty hot spice, and the onions with the ugali with the goat was all pretty good.

Saturday afternoon we walked around the neighborhood to find grocery stores and things, and we did manage to find a very close dry-goods store, and a close vegetable stand, and a not-too-far place with some meats. When we got back we were able to make ... spaghetti with red sauce. That's a bit disappointing but, at the same time, a consolation. We did make the sauce from scratch, but still. In the morning we had coffee and omelets. Tonight we found a source for chicken (which is surprisingly hard to get -- there are stores for beef and pork, but I guess most people are able to get chickens sort of on hand, so you don't need to buy them anywhere) and made chicken masala. We went crazy and threw cassava root in there (because it looked like sweet potato at the vegetable stand and -- in our defense -- was called "sweet potato" in french) and it came out not like soft pieces of sweet potato but still pretty good. So good, in fact, that Clara has proposed a cook-off: go ahead and try to best our cassava-root-chicken-masala. As an appetizer we seasoned up an awesome big avocado and spread it on some bread.

Our house is a nice little starter home: it's sort of ranch-like, 2-bedroom (to be converted to a 1-and-an-office) with a nice front patio and a lot of flowers around. We're one block off of the lake. The sun sets over the mountains across the lake in Congo. That's if you're standing up. If you're sitting down, the sun sets over a wall with a coil of concertina wire on top. Whatever.

Bradford

Sarah's Back!

She arrived back home last night, 17 days and 28 national trust houses later. She has much to tell us...Peanut could not believe his eyes! He did a jig and then sat on the sofa the better to watch her. Then he jumped down to run over to get a closer look. Then back to the sofa. Back to her...Last night I used the tagine to cook a paella. Interesting results. Took much longer than the oven and remained much more moist...The baked corn, by the way, was a success. Now I want to try it with a package of frozen and see whether the difference merits waiting a whole nother year. We are about out of corn here...Why is the "posting" function of our blog now so different than before?

nice

Thursday evening Lauren came over with a sewing project--her machine was not working well so she came to use mine and get a bit of help as needed. We had a great time until we got the part of trying the top on to see if it fit. It did--sort'a--but it would not go down over her hips and it was going to have to do that once the one-piece jump-suit was completed. So we needed to start over. Found a piece of fabric she liked among my 'stash' and we started over. Then at about 10:00 she tried it on and the top was too short waisted (why could we not see that before?) Boo hoo. We toyed with the idea of altering it then but were encouraged by Karen to continue Friday afternoon.

The other part of 'nice' was a surprise Lauren brought me from Chris. He has written another book--very personal and very wonderful! I was thrilled. So I stayed up way past my bed time reading everyword. Friday I was really dragging from being up too late.

Friday afternoon Lauren came back and we successfully completed the alternation. It looked so cute on her--because she is so cute! And has such a great body! Oh, to be young again.

Today I went to a shower for Ruthie Judson who is getting married Oct. 16. A very nice luncheon shower hosted by her future mother-in-law and sister-in-law at the Guenther House (on the grounds of Pioneer Flour Mills--across the street from Blue Star). I guess there were about 25 people there. I gave Ruthie little sushie plates that I made for the occassion. They seemed to be appreciated.

On pecking orders...

I took a picture of our better-off-than-before hen; the one who had been so badly henpecked as to look pitiful. Unfortunately, I do not know how to get photo from iphone to mzj blog. So you will have to wait until I learn. Trust me though, she is looking much better. Thank you, Bradford.

Sarah returns Monday from her two weeks (plus) holiday in Great Britain. Next time, I am going to keep her horse and put Peanut off on someone else. The horse stands alone all day; Peanut is underfoot all day. All Day. ALL DAY. He's a pretty good boy, but so very needy. And a barker.

This morning I stopped at the farmer's market and got the usual: lobster, corn on the cob, tomatoes. When I came home from North Berwick, I fully intended to prepare all of that, starting with some aiolii, which Emily lauds at length. And because I was out of plain old Hellman's. But the hand-made version from Deborah Madison calls for egg yoke at room temperature. So while waiting for my refrigerated egg to warm up, I ate an entire (small!) jar of pickled herring. So now I am not hungry. So probably the aiolii won't get made tonight.

But tomorrow is another day...

A life well lived

I bring sad news today so that the MZJ family knows that some of us lost an important person in our lives.

Our 96 year old grandfather, Forrest Underwood, died at home in Midland, Texas on September 23. Forrest was Margaret and Claire's grandmother's second husband. Even though we weren't blood relations, as he said to us many times, "we couldn't be closer or love one another more if we had been."

I spoke with my sisters this morning and both are grieving the loss. He was one of our favorite people--intellect sharp to the end, a loving and responsible husband, father and grandfather, and a man we each admired greatly.

We are grateful for all the wisdom and love he shared with us over the years.

Day 1

... just because this email is called "day 1", don't think that you're going to get emails every day.... :)

Clara and I have having cold ones on the little balcony of our hotel. What else is there to say?

Slept in this morning -- way in. That was after having claimed, in a previous email, to have arrived well-rested. I guess there was more work to do. The good sleep testifies also to a decent hotel. Cool temp, comfy enough enough mattress, and -- once we put the bug net in place -- no bugs.

Today was surprisingly productive. Surprisingly because I was sort of avoiding having a first day be a productive day. I didn't want to hit the ground running, I wanted to wander around first. But: it's a busy city, it's a little bit warm in the middle of the day, and pretty soon moving around without a mission felt, well, unproductive. Anyway, we got a bank account and a phone number and an appointment with a real estate agent to look for a house tomorrow am. Sheesh. And completely by surprise we were tracked down by Clara's future colleague, the Technical Director of the Burundi Film Center, Papy. He found us at the hotel to invite us to a screening tonight of the first five short films produced by the center. Nice!

Back to the beers!

"and they're off"

That's a reference to our visit to the best (tied for first?) fair in Maine a couple weeks ago, where some of us bet on horses for the first time and all of us learned, for the first time I think, what a "2-4-6 quinella box" is. That was at the Windsor county fair, which we all liked, and might only be bested by the Common Ground Fair since the Common Ground Fair is all organic and green and stuff. But it's a close one. Anyway, it was a really nice time. And we won $7!

It's also a reference to the fact that Clara and I are at the airport headed to Burundi. It was a really nice few weeks at home, wagers and all. I spent a lot of the time working, so I wasn't always very present, but actually I liked it that way: it gave a reason to hang around a lot longer than I have in a long time. And more time means more great eggs in the morning (thanks, Mom!) more great martinis in the evening (thanks Dad!) and an all-around great time!

So Clara and I are going to spent the next day on airplanes and then move ourselves into a hotel in Bujumbura. I'm wicked excited. I feel like I've only recently started following the news there, a symptom of my one-move-ahead mentality, something that makes me think I either need to stop moving around so much or change my mentality. (Side note: but isn't moving around what is supposed to help change mentality? TBD.)