Almost the best weekend ever, but not quite there by a really long shot

YO

So I am trying to make it a habit of updating this blog every Sunday (East Africa Time). We'll see how long I will actually be actively working on this blog.

Lately, it has been pouring cats and kittens, 24/7 with some days having endless rain.  I did not know so much water can be stored in the atmosphere all at once in one location, perhaps since I am so used to living in one of the driest places on earth.  In all of the 24 years that I have been alive, I have never been exposed to as much rain as these past few weeks.  Some days I could not even leave my house because the rain was pouring heavily, literally a torrential downpour.  But all of this rain is also a blessing, my garden to flourish tremendously.  My papaya trees are almost as tall as me now (not that great of a feat) and one of them is even flowering.  Papaya coming soon to a table near me.

For some reason, even with the rainy season, the daily catches have gotten better.  In the market this week, I was able to find a fine specimen of Istiophorus platypterus (Sailfish).  I would have estimated it to be about 2.5 meters SL.  It made for a scrumptious curry sauteed lunch.  Gymnothorax favagineus (Laced moray eel) makes a good deep fried dish after an afternoon of marinating with salt, pepper, and lemongrass.  On Friday and today, I was able to procure a decent amount of Fenneropenaeus indicus (Indian white prawn).  I don't think I am able to show you the excitement that I have been experiencing this whole weekend on this blog.  For a while, I have been craving some Canh Chua and Bún Riêu, 2 of my most favorite Vietnamese dishes.  To make these dishes, one would need to use some sort of crustacean as a base for the stock.  Seeing as how crabs, prawns and lobsters are no where to be found these past few months, I was left with no choice but to suffer the craving, but no more am I afflicted with such wantings.  This weekend I have successfully crossed these 2 dishes off my list of cravings.

Here are some pictures of the homemade Bún Riêu I was able to make by scavenging together all the essential ingredients in my village.

I just threw in some ukwaju (tamarind), bilimbi (Averrhoa bilimbi a fruit similar to starfruit), some matungule (tomato), chumvi (salt), pili pili manga (black pepper), kitunguu saumu (garlic), fish sauce, some for the F. indicus, and some loving (MSG) for the stock.  For the riêu (crab/prawn cake), I used a lot of prawns, some pili pili manga, kitunguu saumu, 2 mayai (eggs) (although I should have used 3 or 4 instead, to give it a more appealing coloration), fish sauce, chumvi, and some loving, all in a blender.  For the bún, I would like to thank my friends Andy and Khuyen for supplying me with some sweet and tender rice noodles.  Overall, it made for a great Sunday brunch.  Next up on my list of cravings is ramen albeit without the pork . . .

Today, having too much time on my hand, I was able to transfer one of my batches of wine into another bucket to age.  This batch has been fermenting for a while now, I hope that it has not gone bad.

O yea here are some pictures of my little cheetah

Until next time.
Peace

Master of the Choir and Games

So much for keeping up with my blog.  It has been a decade and forever since I have written or given a thought about this blog.  Well okay, more like a while and a half.  I guess I have been keeping myself pretty occupied these past few months, juggling between teaching, friends, amongst other random things.  Well let's start with the most recent event that I attended.

Today, Duma, my cat, met his mother for the first time in 5 months.  He was also able to meet his younger siblings.  I found out that cats are very territorial, Duma was hissing intensely at his mother and siblings.  His siblings are the cutest thing ever, they were so tiny that they looked more rodent-like than feline.  From my estimate, they could be no more than 2 or 3 weeks.  If only I had more space-time, I would have adopted another kitten (I really need to invent a machine that can bend the very fabric of space-time, so I can have more time and space.)  

This weekend has be quite a trip literally, with the slight renovation of my house and a choir competition.  On Saturday, I took a group of girls from my school to visit another school in the area to compete in a singing competition.  I did not expect much before arriving to this competition.  In my mind this was just going to be a small get together between my school and the other school, but boy was I wrong.  This was a full blown competition of the arts, with many participating school.  There were plays being enacted (which my school did not participate, I found this to be quite interesting.), poems recited, and songs sung.  Each competition was divided into 2 groups, the Primary school and the Secondary school.  Even with the drizzling rain that have been plaguing our island, there were still plenty of folks that came out to participate in the festivity.  All in all, I would have to say that I was quite impressed with the level of skills that these students exhibited.  I do not think that I have as much as 1/1,000,000th of the skills that they possess.  

Here is a 10 minutes clip of the performance that my girls performed splendidly

(I am actually the teacher that is in charge of the choir and games).  My girls won the competition this time around, and we were invited to another competition in June.  In related news, my boys have also won their football (soccer) match against another school some weeks ago, but they will not be attending in the next round of the competition.  They played valiantly even when the field was muddy and slippery from the torrential rain.  Like I say, I only train winners.

Before leaving for the competition, I was starting the process of renovating my house.  I started with knocking down the rotting ceiling sections in my kitchen with the help of my neighbor and the friendly neighborhood all around handyman.  Midway through the job, I had to leave them to finish the renovating of my roof, which was leaking and falling apart due to the plaguing rain that has been tearing the island apart.  Next week I have plans to extend the cement counter in my kitchen.  My kitchen supplies and utensil has grown dramatically since I first arrived here, and the short counter that I have proved to be somewhat lacking.  With the extension in mind, I decided to go into town to go on what turned out to be a shopping spree of kitchen supplies and utensil . . .  All in all, this weekend has proved to be surprisingly interesting, and it got even more awesome when my neighbor surprised me with some prawn soup for dinner.  I think I have the best neighbor ever.

O yea, recently I have found out that one of the villagers is trying to breed peafowls (bata mzinga in Kiswahili) in my village.  Hopefully by next Thanksgiving, there will be enough of them that he is willing to let one go (they do look like turkey).  I also would not mind trying some peafowl egg.

I have also been reading a lot.  For all of you who know me, I do not read a lot of fictional book for recreational purposes.  Since I have received a Nook in a care package, I have been reading everyday, and wow I just realized I have missed out on so many interesting books since I stopped reading for fun.  On a related note, A Feast for Crows is such a tedious book even though it is the shortest of all the A Song of Ice and Fire book.  If you have any recommendations for great books to read, please let me know.

And all of the sudden, I have forgotten all that I have done these past few months.  I seriously need to keep this blog updated more often, so as not to forget anymore details.

And thank you to everyone who have sent me care packages these past few months.  I few so loved and cared for.  You all have made my service much more memorable.  Thank you mom, dad, Diana and all of GDPT Ky Vien, Joey, Dan, Khuyen and Andy.  You are all super awesome.