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In a Pickle

David came home from a friend’s house last week telling me about how good their homemade pickles were. So I asked for the recipe. Sun Pickles, they are called. Hannah helped me drop the cucumbers into the huge mouth of the jar and add the vinegar to the pot to boil. She did some hammering on the lid with markers when we were done, so that will probably help some, too. My helper went with me to get the jar and the right kind of pickles; there is no “foreigner tax” when she bargains (white faces get higher prices). We had a good time exploring the market together.

6 dozen pickling cucumbers
1 onion chopped
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pickling spices *
1 dried red hot pepper, crushed
2-3 bunches fresh dill/ dill seed
1 qt vinegar
1 qt water
2/3 cup salt
2 T sugar

Loosely pack pickles into a wide-mouth, 2 gallon jug, add onion, garlic, pickling spices and dried red hot pepper. Top with a layer of fresh dill. Bring vinegar, water, salt and sugar to a boil in a sauce pan; pour over pickles. Seal with a lid; set in the sun for 2-3 days or up to a week. The longer the pickles remain in the sun, the stronger the taste. When desired taste is achieved, bring to room temperature and refrigerate (or the juice and pickles get cloudy if put straight from the sun to the refrigerator). Makes 2 gallons.

*Combine in a shaker and mix well:
2 T mustard seed
2 t all spice (cloes, cinnamon, nutmeg mixed in a 1:1:1ratio)
2 t black peppercorn
2 t dill seed/fresh dill
2 t coriander seed/ fresh cilantro
6 dried bay leaves, crumbled
2 1-1/2 inch whole dried red chilies, coarsely broken
(you may also substitute these for Ball pre-prepared pickling spices)

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House Helper Training

For the month of June and July we taught some friends to cook American recipes. We all had a great time laughing and trying new dishes. From tortillas to apple pie, from lasagna to biscuits, we had delicious meals and fun doing it. Even Hannah joined in, painting their toe nails like Auntie Em taught her.
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The view from our window


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Our windows look out upon the green courtyard.
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Children play out in the courtyard until 9 and 10 at night.
Swords, guns, firecrackers, handheld viedo games, bikes, yo-yos cris-cross the garden paths.
I took Joshua to the bike market last Saturday to buy bikes for the kids to ride in the courtyard. This process involves haggling, bluffing, calling managers, introducing middlemen, and leaving in disgust hoping to be called back.
When we began the bargaining Joshua was aghast. He became so upset that his face was red with our exchanges. I gently explained to him that this was all a "game" and that we would smile when it was all over and they would probably help us hail a taxi and get the bikes out to the street. Like when he plays soccer and he plays against the other team until the game is over and they are all friends on the playground. "THIS is a game?" he was incredulous.

Our New Furniture

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We had our furniture custom made. Beautiful, all of it.
But all of it but two pieces fit into our house.
Two of them had to be sawn up to get into the house!
No matter, drama over and pieces intact.
Only a few of the pieces are shown here while David and Joshua play Mille Borne.
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Our New Apartment!

So here is how it works.
You decide on the apartment you want after seeing three or a dozen.
Then you negotiate the price. Often the apartment is unfinished.
No kitchen, no bathrooms, no cabinets, no paint, etc.
However, the one we found, has all of these. We love it.
You haggle over the price for five or six hours through an interpreter and smoke.
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Then you pay for the full year up front. That is a stack!
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Now, what about some furniture?
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