welcome to rainy season...and to the making of jam!

If you live in a pretty temperate climate, or somewhere that has four seasons, you may not have experienced "rainy season" for yourself. Depending on who you are, you can either hate rainy season, or love it. After all, 8 hours of rain most days of the week does have the potential to drive someone insane. Luckily for me, I find the rain both refreshing and relaxing, unless of course, there's somewhere I have to go. Anyway, I really appreciate how being forced indoors encourages one's creativity. Living here (with no access to cars, malls, movie theaters, and all those things you take for granted on a rainy day in America) is quite a challenge. It can also be a blessing.

This past weekend, after being driven indoors by the rain, Deke and I decided to make passion fruit jam. Passion fruit is relatively cheap here (even cheaper when the fruit is in season), and since we love passion fruit, we thought - why not passion fruit jam? 

I've taken much joy in documenting the things that happen in my life while living abroad, and so I wanted to share our little cooking adventure with you. Now, I have to warn you - we didn't really follow a recipe, so if you're the type that needs exact measurements, you should probably stop reading. But, if you do like some semblance of adventure in your life, and don't mind messing up for the sake of having fun and being creative, then I highly encourage you to make your own jam! It's easy, and great for a rainy day!

 The first step is to gather your ingredients and other necessary items. You will need: a LOT of fruit (in our case, a dozen passion fruits only yielded half a jar of jam), sugar, non-flavored gelatin, glass jars, a knife, some kind of mixing utensil, and a strainer (optional).

Next, wash your fruit, cut them, and proceed to extract all the yummy goodness out of them. Again, the amount of fruit we had did NOT yield much (this is what happens when you don't follow a recipe), and so you'll want to make sure you have enough fruit. Otherwise, you will end up with enough jam for two slices of toast, like we did. 

Then, set your pot of fruit on low heat. When it begins to boil, add some sugar. If you like your jam really sweet, or if the fruit you're using is more tart than normal, add more sugar. There's no shame in liking things sweet!

As the liquid is evaporating from your sugary fruit concoction, you can choose to use a strainer to separate the liquid from the seeds. Because passion fruit is basically 90% seed and 10% pulp, using a strainer really wasn't an option. A food processor would have been a better choice, but unfortunately, we didn't have access to one.

The last steps is to add gelatin to the mixture. Make sure most of the liquid has evaporated; otherwise, you will have to use more gelatin to achieve the solid-like nature of jam. Good indicators that you've added enough gelatin are 1) the viscosity of the mixture and 2) whether or not your concoction adheres to a spoon.

 

Finally, you can take this jamming experience (ha. ha.) up another notch and research home canning directions. Otherwise, after pouring everything into a jar, set it in the fridge, wait for the gelatin to make magic happen, and then enjoy the results of your hard work!

pictures make me happy

Random pictures from the past bring back happy memories. It's a good pick-me-up when life seems a little drab. 

Somewhere in Alaska

Camel Riding in Israel

Poas Volcano, Costa Rica

Fish Shocking at Eastern University, Pennsylvania

Val & Dan's Wedding, Ohio

Dad and crab, New Hampshire

Tiger Kingdom, Thailand

Somewhere in Beijing, China

Happy Earth Day!

Yesterday, April 22, was Earth Day. For as long as I can remember, we’d always celebrate Earth Day at school with field day events – projects, games, prizes – all of that good stuff. Unfortunately, since leaving high school, I haven’t really “celebrated” Earth Day. So, I decided that yesterday was finally the day (and year) to pick up the tradition.

In February, Deke got this cool Urban Growing Kit in the mail from one of his really good friends (thanks Randy!). It’s pretty awesome, since it basically has everything anyone would need to start a little garden. While vegetables aren’t very expensive here in Rwanda, we figured it would be a nice project to do just for the fun of it. And, the way I see it, growing your own foodstuff always trumps spending money at the markets! Not long after the package arrived, we got to work. Although it took a little decision making to select the seeds we wanted to begin with (the kit came with 25 different varieties), everything after that was really simple.

Yesterday, in honor of Earth Day, we decided to plant a few more seeds to add to our little urban garden. Soon, we’ll be reaping the fruits of our labor. Yep, pun intended.

I highly recommend the Growing Kit. You really can’t go wrong with it! Here’s a photo recap of our planting process:

 Open up the Urban Growing Kit to find 25 different kinds of seeds!

Add water to the "expanding seed starting pellets."

Choose your seeds while you wait for the seed starters to expand.

Add a few seeds, make sure they're covered with dirt.

Put the seed starters in some kind of container (in our case, soda cans and water bottles) and water them.

Wait for the seeds to grow!

follow your heart & intuition...

 ...everything else is secondary.

I spent last night watching another TED video. I guess I must be craving inspirational talks or something because I've watched quite a few over the past 3 days. Anyway, yesterday's video was a commencement speech given by Steve Jobs at Stanford for the Class of 2005. I was intrigued by this talk, not only because Steve Jobs was the speaker, but because of its title - "How to Live Life Before You Die."

Within the the first 2 minutes of the video, I realized that this was the kind of "speech" I needed to hear. Perhaps it's because I feel like I'm in a pretty crucial transitional period in my life, or perhaps I am realizing how quickly time flies by, or, perhaps it's because I've recently come across a once (okay, maybe twice) in a lifetime opportunity.

What resonated with me the most about this speech was the idea of finding what you love to do. While most of us can be idealistic and would agree with the importance of finding our "dream job", many of us have found ourselves in a work situation that we simply do not love, and give excuses for it. We find ourselves afraid to change careers, feel guilty for leaving our current job post because people are depending on us, or have become too content in our situations to change - these excuses are plentiful.

The advice given by Steve Jobs is to find what you love, because to be truly satisfied comes from believing that what you do is indeed great work. And, the only way to do great work is to love what you do. In a nutshell: don't settle. ever.

In the next few weeks I will know whether or not the aforementioned "once in a lifetime" position will be granted me. Whether or not I am selected, I will, at the very least, know that I was not afraid to pursue it.

Finally, words to live by from Steve Jobs: Follow your heart and intuition....everything else is secondary.

Simon Says

I recently watched a TED video from Simon Sinek, and wanted to share one of his quotes. It resonates with me pretty well, and so I hope it gives some inspiration for those of you out there. Here it is:

"If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears." (Simon Sinek)

goodbye, wrinkles!

A few weeks, ago, I decided it was finally time that I had something I could hang my clothes on. I had brought a bundle of hangers with me when I made the move to Rwanda, but didn't realize I wasn't going to have a closet to use them in. Well, purchasing one of those clothes racks on wheels was going to be impossible (even if I could find one here it would be way too expensive for me), and so I thought long and hard about what I could do. I pride myself in being pretty creative from time to time, and so it was about time I put my creativity to the test.

And then it hit me. From the time I moved into my apartment I noticed this random curtain box laying on the floor. It kept getting moved from one room to another, and because of its seemingly lack of purpose, no one claimed it for their own. I don't know what took me so long to realize that that curtain box had the potential to be the foundation for my new "closet," but the second the idea materialized, I got busy. All I needed was some string, a scrap piece of wood, a hammer and some nails. Fortunately for me, I found everything I needed lying around the house.

So, did you notice it in the first picture? If you missed it, just look at the picture below. Sure, it's not exactly the most conventional place for a curtain box, but at least now I have somewhere to hang my clothes - and the best part is, I did this all for free!

uganda take 2

I returned to Rwanda on Friday, exhausted, but satisfied, after having spent 7 wonderful days re-visiting the great country of Uganda.

Our trip began on a cold, Friday morning (5am to be exact) at the Nyabugogo bus park. From there, we boarded the bus that would eventually take us to Kampala, 10 hours later. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, except when a bird flew into the side mirror of the bus and died (coincidentally, we witnessed the death of yet another bird on the tail end of our trip, but those details don't need to be discussed). We arrived in Kampala around 3:00, checked into our guesthouse, and decided to stretch our legs a bit before our next 6 hour bus ride to Gulu. We walked on over to Silver Spurs, a restaurant with some pretty good comfort food to satisfy those cravings when you're a home away from home. What better way to get ready for the next leg of the trip than to fill your stomach with yummy goodness?

Anyway, traveling to Gulu was another early morning for us. We arrived at the Post Bus at 6am, waited one hour outside with tickets in hand before boarding at 7, and didn't actual depart until 8 (this, by the way, is pretty standard for public transportation here). Anyway, a few hours later we arrived in Gulu, the city I had been itching to get back to the moment I left. We checked into our guesthouse, and then immediately set off to go in search of old, familiar faces. I can't explain how strange it was to step foot into the Krochet Kids Compound, to feel like it was just another ordinary day going to work, but knowing that I was just there for a temporary visit. Well, upon entering the compound I was welcomed like I have never been welcomed before - hugs, kisses, traditional dancing and shouting, being hoisted and carried...I was even asked to sit on one of the lady's laps. A little strange, I know, but at the same time it was a little comforting. Needless to say, being back in Gulu made me miss it all the more.

After a few days in Gulu we traveled South to return to Kampala, which really, was just our transfer point in our journey before heading to Kabale to spend a few days at Lake Bunyonyi. We figured it would be pretty rewarding to actually have some time of rest instead of running around like crazy 24/7. Well, I've been told a lot of things about Bunyonyi: "it's a little gem," or, "it's a treasure," and even as far as, "it's paradise." Admittedly, I was skeptical, but after seeing Bunyonyi for myself, I have to say that all those are pretty accurate descriptions of this place.

Although I am already plotting my next return to Uganda, for now, I am content to be back in Rwanda and looking forward to staying put for the next few months. Even now, two days later, I am still recovering from the 35 hours of travel over the past 7 days. Unfortunately, if you want to travel cheap, you have to be willing to put in the time. Fortunately for me, every minute was completely worth it. I just need some rest before my next adventure!