The Root Family

First, happy birthday Stacy G. I was reading today's 2006 journal entry last night when I realized it was your birthday. The first time Facebook wasn't the one to remind me. I hope your day is as great as it was in Moz. But if you have ice cream, I hope that it tastes more like the delicious goodness that is American ice cream rather than the chilled foam we had in Africa.

July 10th,
"At Mungassa, we unloaded the bamboo poles from off the top of our Landrover and headed out down the trail to work on the new community center. When Jen, Jess, and Erik approached, we saw that all of the beams had been oiled and placed! We set to work pounding the dirt around the beams to compact it. Hard work! All of the natives were making fun of me! But I worked my hardest and can feel it now! When the dirt was compacted, we split bamboo. Splitting bamboo is one of the hardest things ever! We used machetes and sticks to split the bamboo poles. Again, the natives laughed. This time, though, they took over for us. We kept getting "fired". The skeleton of the community center went up very quickly.

"Shamusas are delicious! They are like triangle puff things. The outer edges remind me of Chinese chips. The filling inside of shamusas is a mix of like... rice... potato... onion... stuff. The are sooo good! Erik put ketchup on his, so I tried it with ketchup, too. It was such an interesting taste.
[Speaking of the orphanage in Dondo] "I sat next to Linda and held Jesse, one of the twin babies. Jesse and Gabriel are a year and 3 months, I believe. Baby Gabe loves to eat, but Jesse is very picky and hardly eats. Jesse was all smiles today! I brought him out in the yard and tried to get him to walk. He would take a few steps with support, but that's about it. I sat in front of him and had him walk (with support) to me. Every once in a while, I would let go and he would stand all by himself. The moment he realized he was standing on his own, I would laugh and he would squat down. After a few minutes, he grew tired of this and crawled back to his brother. I rolled a ball to them and Gabe would whack it clear across the yard! Those boys are precious!

***[Speaking of the baby orphanage] "So the orphanage... was a very intense experience... Eric asked if I wanted to go up and feed the little little babies. Jessica and I followed Eric up to the dining room where all the little children below the age of 12 months were. There were about 15 little babies - half in the "high chairs" lining 2 of the walls and half crawling or toddling around the room. Most of the little faces just lit up once we walked in. Jessica and I helped get the babies in the high chairs and the bibs on the babies. Bowls of mush were places out on the sill of the window from the kitchen... Jess and I each grabbed two bowls and sat in front of a few babies. One of the babies I was feeding took the spoon from me and fed himself, so I got another bowl of mush and scooted down. The babies I fed were both adorable. The one on my [right] was too precious. I wanted to take him home! He could not have been much more than nine or ten months old! Every time I would get a spoonful for him to swallow, he would smack his mouth open as far as it would go while squeezing his eyes shut. He was so determined to get as much food as he could with each bite! Once the food hit his tongue, he would open his big brown-black eyes and puff his cheeks while pursing his lips in a pucker! I wanted to take him home, feed him applesauce, and hold him forever! The one on my left was this little girl that just frowned and pouted. After several bites, she completely the mush and would not eat. She cried when I tried to spoon more into her mouth. It made me feel so bad because she made it seem painful.
*** "Nikki and Aaron made chicken alfredo. I think. If that is the white sauce pasta, then yes. Chicken alfredo. They even made garlic toast! The food was delicious after such a long day. Cake was brought out in honor of Stacy's birthday! There was ice cream, but the ice cream tasted more like chilled foam. Not the best thing in the world, but just about everything tastes good here!"