Solar Cooking

We are the proud new owners of a solar oven!  

And we have really enjoyed putting it to use since purchasing it last week.  So far we've made rice, tortilla soup, roasted eggplants for babaganoush (dip), roasted garlic, roasted zucchini and tomatoes which we then used to make a yummy quiche (also cooked in the solar oven), hard-boiled eggs (no water required), lentil stew, granola and even a trial of banana chips...and that's only after 4 days use!!

Honestly, it's amazing what one can do by harnessing the sun's rays.  And here there is definitely one thing we've not shortage of this time of year -- SunShine!

What makes this even sweeter is that our oven is locally made by Tchadians at Promosol, the center for the promotion of solar energy founded and run here in Tchad.  Check out the link above for more info regarding this neat project.

Promosol solar box cookers
(ours looks just like this)

We've yet to take a picture of our oven in action, but we do have a few pics from tonight's solar cooked meal:

Zucchini & Tomato Quiche

Banana chips
(we borrowed drying racks from an electric food dehydrator)

"Hard-boiled" eggs & roasted eggplant

Soon we will try baking bread and other yummy goodies...will keep you posted on our solar cooking adventures.

What? The sun cooked that?

Enjoying dolphin earrings
a gift from a sweet friend in France

Soaking up the sun...
DDG&S

Road Trip South

We are EXCITED to report that our vehicle made it safely to Tchad!!  Thanks to ALL who contributed prayers, finances, encouragement and counsel.  And what better way to celebrate a new vehicle than to take a ROAD TRIP...

Last week we loaded up and headed south along with our area director and wife for a whirlwind tour of southern Tchad:

Hitting the dusty trail
(actually this is the MAIN highway for part of the trip)

Roadside houses in a village

The rains have ended and harvest time has begun.  The fields were full of hardworking men, women, boys & girls...

Harvesting rice

Letting the crop dry in the field

Cleaning, drying grain

Storing grain

More stored grain

All these photos were snapped through the car window as we passed through various villages -- the scene generally the same in each village with mud brick huts lining the road and villagers busy with their harvest.

But fields and huts weren't the only interesting sights...

Common to see vehicle with heavy loads zoom by...

or herds of cattle, sheep and goats mozey-ing along...

and the occasional group of ducks...

or pigs savoring the last of the mud holes...

which at times were literally in the middle of the road!

And again, we are VERY thankful for a reliable, durable, powerful 4WD vehicle!!

Our little travelers were troopers and stayed content (for the most part)...

looking at books...

napping...

peek-a-booing...

napping some more...

looking at toys...

stretching his legs...
yep, he is standing all on his own!!
(for about 4 seconds)

Picnicking under some mango trees

G is becoming quite the climber

During the course of our 6 day journey, we covered 1200 KMs, overnighted in 3 different towns, visited 5 different stations, and toured a hospital and a nursing school!!  We were very glad to have wonderful tour guides and generous hosts (don't have pics of all of them) who housed, fed and watered us along the way.

Here are a few final pics for you to enjoy...

picking lemons

playing on a "playground" from the former TEAM boarding school

snuggles before bed

G saw some new African critters
(this is a type of millipede)

One evening we went alongside the river to watch the sunset...

God's beautiful creation...
how refreshing

Sweet lil G

 What a wonderful, refreshing road trip it was!