Equatorial Tobogganing

Saturday, November 2


Slicing off the leaf...

"We used to slide down hills in those things when I was a kid," Esther, my friend from the baby house, explained. We paused, standing over a huge palm leaf that had been shed from a tree outside the guesthouse the previous night, and looked down at the great husk attached. I had seen kids riding in these things before...

The remaining husk (where the leaf had been attached to the tree)
becomes "the boat" for sledding.

Elijah, the gardener, came and sliced the husk from the rest of the leaf using his loooong work knife. Then we carried the piece--nicknamed "the boat"--like a thick, green, rolled up mat over to a grassy slope. And the rest was easy!

My first sledding experience at the equator!

After lunchtime, when the kids were napping, I remained at the Baby House to spend the afternoon making friendship bracelets with the caregivers. Esther and I sat on the floor working on ours for nearly two hours!

Lastly, to cap the day off, I returned to the guest house where Alyssa and I finally enjoyed the "jungle slushies" we've been planning on making. Ingredients: frozen tropical juice boxes + one Swiss Army knife.







Success!

Up until then Alyssa had been mentioning nearly every day how good a slushie would be. (And I thought my cravings for Tim Hortons had been bad!) But I have to agree: at the time they seemed to be about the best slushies I'd ever tasted.

So now that we've hit upon a good substitute for Canadian slushies in Uganda, now the trouble will be finding a substitute for the jungle slushies in Canada. After all, where at home will I find the ingredients for the new delicacy I discovered today of jackfruit pieces filled with guava ice?