Cooking comes naturally to some people. I'm not one of them. When we lived out in the jungle (where it is definitely a WOMAN's job to cook), people were often puzzled that Kent would help in the cookhouse. We skirted the impropriety by explaining that Kent studied Biochemistry. He was just doing chemistry!
As newlyweds, I was in the informal-learned-from-my-husband school of culinary arts. Lately, I do 90% of the cooking with trusted faithful recipes and we all can smile. But every now and again, Kent likes to get in the kitchen, make a big mess and experiment. Did I say 'likes'? No, he LOVES to experiment. It must nourish his inner chemist.
My Congolese friends keep reminding me how good I have it. I do love that Kent enjoys cooking. While he tells funny stories about disastrous culinary inventions in college, nearly poisoning his innocent roommates; he rarely makes anything we don't all eat with joy. I should have given him the credit entirely for adapting Recipe #1: Chocolate Nut Butter Brownies. It was his experimentation that drove us to find something better than we started with. And it is his experimentation I bring you today. The real trouble is that this is all in his head, and not written down. I will attempt to codify this genius:
Recipe #6: Banana Pancakes
This was adapted from Elaine Gottschall's Peanut Butter Pancakes in her book Breaking the Vicious Cycle. We like the sweetness of adding banana to them.
Ingredients:
1 cup natural peanut butter, creamy (or other nut butter - we just live in peanut-land)
2-3 Tbs. raw honey
8 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla essence, optional
3 ripe bananas, mashed or blended
This serves 4 people, we usually double this recipe and snack on leftovers.
We stick everything in the blender and fry small (4") pancakes on low-medium heat in oil or ghee. Because of the honey and banana, they will brown prematurely or burn if cooked on high heat. It means that you have to cook them a bit slower than 'normal' pancakes. If it is too thick you can thin it with water or your milk of choice.
These are not your white fluffy styrofoam McBreakfast pancakes, but they are so packed with protein that I can go hours without feeling hungry after eating just 3 small ones. We top them with aforementioned guava sauce, ghee, raw honey with mixed with water and maple flavoring, or fruit-only jam.
It's still not the same as our favorite granola, but they are grain-free.
Yummy healthiness!
This is the last of the week of SCD recipes to give you a feel for what we are eating, and what is helping all of us feel stronger and healthier. These and a few others have become family favorites that we will likely continue making even after we go 'off-diet' someday. James' birthday is coming up and almond banana cake with marshmallow frosting have been requested, flourless, sugar-free and grain-free. I'll post pictures!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Recipe #5: Mapera (Guava Sauce)
I spent most of this weekend in bed with a colossal headache, trying to figure out if I should be taking malaria drugs or antibiotics for a sinus infection. Thankfully, I chose the latter and am finally surviving without high doses of Tylenol. So today I am kind of copping out on the recipe run... I don't know that fruit cooked with honey can officially be called a recipe...
But it's tasty stuff! We use guavas because we have a whole tree full of them in the backyard, but any fruit would work really. We've also tried pineapple. Pretty much ends up tasting like canned Dole Tidbits. We love this with mangoes!! Mango sauce is the only way I like them. Yum! Too bad mango season isn't here until December. Boo!
Recipe #5: Mapera (Guava Sauce)
Btw, this one does not come from a fabulous cooking blog. We just made it up.
1-2 gallons fruit (20-30 guavas in our case), washed and halved
2 cups filtered water
1 cup raw honey
1 Tbs. cinnamon
Wash and half all fruit into stock pot. Add water and simmer until soft. Run through an applesauce mill or food grinder if needed. Add honey and cinnamon. Put it piping hot into glass jars and hope they seal. Stick them in the fridge anyway just in case. (For me anyway. You have access to 'real' canning supplies, so you're probably good to leave them on the pantry shelf a while.) Serve cold over cakes, in yogurt, on toast, on fried fish, on pancakes, etc. Ooh pancakes! Tomorrow!
I'm so distractable at this late hour of 8:15pm... If you want to be distracted with me today: This makes me think, which kind of hurts. But then I read this and pray. Finally, this makes me rejoice.
But it's tasty stuff! We use guavas because we have a whole tree full of them in the backyard, but any fruit would work really. We've also tried pineapple. Pretty much ends up tasting like canned Dole Tidbits. We love this with mangoes!! Mango sauce is the only way I like them. Yum! Too bad mango season isn't here until December. Boo!
Recipe #5: Mapera (Guava Sauce)
Btw, this one does not come from a fabulous cooking blog. We just made it up.
1-2 gallons fruit (20-30 guavas in our case), washed and halved
2 cups filtered water
1 cup raw honey
1 Tbs. cinnamon
Wash and half all fruit into stock pot. Add water and simmer until soft. Run through an applesauce mill or food grinder if needed. Add honey and cinnamon. Put it piping hot into glass jars and hope they seal. Stick them in the fridge anyway just in case. (For me anyway. You have access to 'real' canning supplies, so you're probably good to leave them on the pantry shelf a while.) Serve cold over cakes, in yogurt, on toast, on fried fish, on pancakes, etc. Ooh pancakes! Tomorrow!
I'm so distractable at this late hour of 8:15pm... If you want to be distracted with me today: This makes me think, which kind of hurts. But then I read this and pray. Finally, this makes me rejoice.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Recipe #4: Coconut Ice Cream
For those of you living in the land of grocery stores... this is a bit unnecessary. There are some beautiful coconut ice cream options made in Oregon by Coconut Bliss or So Delicious/Purely Decadent. If you can't afford them, can't find them, need to go sugar-free like us or are just one of those DIY foodies...
Our family tradition (at least overseas) is to make some form of 'ice cream' (stainless steel bowl full of something) in the freezer on Sat. and have it with snack foods for dinner and a movie Sunday nights. When starting this dairy-free, everything-free diet, my first two concerns were how will we do pizza night and what about 'ice cream'?!
I tried mashed white bean - honey ice cream. Blech. Then mashed fruit sorbet. Ok. But I LOVE coconut milk, so I was thrilled to find:
Recipe #4: Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Inspired by this tasty goodness over at Elana's Pantry, but for some reason James couldn't get into Coconut milk on its own without some fruit, and we usually forgo the raw eggs.
Ingredients: (I double this for our family)
1 can coconut milk
1 large (or 2 small) ripe bananas
1/4 cup raw honey
1 Tbs. vanilla essence
dash sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon, optional
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (we use Enjoy Life dairy-free mini chips)
Blend bananas, honey, vanilla, and salt in the blender and then add the coconut milk later until no banana chunks remain. I add half the chocolate chips in the blender for a pulse or two just to chop some of them. Then I dump the whole thing in my metal freezer bowl. Two - four hours later I try to remember to come back and add the second half of the chips when things are mostly frozen. We don't have an ice cream maker, so it can freeze very solid. Good to leave on the counter for 10 minutes or more before breaking your ice cream scoop... So yummy!!
I have added mango sauce before and it was very good. Haven't yet tried warm jams or dried fruits... I hope soon to try adding cocoa powder and or peppermint extract... YUM!
It's never too late in the year for ice cream. I know I can't talk because I live in the tropics. But you can pair this with a warm ginger molasses cookie... a pumpkin spice latte... a piece of mocha coffee cake... I better stop before drooling on my keyboard.
Our family tradition (at least overseas) is to make some form of 'ice cream' (stainless steel bowl full of something) in the freezer on Sat. and have it with snack foods for dinner and a movie Sunday nights. When starting this dairy-free, everything-free diet, my first two concerns were how will we do pizza night and what about 'ice cream'?!
I tried mashed white bean - honey ice cream. Blech. Then mashed fruit sorbet. Ok. But I LOVE coconut milk, so I was thrilled to find:
Recipe #4: Coconut Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Inspired by this tasty goodness over at Elana's Pantry, but for some reason James couldn't get into Coconut milk on its own without some fruit, and we usually forgo the raw eggs.
Ingredients: (I double this for our family)
1 can coconut milk
1 large (or 2 small) ripe bananas
1/4 cup raw honey
1 Tbs. vanilla essence
dash sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon, optional
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (we use Enjoy Life dairy-free mini chips)
Blend bananas, honey, vanilla, and salt in the blender and then add the coconut milk later until no banana chunks remain. I add half the chocolate chips in the blender for a pulse or two just to chop some of them. Then I dump the whole thing in my metal freezer bowl. Two - four hours later I try to remember to come back and add the second half of the chips when things are mostly frozen. We don't have an ice cream maker, so it can freeze very solid. Good to leave on the counter for 10 minutes or more before breaking your ice cream scoop... So yummy!!
I have added mango sauce before and it was very good. Haven't yet tried warm jams or dried fruits... I hope soon to try adding cocoa powder and or peppermint extract... YUM!
It's never too late in the year for ice cream. I know I can't talk because I live in the tropics. But you can pair this with a warm ginger molasses cookie... a pumpkin spice latte... a piece of mocha coffee cake... I better stop before drooling on my keyboard.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Recipe # 3: Flax Bread
Okay, so after 3 months without bread or grains, this bread tastes like dessert to us! We slather it with imported blackberry fruit-only jam. Joel likes it with honey or guava sauce poured over or sandwiched between. But they Joel likes most things, including baked perch topped with guava sauce. He says he's preparing to become a chef. I digress...
I found this recipe over at Adrienne's blog: Whole.New.Mom. She has her family on a similar diet for similar reasons, and has some great recipes! She says her family likes this bread with bean dip or hummus. Yum! We changed it up a bit and have not perfected it quite yet for our own use. The recipe makes a spongey thick 9 x 13 focaccia that would probably be better in two 9" squares or 3-4 loaf pans.
The flax seed meal will lose most of its beneficial properties within 3 days of grinding, so keep refrigerated if you have extra, or bought it as 'meal'. The less expensive option is to buy the seeds in bulk (either color) and grind them yourself! My blender can do this on high speed for about 1 min. per cup. To get the 2 cups of flax seed meal needed here, you'll want to grind just more than 1 3/4 cups of seeds.
I suppose we could call it fabulous flourless flax focaccia, but that's over the top. Hope you like this tasty way to get your Omega-3 oils!
Recipe #3: Flax Focaccia Bread
2 cups flax seed meal
1/2 cup almond flour*
2 Tbs. coconut flour*
1 Tbs. aluminum-free baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
2 Tbs. raw honey
5 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup water*
1/3 cup oil
Preheat oven to 375. Grease your pans (see note above). Whisk together dry ingredients (*we added almond and coconut flour last week in an attempt to decrease the cake-like texture and really liked it! We added a bit more water than the original 1/2 cup to compensate, fyi. They are optional.) Mix in wet ingredients until fully incorporated (no egg strings!). Now the strangest part: Turn off the mixer and leave the batter alone. It needs to sit and congeal for 2-3 minutes. It will start out looking watery and will soon spread like soft butter. Odd, huh? Spread it in your greased pan. Bake for 18 min. or until it springs back. Let cool. Cut in whatever shape you like!
It is a beautiful rich dark brown color. The opposite of white bread! Seriously! We've used a thin version for pizza crusts, we've made mini-sandwiches, we've smeared it with honey like a cornbread. It's still a bit egg-ey to my taste, but we'll keep changing it... There's 'our bread' for now!
I found this recipe over at Adrienne's blog: Whole.New.Mom. She has her family on a similar diet for similar reasons, and has some great recipes! She says her family likes this bread with bean dip or hummus. Yum! We changed it up a bit and have not perfected it quite yet for our own use. The recipe makes a spongey thick 9 x 13 focaccia that would probably be better in two 9" squares or 3-4 loaf pans.
The flax seed meal will lose most of its beneficial properties within 3 days of grinding, so keep refrigerated if you have extra, or bought it as 'meal'. The less expensive option is to buy the seeds in bulk (either color) and grind them yourself! My blender can do this on high speed for about 1 min. per cup. To get the 2 cups of flax seed meal needed here, you'll want to grind just more than 1 3/4 cups of seeds.
I suppose we could call it fabulous flourless flax focaccia, but that's over the top. Hope you like this tasty way to get your Omega-3 oils!
Recipe #3: Flax Focaccia Bread
2 cups flax seed meal
1/2 cup almond flour*
2 Tbs. coconut flour*
1 Tbs. aluminum-free baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
2 Tbs. raw honey
5 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup water*
1/3 cup oil
Preheat oven to 375. Grease your pans (see note above). Whisk together dry ingredients (*we added almond and coconut flour last week in an attempt to decrease the cake-like texture and really liked it! We added a bit more water than the original 1/2 cup to compensate, fyi. They are optional.) Mix in wet ingredients until fully incorporated (no egg strings!). Now the strangest part: Turn off the mixer and leave the batter alone. It needs to sit and congeal for 2-3 minutes. It will start out looking watery and will soon spread like soft butter. Odd, huh? Spread it in your greased pan. Bake for 18 min. or until it springs back. Let cool. Cut in whatever shape you like!
It is a beautiful rich dark brown color. The opposite of white bread! Seriously! We've used a thin version for pizza crusts, we've made mini-sandwiches, we've smeared it with honey like a cornbread. It's still a bit egg-ey to my taste, but we'll keep changing it... There's 'our bread' for now!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Recipe #2: 5-minute Chocolate Pudding
Originally inspired and adjusted from Alex's Raw Chocolate Pudding recipe on allrecipes.com.
5-minute Chocolate Pudding
(see Banana Pudding option below**)
Ingredients:
1 large avocado (or 2 small ones), yes you read that right
1 ripe banana
1 cup coconut milk (or other milk)
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1/2 c. honey (or other sugar if you must)
2 tsp. vanilla essence
dash sea salt
tiny dash stevia powder, optional*
*I started adding the stevia because I don't enjoy the sweetness of chocolate when made only with honey. The stevia, imho, gives it a little extra something that is better for cocoa than honey alone. I have a fruit-chocolate taboo, but I'm getting over it.
**If you want to avoid chocolate or cocoa for some reason, it is possible to make it Banana Pudding, in which case I recommend omitting cocoa and stevia and adding some cinnamon and/or nutmeg.
Put everything in the blender. And blend. Really, that's it. Pour into 3-4 cups and refrigerate 30 minutes.
Or just eat it out of the blender... your call.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Recipe #1: Nut Butter Brownies
Disclaimer: If you and yours eat a high-sugar diet (high-fructose corn syrup, cane juice, sugar, sucrose, maltose, etc. all count!) then these brownies may not seem 'sweet enough' for you. To us, they are delectable! Enjoy a whole foods treat!
RECIPE #1: Peanut Butter Brownies
This was adapted from Elaine Gottschall's original recipe published in her book 'Breaking the Vicious Cycle'. The original recipe is also found on the SCD website with a photo here.
Ingredients:
1 c. cocoa powder
2 tsp. sea salt
3 c. natural peanut butter (other nut butters would work too)
8 eggs, beaten
2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 c. honey (we use raw)
2 Tbs. ghee (melted butter or oil would work too)
1 1/2 tsp. aluminum-free baking soda
1 c. chocolate chips, optional (we use Enjoy Life dairy-free mini chips)
Preheat the oven to 300 (it's best baked slowly, you could try 250 even). Grease a large 9 x 13" or 2 square pans (we use ghee).
Combine cocoa powder and salt and set aside. Blend wet ingredients well in a mixer (or high-capacity blender like a Vita-Mix, just be gradual with the peanut butter). Add dry ingredients gradually. Add baking soda last (then chocolate chips if you like). Batter will be thick like most banana bread recipes.
Spoon batter into greased pan(s) and spread evenly. Bake 'low and slow'. The batter will 'puff' quite high and then fall in the center. Bake about 1 hour for chewy cakey brownies. Bake less if you like them gooey (until the 'jiggle' is gone in the center). Maybe 40 minutes, depending on your oven.
The added mashed bananas add sweetness and gooey-ness, which we like. You can skip them, but it won't seem very sweet and you might need a bit of extra sweetener. Sometimes we have used 2 drops of stevia powder for this.
If you are into a really cakey brownie, you could replace 1 c. peanut butter with some almond flour and coconut flour. But if you go to all that trouble, you should just try THIS over at my favorite sweet-tooth blog 'Gluten Free Fix'. Michelle is a professionally-trained pastry chef, now Mommy blogger, and fabulous SCD foodie.
RECIPE #1: Peanut Butter Brownies
This was adapted from Elaine Gottschall's original recipe published in her book 'Breaking the Vicious Cycle'. The original recipe is also found on the SCD website with a photo here.
Ingredients:
1 c. cocoa powder
2 tsp. sea salt
3 c. natural peanut butter (other nut butters would work too)
8 eggs, beaten
2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/4 c. honey (we use raw)
2 Tbs. ghee (melted butter or oil would work too)
1 1/2 tsp. aluminum-free baking soda
1 c. chocolate chips, optional (we use Enjoy Life dairy-free mini chips)
Preheat the oven to 300 (it's best baked slowly, you could try 250 even). Grease a large 9 x 13" or 2 square pans (we use ghee).
Combine cocoa powder and salt and set aside. Blend wet ingredients well in a mixer (or high-capacity blender like a Vita-Mix, just be gradual with the peanut butter). Add dry ingredients gradually. Add baking soda last (then chocolate chips if you like). Batter will be thick like most banana bread recipes.
Spoon batter into greased pan(s) and spread evenly. Bake 'low and slow'. The batter will 'puff' quite high and then fall in the center. Bake about 1 hour for chewy cakey brownies. Bake less if you like them gooey (until the 'jiggle' is gone in the center). Maybe 40 minutes, depending on your oven.
The added mashed bananas add sweetness and gooey-ness, which we like. You can skip them, but it won't seem very sweet and you might need a bit of extra sweetener. Sometimes we have used 2 drops of stevia powder for this.
If you are into a really cakey brownie, you could replace 1 c. peanut butter with some almond flour and coconut flour. But if you go to all that trouble, you should just try THIS over at my favorite sweet-tooth blog 'Gluten Free Fix'. Michelle is a professionally-trained pastry chef, now Mommy blogger, and fabulous SCD foodie.
What NOT to Eat
It is weird.
Yes, I'll admit it, 'the diet' our family is on is weird.
I sometimes feel like I am constantly explaining.
Yes, I'll admit it, 'the diet' our family is on is weird.
I sometimes feel like I am constantly explaining.
What can you eat? You really don't eat rice?
Are you sure you don't want a cookie?
So we tried new things! We learned new recipes. Don't worry, we still eat brownies with the rest of them. They are just made without flour or sugar. We finally know what NOT to eat: No flour. No sugar. No grains. No potatoes. No noodles. No rice. If you or someone you love wants to invest time (realistically 1-2 years or more) to eat toward a stronger immune system, check out GAPS and SCD!
So what do we eat?? Over the next few posts I invite you to try a new recipe, if you're into that kind of thing, and 'eat along with us'! For the next 6 days I will post one recipe from this diet that we have come to love and have made recently. And who knows? Without all that flour and sugar, you might enjoy guilt-free seconds on brownies!
Are you sure you don't want a cookie?
Wow, that diet seems hard!
Aren't most truly good things also hard? Trying an 'autism' diet wasn't a big deal to me as someone who has altered her food for years to avoid allergic reactions. We also travel around the world for a living, which would be miserable if we only liked Cocoa Puffs or Wheat Thins. We're accustomed to eating foreign foods and other 'weird things'.So we tried new things! We learned new recipes. Don't worry, we still eat brownies with the rest of them. They are just made without flour or sugar. We finally know what NOT to eat: No flour. No sugar. No grains. No potatoes. No noodles. No rice. If you or someone you love wants to invest time (realistically 1-2 years or more) to eat toward a stronger immune system, check out GAPS and SCD!
Here is more background about our choices, and some links if you actually want more information or need help getting to sleep in the middle of the night...
So what do we eat?? Over the next few posts I invite you to try a new recipe, if you're into that kind of thing, and 'eat along with us'! For the next 6 days I will post one recipe from this diet that we have come to love and have made recently. And who knows? Without all that flour and sugar, you might enjoy guilt-free seconds on brownies!
Monday, September 26, 2011
The OT Journey: Parting of the Waters
As some of you may remember, we learned of James' need for an OT (Occupational Therapist) about 2 weeks before leaving the US. That was simply not enough time to get in to see one. We returned to Africa in faith that we would find the Sensory Assessment we needed somehow somewhere. We tried working with two different OT's by Email long-distance in July. Neither one could help us.
We planned extra time in Kampala, Uganda last month to search one out. We went to town armed with 4 possible contacts. One by one they fell through: out of town, not an OT but a PT, on vacation, etc. I had one last lead in Nairobi an hour's flight away, but really hesitated to spend a lot of money chasing a lead that might fall through like the others. If Nairobi fell through, South Africa or Europe were our next options.
Now begins the long list of the ways God provided for James and I on this trip, miracle upon miracle to the point that I felt like Moses must have felt standing in the Red Sea watching walls of water stand up straight in the sky:
--This popular Belgian OT had exactly the experience, training and recommendations we needed, but was 'hard to get in to see'... She answered the phone the first time, took time to talk with me, Emailed me right away some forms to fill out (even though she was traveling to another country the next day), introduced me to her 'Autism Team' who arranged all our appointments for us, set up an appointment with her one week away, and her associates even did some shopping for snacks that were on James' diet! (Thank you Karolien and Trixie!!) Like I said, walls of water.
--With the encouragement I had from the Emails, my conscience said to go ahead and plan this trip to Kenya. We would need a place to stay, and had heard of a new guesthouse on our office compound. I wrote and it was booked already for the two nights we needed. The same day I got a second Email saying that the previous guests were actually leaving the day we would arrive and someone else was coming in the day we would leave. It was available to us for the two nights we needed. Exactly. I couldn't have even planned that. Walls of water.
--I knew we should book it, Kent gave me the green light, but the cost was prohibitive to buy two plane tickets at the last minute. We usually fly this back and forth to Congo. And now we were flying in this! (You would have to chuckle with me at James in the window seat eating his mixed nuts like a king!) We asked our team to pray for provision of costs. Immediately someone wrote who felt led to cover the entire cost. Walls. of. water.
--So off James and I went up to 35,000 feet. Kent always handles the money side of life. My plan was to arrive and get Kenyan shillings from an ATM. I forgot contingency cash and it wasn't until we started the descent that I realized I had no way to pay for our visas to get into the country. They have to be paid in Euros or Dollars. I had neither. Yes, God can provide for my stupidity. James and I prayed right then and there that God would make a way. Upon arrival I noted the airport has changed a lot in the past 3 years. There were ATM machines everywhere! I got one to work for me right in the concourse and walked up to the nicest immigration official I have ever met. She let me pay in shillings! AND charged me $20 instead of $50 because we would only be there 48 hours. Dry path through the reef.
--The night before our flight, we got out passports and realized that mine only had one page left. Doh! The tourist and transit visas take up one page each! It was the weekend, and no embassy was open anywhere. We looked up the consular officer online and called the emergency number. She was very kind and said if I could get into Kenya Monday morning, they could install new pages in 15 minutes while we waited Monday afternoon! It is a little nerve-wracking to know you can almost get into a country, but won't be able to get out until something is fixed. The one page I had left, did have a small corner date stamp, so I would have to beg that they work around it and not cover it up... The exit guy from Uganda snuck in his stamp on a busy page just because he was nice. He didn't have to! And the entry into Kenya lady was a saint who stuck her sticker right on the edge and had to wrap on edge over the other side. Why do I worry?? Our office team in Nairobi were waiting for us to arrive, praying all would work out for the extra passport pages. They are awesome! We love you RBS! As we drove off in one direction to our first of three appointments, they drove off in the other direction with my passport to get the extra pages added. Marvel with me.
--So now that we were in the right country, with a taxi to our guesthouse, we needed to figure out food. It is pretty easy to stay on James' diet here in Congo where everything has to be made from scratch everyday anyway. But driving by Java House and Pizza Inn at lunchtime was pretty tough! I had written ahead asking my colleagues to buy a few staples for us so we could prepare our own foods. Not only did Karen buy my whole list, she scrubbed and soaked all the fruits and veggies for me ahead of time and had them in ziploc bags! James and I thoroughly enjoyed lots of apples, grapes, chicken and broccoli (things we can't get here)! Water standing up.
--Nairobi has a shortage of roads. Or an excess of cars. Either way, there is smog and bad traffic. Everywhere. All day long. The taximan we used is a good friend of a friend. He somehow skirted most all traffic jams. Where I planned 60 minutes to get across downtown, he would make it in 30. Where I planned 30 to get a few miles away, he would make it 15. We ended up slightly early to every appointment. And every appointment was a bit like drinking from a firehose, but exactly where we needed to be and learning things that we can do here at home. I brought James his DVD player with Lassie season 1 and he never used it. (Though we did borrow 2 Hardy Boys books and the Secrets of Nimh and he read all of those in his 48 hrs...)
--James scored below 2% for processing and reacting to the sense of touch. We suspected as much. This was confirmation. What was wonderful news is that he doesn't have other sensory troubles. YAY! He had so much fun at the OT studio, he didn't want to leave - even to go on an airplane. We came back with pages of advice and ideas for therapy at home, and better than that, the therapists are happy to help over Email until we see them again next year! Can you see that water standing up?
Oh me of little faith.
It was truly marvelous to watch God move every obstacle right out of our way. And much of that was possible through a multi-cultural, multi-national, amazing team of colleagues! I am grateful to work alongside them.
Hugest thanks to all those who gave and prayed us through the water. Also to Karen, Olivia, Judith, Emily, Serge, Joseph, Trixie, Liz, Karolien, Josh, Audra, Gabe, Raeleigh, Rod, Emergency Consular Officer lady, Embassy people, and RBS!
We planned extra time in Kampala, Uganda last month to search one out. We went to town armed with 4 possible contacts. One by one they fell through: out of town, not an OT but a PT, on vacation, etc. I had one last lead in Nairobi an hour's flight away, but really hesitated to spend a lot of money chasing a lead that might fall through like the others. If Nairobi fell through, South Africa or Europe were our next options.
Now begins the long list of the ways God provided for James and I on this trip, miracle upon miracle to the point that I felt like Moses must have felt standing in the Red Sea watching walls of water stand up straight in the sky:
--This popular Belgian OT had exactly the experience, training and recommendations we needed, but was 'hard to get in to see'... She answered the phone the first time, took time to talk with me, Emailed me right away some forms to fill out (even though she was traveling to another country the next day), introduced me to her 'Autism Team' who arranged all our appointments for us, set up an appointment with her one week away, and her associates even did some shopping for snacks that were on James' diet! (Thank you Karolien and Trixie!!) Like I said, walls of water.
--With the encouragement I had from the Emails, my conscience said to go ahead and plan this trip to Kenya. We would need a place to stay, and had heard of a new guesthouse on our office compound. I wrote and it was booked already for the two nights we needed. The same day I got a second Email saying that the previous guests were actually leaving the day we would arrive and someone else was coming in the day we would leave. It was available to us for the two nights we needed. Exactly. I couldn't have even planned that. Walls of water.
--I knew we should book it, Kent gave me the green light, but the cost was prohibitive to buy two plane tickets at the last minute. We usually fly this back and forth to Congo. And now we were flying in this! (You would have to chuckle with me at James in the window seat eating his mixed nuts like a king!) We asked our team to pray for provision of costs. Immediately someone wrote who felt led to cover the entire cost. Walls. of. water.
--So off James and I went up to 35,000 feet. Kent always handles the money side of life. My plan was to arrive and get Kenyan shillings from an ATM. I forgot contingency cash and it wasn't until we started the descent that I realized I had no way to pay for our visas to get into the country. They have to be paid in Euros or Dollars. I had neither. Yes, God can provide for my stupidity. James and I prayed right then and there that God would make a way. Upon arrival I noted the airport has changed a lot in the past 3 years. There were ATM machines everywhere! I got one to work for me right in the concourse and walked up to the nicest immigration official I have ever met. She let me pay in shillings! AND charged me $20 instead of $50 because we would only be there 48 hours. Dry path through the reef.
--The night before our flight, we got out passports and realized that mine only had one page left. Doh! The tourist and transit visas take up one page each! It was the weekend, and no embassy was open anywhere. We looked up the consular officer online and called the emergency number. She was very kind and said if I could get into Kenya Monday morning, they could install new pages in 15 minutes while we waited Monday afternoon! It is a little nerve-wracking to know you can almost get into a country, but won't be able to get out until something is fixed. The one page I had left, did have a small corner date stamp, so I would have to beg that they work around it and not cover it up... The exit guy from Uganda snuck in his stamp on a busy page just because he was nice. He didn't have to! And the entry into Kenya lady was a saint who stuck her sticker right on the edge and had to wrap on edge over the other side. Why do I worry?? Our office team in Nairobi were waiting for us to arrive, praying all would work out for the extra passport pages. They are awesome! We love you RBS! As we drove off in one direction to our first of three appointments, they drove off in the other direction with my passport to get the extra pages added. Marvel with me.
--So now that we were in the right country, with a taxi to our guesthouse, we needed to figure out food. It is pretty easy to stay on James' diet here in Congo where everything has to be made from scratch everyday anyway. But driving by Java House and Pizza Inn at lunchtime was pretty tough! I had written ahead asking my colleagues to buy a few staples for us so we could prepare our own foods. Not only did Karen buy my whole list, she scrubbed and soaked all the fruits and veggies for me ahead of time and had them in ziploc bags! James and I thoroughly enjoyed lots of apples, grapes, chicken and broccoli (things we can't get here)! Water standing up.
--Nairobi has a shortage of roads. Or an excess of cars. Either way, there is smog and bad traffic. Everywhere. All day long. The taximan we used is a good friend of a friend. He somehow skirted most all traffic jams. Where I planned 60 minutes to get across downtown, he would make it in 30. Where I planned 30 to get a few miles away, he would make it 15. We ended up slightly early to every appointment. And every appointment was a bit like drinking from a firehose, but exactly where we needed to be and learning things that we can do here at home. I brought James his DVD player with Lassie season 1 and he never used it. (Though we did borrow 2 Hardy Boys books and the Secrets of Nimh and he read all of those in his 48 hrs...)
--James scored below 2% for processing and reacting to the sense of touch. We suspected as much. This was confirmation. What was wonderful news is that he doesn't have other sensory troubles. YAY! He had so much fun at the OT studio, he didn't want to leave - even to go on an airplane. We came back with pages of advice and ideas for therapy at home, and better than that, the therapists are happy to help over Email until we see them again next year! Can you see that water standing up?
Oh me of little faith.
It was truly marvelous to watch God move every obstacle right out of our way. And much of that was possible through a multi-cultural, multi-national, amazing team of colleagues! I am grateful to work alongside them.
Hugest thanks to all those who gave and prayed us through the water. Also to Karen, Olivia, Judith, Emily, Serge, Joseph, Trixie, Liz, Karolien, Josh, Audra, Gabe, Raeleigh, Rod, Emergency Consular Officer lady, Embassy people, and RBS!
Back...
After a miraculous whirlwind month, we are back home in Congo now.
We did fit in a few days of vacation. Much of our time was spent chasing down leads to find James an Occupational Therapist (OT). They are not plentiful in Africa, let me tell you. I will write out the details of provision later, but the short version is that we found a wonderful Belgian OT to work with in Kenya. She was able to detail James' sensory issues and suggest a program to start him toward recovery.
This is all very new territory to me, and at times overwhelming, but we will make it through one day at a time! He is doing really well. We continue to see progress everyday on this diet!! Coming soon, more OT details and I will post a few recipes in case you like trying new things. You can 'eat along with us' for a few days from around the world!
We did fit in a few days of vacation. Much of our time was spent chasing down leads to find James an Occupational Therapist (OT). They are not plentiful in Africa, let me tell you. I will write out the details of provision later, but the short version is that we found a wonderful Belgian OT to work with in Kenya. She was able to detail James' sensory issues and suggest a program to start him toward recovery.
This is all very new territory to me, and at times overwhelming, but we will make it through one day at a time! He is doing really well. We continue to see progress everyday on this diet!! Coming soon, more OT details and I will post a few recipes in case you like trying new things. You can 'eat along with us' for a few days from around the world!
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