Cookie Time!

Best part of my weekend: baking cookies with friends and some adorable kids from the orphanage. My friend Elizabeth was so generous to entertain my crazy idea of making Christmas cookies with another friend Iris and a few kids from the orphanage where she works.
A bit of backstory: Before embarking on this baking extravaganza, I went down to the central market. Very few people here have ovens, so the idea of a cookie sheet is a bit foreign. After searching through some options, I settled for a pot lid (exhibited below) to serve the general purpose of a cookie sheet. I stopped by the place where you can buy flour and picked up a bag. Back closer to my place, I went to the grocery store to get some other hard to find items, like baking soda. Just before going over to start baking, I thought, you know, I should find out what kind of flour this is, and confirm that it's wheat flour. Well, for all of you out there, I want to teach you this SWAHILI WORD OF THE DAY: muhogo means cassava (not wheat)
So thankfully Iris was able to pick up some wheat flour on her way over, so we didn't have to accidentally create the first ever cassava cookies. Along with the flour, Iris also brought (from left to right in the group photo) Bahati, Bakari, Hussen, and Samwel. Since ginger is very common here, I figured it was appropriate to make a few gingerbread men. Well, I actually started by showing how to make a gingerbread girl (to be gender sensitive), but the kids quickly branched out to also making a gingerbread dress (gauni), house (nyumba), car (gari), cup (kikombe), and hand (mkono), among other things. Creativity was flowing freely, and when they came out of the oven (successfully on the improvized cookie sheet), we then mixed up a bit of frosting and decorated with jelly beans and raisins. All it all, it was a baking success and a ton of fun.