Sunday, January 19, 2014

Magical Candy

 Here in Sudan we finished a twelve day holiday called Muwlid (moo-lid)  last week. There are a few different ways we celebrate, but one of my favorites is the candy. The streets are all lined up with kiosks selling different toys and treats. It's traditional for boys to get horse toys and for girls to get a doll. I don't really know how to explain what the doll looks like, but it has a HUGE skirt in proportion to her body and she's very colorful. The typical kind of candy eaten during Muwlid  is peanut brittle-like, but made with flour to prevent the sugar from caramelizing. This can be made with a variety of nuts and seeds, but these are the two most common for this holiday.
 Sorry, the picture's pretty bad, I'll try to get another one. The bar on the left is made with sesame seeds, and the right is with peanuts.  Another candy (no picture yet, sorry) is Lakoum, a chewy, sticky gel. Also known as Turkish Delight, this candy is translucent yellow in color and is flavored with rose water. Because of it's stickiness, it's dusted with cornstarch. It also can be made in many different ways, but again, this is the kind sold here during Muwlid. 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Sledding!

Sarah and I went sledding yesterday with some other friends and it was super fun! Well cold, but fun. We connected the sleds a couple times with their strings and tried to ride down in a 'train' which usually ended in one sled getting tipped, but it worked once! We also did a relay race where we had three teams of two and would sled down the hill and have to the run the sled back up to our partner, it was exhausting. Now our break is almost over, one day left... unless school on Monday gets canceled :D