As you can see in the front yard, there are many potted plants. Most homes here have potted plants on their cement terraces. Most of the plants have something to offer, though I haven’t learned them all yet. There are aloe vera, lemon grass, cabe (hot peppers), strawberries (no fruit yet), ginger, and more. I bought a few plants, pots, and soil before we left for the summer, and my helper grew the collection while we were gone. Most locals get creative with their ‘pots’, using plastic bottles, empty oil bags, just whatever they have.
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When the lockdown kept him from his everyday work … My husband turned our patio into a beautiful aquaponics garden! Most homes in the city are flats, with different families on every floor. We moved almost two years ago from a ground floor flat and were SO excited to have a first floor with a balcony that we could make our own (that and to be able to get some sunshine into our home!). Right outside our door we have a big fish tank, herbs and vegetables, grapevines and bunches of other plants. Our neighbors all come by to see what we’re up to (us weird foreigners putting fish tanks on our balconies) and sometimes sit for tea in the shade of the grapevines. It’s become one of our favorite places to have our tea and our meals.
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Our favorite thing about our flat is our balcony. It is unusual to have a balcony in apartments in our city. We use it for everything—from bbq-ing, to laundry drying, and even as a “pop-up” swimming pool for our son during lockdown.
The worst thing about our flat is the noise. Our flat faces the main street; everyday we can hear the traffic. Also we hear random gun noise that is used to scare the pigeons away. Also, during big festival seasons, it’s so loud, and you can hear the parades and all the firecrackers.
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We live in a beautiful place. Our home is nestled in the side of the Rift Valley, which means that we are greeted with beautiful views each time we walk out of our home and around our community. I often stop mid-walk and just stare at the views of the hills and valleys...it just doesn’t get old.
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In our tan and grey concrete city, yards and grass are nearly nonexistent. Since most people live in apartment buildings, balconies are a family's only hope of an outdoor haven, and we are lucky enough to claim a large one as our own. Apartments with outdoor space are hard to find because, if they don’t already belong to the owner or their family, they are usually snatched up by a current tenant of the building as soon as they become available.
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I live on the same compound as the school where I teach; it is an 8-acre campus in the suburbs of Addis. The campus is surrounded by a stone wall with razor wire on top. On our campus, you can find wild Genet cats, Mongeese (or Mongooses..both are acceptable plurals), and a few tortoises roaming around. The neighborhood outside our walls is packed with people, mosques, churches, and a variety of small shops selling everything from fruit to fabric to used shoes. Both the beauty of our campus and the life outside the gates play a part in the outdoor space I call home.
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This is a little different “walk” than we’ve had on other days of our global walk outside, because we don’t actually live here...yet. We’ve owned this property for four years and have been developing it slowly, and we hope to start building our home in the next few months and finally move onto the property in 2022! I’m excited to share this space with you.
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My family live in an apartment on the 15th floor of building in downtown Izmir. Our view is amazing, but comes with a price tag of “no balcony.”
There is, however, a shared terrace for the residents to use. We’ve spent time there reading and playing in the late afternoon when the city begins to cool off, but ironically, it has been closed off for the last few weeks because a café is being added. This is picture looking down at the terrace from our living room window
Read MoreHi! My name is Stacy Leigh Hutchens, and I live in beautiful Zomba, Malawi with my husband, five kids ages 3-11, four cats, and a standard poodle. We had the rare privilege of getting to design and build our home here. It isn't extravagant, but it is my dream home, especially the kitchen.
Read MoreHi friends! I’m Sarah, and I live in the Horn of Africa along with my doctor husband and two kids. In my past American life, I worked in communications for a medical non-profit, but at the current moment, I’m about a year and a half into language learning, while helping my husband research and administrate a future NGO project.
Read MoreHi, my name is Courtney and I’m an expat living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I’m married and have four children. My kitchen is far from spectacular. It’s the hottest room in the house (we live on the coast of the Indian Ocean), water leaks all over the floor each day from a seemingly unrepairable sink pipe, and yet, somehow, it’s the space we all prefer to spend our time in together.
Read MoreHi! My name is Kristin! I live with my husband and three kids in Cairo, Egypt. This is our eighth year living in Cairo. My husband and I are teachers at an American International school here, and our kids attend school with us. It's great to all be together at school each day! I've come to love this dusty, busy, noisy city, and we all call it home.
Read MoreHi, my name is Abby. I moved to Western North Africa 5 years ago with my four girls (16, 13, 11, and 8) and my husband. Having four girls is wonderful, but we moved to a city that is a little isolated. There were not a lot of opportunities for girls and we needed some sort of outlet, so we took up cooking.
Read MoreIt is smaller kitchen and with the hopes of opening up the space I decided to go with an open shelf plan which is a fun way to be able to try and minimize my kitchen stuff and gives me a chance to try and be creative about how to store and display things I am using in my kitchen.
Read MoreAs of now, I don't have a lot of counter space so the kitchen table also acts as as prep station. I was gifted a Kitchen Aid mixer from a missionary friend who left the field. For so long I had wanted one but as you know, they are heavy! I couldn't contain my excitement when she said she was leaving me hers, along with a lot of other things she knew I would love and use. Community is a beautiful thing!
Read MoreI really actually love my kitchen!! This is our third home since we've lived here and the kitchen here is a VAST improvement over the first places we lived (think no counter space at all... so chopping veggies on the table). I spend lot of time in the kitchen, and have learned so much about cooking from scratch since the day we arrived here.
Read MoreWhen we first got here we were overly ambitious and attempted laundry by hand. 2 years in and we realized it wasn't getting easier and we weren't getting better at it. I guess growing up with a washer and dryer all your life makes such chores difficult to relearn. We were blessed this year to be able to get a washing machine! Most washing machines/washing stations are close to the kitchen in Nepal. Ours is on it's own little patio right outside of our kitchen!
Read MoreHey guys! My name is Maggie and I am from the great state of New Jersey. I came to Brazil in 2006 to help in an English school run by an American missionary. During that time I met my now husband, who is a Brazilian. We later married and moved a few times between the states and Brazil and finally settling here in Brazil.
Read MoreI’m Tina Ferry and our family of four lives in Ecuador. We’ve been abroad about five years and still feel like we are getting our feet wet. When I saw that Taking Route was planning “31 Days of the Global Kitchen,” I was thrilled to have the opportunity to participate. Food and the kitchen are central for our family’s hobbies, health, sense of home, and our ministry — which often centers around hospitality. Upon returning home from any trip or the start of any week the question is always, “What should we cook?” This is a family discussion with many opinions and much excitement.
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