My Favorite Recipe for Carob Powder

I do not like carob.

It tastes bad.

It tries to mimic chocolate. (big offence)

In Medieval times, it was used for animal feed. I can see why.

So how can a recipe for carob be good? By using it up without having to eat it. This is a homemade dry shampoo. It has one part corn starch, which is what soaks up the hair oil and works really well. Just that would probably turn my hair whitish so I add about the same amount of carob powder. A makeup brush is nice to help apply it. I got the idea from this lady's blog. She also has a spray version that I have not tried yet:

DIY Wet/Dry Spray Shampoo for Light or Dark Hair

1 cup warm water
1/4 cup arrowroot or cornstarch
1/4 cup vodka, rubbing alcohol or witch hazel
Essential oils or a spritz of your favorite perfume to scent
What to do: Mix all ingredients in a small spray bottle and shake well. Shake before each use and spray on roots or oily parts of hair. Let dry and style as usual.

I'm at the age where my hair gets oily really fast. Since it's also really strait hair, the oil shows up pretty fast and it's not pretty. I've learned to wash my hair flipped over in the sink so I don't have to take a whole shower every time. A washing will last about 24 hours but sometimes I'm too busy or tired for that so this dry shampoo is nice to have. It's surprising how well it works.

My Favorite Word of the Day

Francophile: a person who is fond of or greatly admires France or the French

howjsay francophile

Yep, it's a real word. Just came across it while researching an author for a book report. I am not necessarily a francophile but in this age of limited vocabulary, It's pretty cool that the word exists.

Philippines Picture Post II

So what the missionary family does is the father goes to all the schools in the area and shows gospel films, then he also gives a talk and hands out bible story books. He has one of these film showings about 2-3 times per week. After they have been to all the schools in the area, the family moves to a different area. While I was there I helped them move to a town with more Muslims. Although 'evangelists' are not allowed into Muslim schools, a 'drug-prevention program' is so they found a drug-prevention video to show along with the gospel talk.

I heard that the house they were in when I got there was pretty rundown when they bought it. This sand the kids are playing with was left over from repairing the house.

The building materials are very different from here. There is a lot of bamboo and concrete. For roofs, they have tin or thatch like banana leaves.

These are some of my little friends who called me Ate Amy and who tried to teach me all 4-5 dialects at once. :)

The family got some new book shelves while I was there which made lots of excitement!

They also got a missionary box from some friends in the states. That was even more exciting!

We girls all made an excursion to the mall one Sunday after church. The girl I am standing with is older than me so I called her ate which means big sister. She thought it was funny that the tall white girl called her that.

These are the men's "suits" of the Philippines made from pineapple and banana leaf fiber.

This is the women's version also made from banana and pineapple leaves.

I told my Ate that I could get my wedding dress in the Philippines. Now I just have to find the guy! :)

The mountains were really lovely and reminded me of home. So did the corn fields.

Can you see the ocean way out there?

Of course, even the mountains were not exactly the same. Can you see the volcano in the background here? There were quite a few of them spread around.

And this, my friends was the first normal bathroom I saw in a couple weeks. It was at a McDonalds (that sold rice!)

• It had a flip-down seat
• It had toilet paper
• It had a trash can
• It was semi-clean
• and even though it didn't work, it had a sink

Just had to take a picture.

Air conditioned busses went from city to city. They were ice-cold. It was almost nice to get back into the heat.

At the bus stops venders were everywhere. This lady saw me take the picture and I was immediatly offered all kinds of snacks by every vender in sight.

This is another kind of trike that wasn't quite so popular.

This man came to the house one day selling raw honey strait from the comb.

Since we were packing up to move everyone to the new house, there were lots of cardboard boxes which, I discovered, are a favorite toy for kids on the other side of the world too.

As we packed we encountered ants everywhere. I mean everywhere. Mostly they were normal black ants that just tickled but some were red ants that pinched or at least felt like it.

Besides moving, I was able to help the family when some of the kids got fevers. I stayed in the hospital for awhile with the youngest to give the parents a break and fixed supper once or twice.

One day the dad of the family paid some fishermen to take me and one of the kids for a 30min ride on their boat. That was lots of fun.

And the last picture for this long, jumbled post:

This is a phone that only cost $10. I could call all the way around the world with it for 1 peso (2 cents) per minute! The cheapest we could find to call from home was 12 cents/min. It wasn't that hard to hear either. I was impressed.