another month of busy busy. but first some celebrations! host dad went to mecca and came back. that's kinda cool. he now gets to put el hadj in front of his name. and he brought back holy water and gifts for everyone. he looks saudi arabian. or what i imagine saudi arabians to look like.
the missionaries (who are awesome) invited us over for thanksgiving dinner. it was super awesome. but the interesting part was the turkey. we had to first buy a turkey. a living turkey. that we had to kill ourselves. and pluck ourselves. and clean and prep ourselves. yeah, fiasco is the perfect word to describe what happened. the turkey murdering that is. dont have any pictures (i think my friend does though, gotta find it) but just imagine blood squirting everywhere and everyone screaming.
anyway, it really felt like america. turkey, and mashed potatoes, and baked chicken, and creamed spinach, and creamed corn and a lot of other delicious goodies...
and homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whip cream! who knew you could cook all these things in africa...
started up the health talks project again. this time we're talking about hiv testing and convincing people to get tested. i had videos to show them and we gave good arguments and hopefully, the women and men are convinced and we can get testing started early next year. we'll see... they thought the laptop was cool though.
this lady is a gem. shes one of the women im working with. shes the one that gives the health talks in her own village. and she gave me a chicken!!
here is my chicken. notice that it's sitting on water containers. notice the little birds in the background all staring intently at the chicken sitting on the water containers. theyre all thirsty but my chicken is not being nice. my chicken is a tough little guy. maybe we'll eat it before i leave this country... (oh god, eating my own pet chicken...)
the women at the garden are literally awesome. the day after the fence went up, they already started working the soil and seeding things.
and then after just one week, things started sprouting.
the fruits of my labor!! (well theirs... but still!!)
so the following week, i invited a fellow agriculture peace corps volunteer (abby) to come do a quick training on double digging beds and amending them with manure, ash, and neem leaves.
she also taught them mulching to save water and protect the beds, as well as how to make homemade inexpensive pesticides. i hope the women put all these new techniques and technologies to use.
the little girls decided to braid my hair. never let a million different girls braid at once. they all come out different sizes and different in general. it looked... lovely.
most adorable child ever...
so after the health talks and gardening stuff, we took a little break to celebrate good ol' american christmas. on the beach of course! beautiful...
the weather was perfect. not too hot, it was pretty much paradise. yeah, life is good...
oh and next year, we want to do a marathon (and invite oprah and/or ellen out) to raise money for girl's education. my friends made this awesome cute video... check it out!
so yeah, merry christmas and happy hanukkah everyone! i'll see you all in 2012.
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