USA! USA! USA!

Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope you have something fun planned. As for us, we are trying to go as all-American as possible here. We are grilling hamburgers and eating the mutton that the chief gave us a few weeks ago complete with fruit salad, potatoes, and even a little watermelon we were able to find at the marché today. I heard a rumor that some local drummers are coming to play, which isn't American, but it is way cooler.

The other day we got a cookbook compiled by former and current PCVs who have created some recipes with local ingredients. I cannot wait to start cooking. Ok, really, I cannot wait for Aaron to start cooking so I can eat and I will start baking. That's right, you can bake here. There are instructions for making a dutch oven along with recipes for breads, cookies...all the good stuff.

We had a class yesterday on how to use the black board here. It was really interesting. The students do not have textbooks so their notebooks are their only resource for studying the material so they are very picky about what they write. This means that you have to be really organized in how you present information on the board so that they don't fill up their notebooks with stuff they don't need. Also, there are specific sections of the board that students will copy everything you write, other sections for where students can work problems, and a section for where you outline the days activities everyday, and a section for equations and new definitions. We also learned how they do basic math operations here. The division is a little different and some of the numbers are written differently. It was just really fun and interesting.

Thanks to the Clem family and Mama Duck for your messages and prayers.