Various Subjects

On sunday I went 'Up-Country' to Bwiam with Faramarz (one of the Pioneers), and with Simon and Bahia. Simon and Bahia have been doing childrens' classes in one of the villages. It takes about 2 hours to get there. One hour on nice newly paved roads, and one hour of basically off-road - up, down, left, right, bump, bump, bump, ahhh!! up down... etc. Fortunately Faramarz drives a really nice Mitsubishi SUV, it can go basically anywhere, but its really nice inside too! Leather seats etc. Very enjoyable. Anyway, first we went to the Baha'i Centre in Bwiam, where Bakary Jatta lives. I saw the donkey-powered battery charger (yes, exactly as it sounds... a donkey walks around in cirlces all day, and Bakary can charge his laptop's battery from it!), and we had tea with him. After this it was off to the village. As soon as they see the vehicle, all the kids start running around gather all the other kids (there are about 50), and they all sit under a huge Mango tree, and Simon tells Baha'i stories. After a little while, they get up and play some games, and then they hand out candy to all the kids. I have some pictures, but I'm going to have to wait until I'm at a faster internet connection to send them.

I got some vegetables a couple of days ago, just some lettuce and a cucumber. I also bought some Strawberry Jam (D150!), and was about to buy Honey too but I ran into Badieh in the supermarket (Mrs. Shams, married to Faramarz) and she insisted that she give some, apparently they have more honey right now than they know what to do with. I didn't object, honey is another D85 for 500g. I have to say, breakfast has been much more enjoyable with honey and jam on my topolopa.

Yesterday Bakary (Bojang) came by and we went over to the school to offer my tutoring services. The Headmistress is at an inservice until Monday, but we talked to one of the teachers and he said he would send some students over to the Baha'i centre around 4:00. They didn't come. On Monday Bakary and I are going to go back and talk directly with the Headmistress.

I have again just been chilling at home and reading etc, basically just waiting for the graduation to happen, and then I should be fairly busy, interviewing, teaching etc.

As far as the pictures, they won't load fully here, only the first two appear, I'll make a more detailed comment for each of them once I get to a faster connection. The internet - or slow speed thereof - is for sure one of, if not the, most annoying things about here. Its so frustrating. I type in www.google.com... and not only does it take a long time to load, eventually the computer seems to give up, and re-loads the page I was on before! I have to type in the address 3 or 4 times before I actually get to google! arg. Anyway, I'll try and get somewhere faster within a few days.
-Liam