I'm going to try uploading a picture... we'll see if it works this time!
(15 minutes later) Well it says its working but I'm not seeing the picture here... going to try another way...
(10 minutes later) Ok, I'm going to try emailing them to megan then...
cool! I was actually able to send a couple to her, so hopefully she'll put them on here soon.
I went to the National Centre (Baha'i) a couple of days ago and did some work on a couple of the computers there. I also had a little time to play, so I created a really cool 3 page spread sheet that I can use to keep track of student attendance and marks. It automatically calulates the totals given certain percentages for different categories of marks, as well as keeping track of each mark individually, and the students' total in each category! Very cool. It was the first time I had used multiple sheets that were all connected like that. What fun!
It has been interesting. While here I have seen the poorest of the poor (that i've ever seen), but at the same time I have seen extra-ordinarily rich people too.
Once I was done at the National Centre I went to one of the pioneer's homes for dinner. They invited me to come a little early, and to stay the night as well. Their house was amazing! Mr. Shams is a Engineer and runs a contruction company here. He designed their house, and it is beautiful! I was in absolute awe the whole time I was there. The amazing thing is that they immediately made me feel completely at home. Mr. Shams showed me how to use the TV (a huge 40 or 50 inch monstrosity!), and they let me take a hot (!!) shower. Very nice.
Among the other guests were a Ducth/Canadian pioneer who has been living 'up-country' (as they call it here) for about 20 years, and another Dutch woman who was here visiting with her family (I think she used to be pioneering here, but I'm not sure...) Who would have thought that I would go all the way to africa, only to encounter 2 other people with dutch backgrounds! It was really quite funny. I spent most of the eveing chatting with the pioneer (Mr. Bakary Jatta), he was staying with the Shams' that night too so we talked until about 11:00! Very interesting man.
Dinner was, of course, excellent, even though there was rice (Persian though... I couldn't resist). I don't know if I've mentioned that. Except for breakfast, every meal is rice with some sort of sauce on it. Sometimes a fish on top (I don't mean a piece of a fish, it is quite literally a fish...), well actually its more like a whole lot of tiny little bones that are like needles, with a tiny bit of fish on them... more trouble than its worth I think. But I try to pick off as much as I can.
As far as breakfast goes, the milk isn't the greatest, and seems to spoil pretty quickly if the power goes out for more than a couple of hours... :(
I think I'll get some honey or jam to use on topolopa in the mornings. Dry cereal just doesn't work too well... and the milk seems to be definitly more trouble than its worth.. with the price, and the effort to mix, and the short life after that, it just doesn't seem like a good idea anymore! I am glad I tried it at least once though.
I have only been making scrambled eggs so far. I don't have a 'no-stick' pan, so it works well, I can scrape the eggs off the bottom before they are stuck permanently. I think I need to get some butter maybe... But for now its working well enough. I should be able to get oatmeal and flour etc. from the Supermarket, although everything from there is quite expensive - by local standards. I'm always taken aback when I see "D79.00" for something, then I remember that it's less than $3.00US! Still, it seems like a lot at the time, especially when you're used to buying Sprite for D8.00, and bread for D4.00 (about $0.30 and $0.15 US respectively)! I've been tossing around the idea in my head that I might be able to make really good french toast with Topolopa, but again I need to get some butter before I can even think about doing anything like that.
As far as the money stuff goes, I changed $150.00 US into D4050.00! Since I did that, about 2 weeks ago, I havn't even spend D2000.00. If I figure out how much I have in $US compared to the amount of time I'm going to be here, I should be able to indulge in quite a few things from the supermarket (butter, honey, jam etc.)... not that I want to go wild with it though.
We didn't need to take a picnic to the beach. There was a restaurant, of sorts, there and they made Benechine (not sure on spelling...), a rice dish that is fairly common here. It was good, until I hit the hot peppers... :( I was only able to eat about half of it. Fortunately there were oranges! Unfortunately they have a really weird way of eating them here because the flesh is so tough. They peel the orange and then cut the top off, and you basically suck and squeeze the juice out. I couldn't figure out how to do it...
I have been walking everywhere I go recently, and the National Centre in Bakau is about 1 hour away (to walk), so I'm getting lots of exercise! There is a bike here that I can use, one of the other Baha'is has it right now, they had to get something repaired. Now that I've walked the routes I think I could bike on the roads. I'm glad I started by walking the routes though! It got me used to how people drive and walk around here. There is no sense of "Pedestrian right-of-way", more like "Pedestrian be-ware". Drivers don't stop, they expect you to either not be in the way or to get out of the way. Makes life interesting sometimes.
--To Dad--
Please change the email notification, you may find it useful. It seems to encounter errors with the backup every couple of weeks.. maybe you can figure it out.
Wow... I wrote a lot! Anyway I guess I'm done for now. I'll probably have another post tomorrow night or, sunday night for sure. One of the local Baha'is has asked me to come to the internet cafe with him on Sundays to help him with his email etc. So it gives me time to get on for a bit as well. Until then!
-Liam
