EXCUSES, EXCUSES April 3rd

Why does it always take Mirinda so loooooooong to post her blogs? This month I actually have some fairly decent excuses, owing to the fact I hadn't left the village the whole month (with one exception) due to both physical and time constraints.

PEANUT PURGATORY

JB - like all farmers in our area, is enjoying a great harvest out in her field in Nakarara. She has been enlisting the help of me and my students to help her harvest her peanut crop - which gave her a VERY plentiful crop. We all helped her harvest these evil brown nuts (at the computer next to me JB is pointing out that I only helped for like, an hour...I sent kids, their time should totally give me helping points.)These little nuts are way more fun to eat than actually pull out of the ground, and the amounts that I have been consuming have caused gastrointestinal difficulties that ALSO prevent the writing of blogs...so really this is a two-for-one excuse!

T-shirt Madness

Mustapha and I decided that this year in order to save money we should make our own T-shirts for the Peer Educators (we saved like 30$, it was a WAY better idea). Thus we hunkered down with my iPod and a can of paint and set to work...on 17 T-shirts. The supplies were fairly sustainable, with the exception of the shirts themselves, the paint came from my head master and the "sponge" was ripped by one of my teachers from his mattress as his "donation to the cause". Mustapha and I got the added bonus of being high from paint fumes for 2 days while the shirts dried...it seems like a much better idea now that the two of us are not in the tiny room, covered in paint and listening to the same 3 rap songs over and over again while breathing toxic fumes.

RAIN, RAIN

The rain has actually kept us from doing a lot these past few days. It has rained so much that we are able to fill all of the drums of the house in less that 20 minutes. Our backyard/courtyard floods with every heavy rain, making Mustapha and Joyce a "swimming pool" that they can go out and slash in when the rain slows to a trickle. The rain has also prevented the transportation of JB and myself to and from our villages, as it has completely destroyed/washed out the road in many places. Ridiculous, but delicious, rain water is SO much better than boiled water, and SO COLD, its like coming out of a water dispenser in a refrigerator.

TEACHING

Its been a long school year but I am finally bringing it to a close, teaching out side and teaching the most ridiculous things I can manage. I will definitely miss my Students a lot, and I'm hoping that these last exercises will help them remember me!