Letter to Mom&Dad - 12/9/05

It's been 2 weeks since I've talked to anyone outside of village and it's taken a surprising toll. I decided not to call anyone last weekend under the belief that we'd have phone lines in To this week. Alas, it wasn't so. So this last week, I've had a few days where I struggled and really felt unsatisfied with work here. I know it was a product of built up tension that grows surprisingly fast.

There have been moments of satisfaction, like going to the elementary school and teaching about hygiene and good sanitary habits. But some of the projects I keep hoping to get off the ground keep sputtering. Sometimes due, it seems, to the quality of persons and sometimes due to mis-communication. Those have been my frustrations. I had high hopes of starting a discussion group with the high schoolers here, but realizing they're really not interested in talking about sexual problems openly was disappointing. The ones who did were even more disappointing for their lack of maturity. So, I'm continuing with the project, but with less enthusiasm.

I am teaching English one hour a week. Every student, which there are 3 adults, is very eager and I'm content to continue with that. I found my French is improving, if ever so slightly and my comprehension is definitely improving in both French and Moore.

There have been good moments, thankfully following the bad ones with the high school students. I actually feel as if I'm gaining some friends who I've come to rely on more here. I hope those relationships continue in a good way. Also, I cooked! It's true! I made a great big pot of soup with a melange of everything that I could find vegetable-wise here and spices. Really experimental on my part, but it mostly consisted of cabbage. From what I remember throwing in there, here is the recipe:
5 small tomatoes (chopped)
3/4 head of cabbage
2 handfuls of lentils
4 small onion heads (I think they were onions! :)
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
3 or 4 dried hot peppers
1 packet of chicken noodle soup (ready made)
2 or 3 pinches each of red chili powder, salt and black pepper
3 pinches of basil
2 1/2 liters of water

I tossed everything in as I was tasting it. It came out pretty good. I let it simmer for a while. After I was good and full, I gave the rest to my neighbor, my counterpart. She loved it and wants the recipe, but I started telling her and she soon lost interest, but told me to make it again. It was kinda an expensive meal, so I'll wait a little and next time I'll toss in some meat and/or potatoes, if I can find 'em.

Next thing I'll try is a three-layer cake, preceded by a 4 course meal, including shrimp and lobster, with a nice cup of red wine, maybe a Shiraz or a Cabornet. What do you think? :) I know, I know, red wine doesn't go with fish. Okay. I'll get a nice Buffalo steak from the organic market down the road next to Starbucks.
:) He He!
Not so much. I think I'll just shoot for a nice PBJ sandwich with the peanut butter and mom's peach jam that I have left over from the care packages.

Have I told you of the delightful movie theater we have down the path from my house?

PAUSE: A sheep just came into my courtyard as I was writing and BAAAH'ed reaaly loud and scared the living hell out of me. Dropped pen, paper, everything. I had a good laugh. The sheep promptly left.

Onward: The delighful movie theater (television run by car battery with faulty speakers) shows an incredible variety of movies, as long as they involve Kung Fu. I've actually become somewhat of a regular attendee, well as long as the movies have Jet Li or Jackie Chen (a girls got to have her standards.) They're a nice break to the monotony of going home and reading a book by lamplight. I'm still waiting on a guy to finish putting in electricity, it's been over a month now since he started. Anyhoo, the movies are a nice respite and they're all dubbed in French, so I don't really understand all of them yet; they speak too quickly.

As you can tell in this letter, I definitely have my ups and downs. A few days ago I was definitely down, but today I'm better. I'm looking forward to talking to folks either tomorrow or Sunday. I really need to. That's probably been the hardest thing here so far. I don't have the advantage of neighboring volunteers 10-20km away I can go and relax with on any day. I have the phone line 15km away I can get to only on Sundays or weekends. When I don't do that, I can tell a difference in how my attitude toward being here is affected. I'll try not to let another weekend pass without chatting with someone again.

Hope you have a great New Year. Miss you and hopefully see you in June.
Love, Laura