The Week in Review

When we got back from our time off, it seemed we were not the only ones that had been sick – many had come down with the same cold or other ailments so the energy level on base was pretty low this week.  This worked out well for some of us as our jobs were low key (painting) but some people were prepping a foundation for School 19 which involves digging trenches and pulling up tree roots.

I was surprised at how excited a bunch of people were when we got back from our time away.  Sometimes we have no idea of the impact we have on people’s day to day lives.  It was a great feeling though!

Michel and I have been on the same crew for a couple of weeks now and we continue to work on Schools 16 & 17.  This week we painted the inside of the classrooms and a little bit of the outside.  I am really looking forward to Monday as about 30 of the students from the school have volunteered to help us paint!!  Paul, head of school construction, mentioned that since we don’t have enough brushes and rollers for everyone, we might get the kids to do hand painting!  It is going to be lots of messy fun!!! Yah! I should have some good photos for you once I have the bandwidth to upload them.

This past Thursday was American Thanksgiving and we had the day off.  One of the staff members organized the cooking of a traditional Thanksgiving meal for 140 people!!!!  I volunteered to help in the kitchen so spent most of my day either doing that or participating in the Gobble Gobble Thanksgiving Photo Scavenger Hunt.  I will definitely post my teams photos when I can!!!!  The meal was fabulous!

Since before we went on our week away, I have been off rice and beans.  We get this twice a day and my body has reached it’s limit.  I realize it is kinda like potatoes to North American’s but I don’t eat potatoes that often either!!!!  So I have been eating a little at lunch (because it is our only option) and either avoiding it at dinner or buying egg sandwiches from the street vendor.  I have to ask the nice lady what her name is because I have become like Norm on Cheers.  She doesn’t even ask anymore, she knows I like 2 eggs instead of 1 and hotsauce, hold the ketchup!  With only one more week to go, I may be off egg sandwiches by the time we leave as well!!!!

Last night several of the long-term ladies decided to have a girls’ night movie so we got to watch Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – it was exactly what the doctor ordered.  Amazingly enough, by the end of the film there were a fair number of garcon’s watching as well!

We ended up having Saturday and Sunday off this weekend too.  Because we have been so low energy, we opted to stay at base and just max on the relaxing.  We went to the local market today (very interesting but I didn’t take pics cause I don’t think that would be welcomed) and will be making couscous with vegies in a lime dressing (yummy).  Other than that, we have napped quite a bit and that is about it.