Sunday, April 1, 2012

Fooooood

March 19, 2012

Manahoana daholo!
So the current trainees and I are all in a frenzy trying to decide where we want to be placed in the country.  They are trying out a new system this year where they give us information about each site and the job there. Then we write an essay detailing our top 10 and our qualifications and interests for each.  In the past the placement officers just decided based on our resumes and Peace Corps application.  The tradeoff is you learn where you are going earlier and there is no stress involved in trying to decide where your priorities lie.  However, this way we know what is out there so we get a chance to perhaps learn what we are interested in.  My top sites are in the North and Central regions.  We find out in a week where we will be placed.  We are all anxious to find out now so we can get started learning about or new home and what we will be doing there.  We also may have to learn a new dialect, as there are 18 in the country.  They can, however, all understand each other, so it more like colloquialisms.

In communication news, my iphone did not successfully unlock, so I am planning on working on that when I move back to the training center in just over a week.  Christina’s did, so I managed to get on the Internet for a few minutes on St. Patty’s day when we walked to the other village where the Env trainees live.  Most everyone went, so we went to the really nice hotel to grab a cold drink (a serious luxury) and sat around listening to music.  Overall a nice way to spend the holiday.  I am planning on purchasing an Internet “stick” to use at my site, but I will need to find out where I am placed before that can happen because I do not know which provider will work best.  By the time you read this that may have already happened because that will be how I post this haha.

Also, it seems my phone here is missing text messages from the states, so if you texted me and I did not text back I probably did not get it :/ I do not really know how to go about fixing that one though.

In food news, we had potatoes with dinner and I kind of freaked out, so they know I like potatoes a lot now haha.  Also, the trainees went to the market to bargain and bought a bunch of food for the training center.  They cooked a lot of it on Thursday when we went to the center for health and safety training.  Best.  Meal.  Ever.  Pasta with tomato and ground beef sauce, beef, sausage, mixed veggies, rice (of course), apples, and AMAZING avocado with tomatoes and lime juice J.  I could have eaten the whole damn pan.  Really excited to cook for myself so I can determine my own menu.  Potatoes, onions, garlic, avocado, ginger, curry, cucumbers, tomatoes, and fruit will factor in heavily.  Yum!  Also salt, my family doesn’t use nearly enough.

I love my host family dearly, but I am also excited to move back to the training center to see the Env people every day and have amazing food.  Snack time right now is often the highlight of the day.  Our language class gets so excited for that half hour break, it is like kindergarten all over again.  The trainers bring us a snack, usually some kind of bread, like banana or fried.  We are also now regulars at the tiny coffee shop at the top of the hill near my house.  Someone buys a round of small fried dough with onions in it called mofosakay.  Sooooo good.

I think that is all for now.  Shouldn’t have too much else to report until site assignments come out.  I am sure that post will be loooooooooong.

Veloma!!
-Sarah

2 comments:

  1. This makes me laugh in thinking about when you applied and they asked, "what if all you had to eat were onions- and you said you loved onions!"

    Glad to see that you are enjoying the food and having fun.

    -and yet again, I feel so dumb for being so far behind on reading all this. I'm on it now!

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  2. haha its alright, i am behind on posting them, but NO MORE!! I will probably not sleep the next two days because i have WIFI!!! yaaaaaay for pictures and blog posts and feeling like a spoiled american hahaha

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