week five

My host dad and I
The SED volunteers! Starting with me, Kate, wendy, our trainer olivier, courtney, another trainer djennabo, austin is behind me, then michelle, kate fleurange, laura, ehab and david are hugging each other, then left to right in the back is nik, another trainer, ben, joe, and trevor

All of us were invited to the mayor's house on saturday night for some amazing food and drinks. The party came at a good time. The entire town had been without electricity and water the whole day, and for some it's been over a week without running water. A generator-powered modern house was a warm welcome. Little highlights of the night: a toliet paper holder with toliet paper in the bathroom, there was soap in there too. I had a drink out of glassware with ice, and I had some cold water for the first time in a month that tasted so good. Ice cubes, good wine, the fact that I ate lettuce and shrimp, may not seem like an exciting saturday night to you, but you have NO IDEA. You may think you understand, maybe could picture life without somethings, but really you'll never know until you live it.

My sisters took me to the saturday market where they bought basically all the food for the week there. The weekly market here is chaos and takes lots of patience. All prices are negotiable, which involves discussing the quality of the product, refusing to pay the asking price, walking away, walking back, agruing the price some more and then deciding which vendor to go with. 15 minutes later, we've got a handful of carrots. Next item...lol. We went to the meat section as well. Translation: we walked through an area of maybe 100 chickens with leashes on their legs, the same goes for the goats, rabbits and other small living creatures waiting to be dinner. I almost tripped on a cow's head on the ground. Just the head. Most beef is sold hanging up on hooks from the ceiling of a large shed type building, or you're able to buy it from piles on the vendors table, we're we got ours from.