consider these pictures your Christmas presents

I could barely get any pictures to load last night, but this morning things are working out. So, most of these pictures are from the Dec. 3-9 week when other PCVs came to my site for a week of work and food. Make sure to check previous posts because I've posted lots of pictures in the last week or so. Enjoy and feel free to comment on the photos. It makes me happy, so that should be enough motivation for you to do it. I'm going to visit my host family today and will report back on any interesting events and/or post photos.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday to Tony, Lynn (belated but I still love you), and to Brady at the end of the year. There are most likely others and I have them written down at site but not with me, so I apologize. I haven't forgotten about you even if I didn't mention your name. Love to all.

The road outside of the community center.

The community center in my town. Not too shabby, huh? The married couple that my site partner replaced helped refurbish and add on to the center during their service. This is where the preschool is held.

This statue is located by the CISCO office and my house. These kids flocked to watch us plant the Moringa trees.

One of the sessions we had at the stand. During this one we (or rather the Environment Volunteers) taught the community members the benefits of planting Ananambo trees (Moringa in English) and eating the leaves. Dorothy (kindly holding one of the baked goods) and I baked some things to sell in order to raise money for the community center. Since the baked goods were from mixes sent from the States (thank you!), most of the goods were bought and then eaten by the Volunteers.

Cooking and Baking

For those of you who have asked me what I eat and cook. Beans and Rice. This is what most of my meals look like. Sometimes it's eggs instead of beans, but I definitely eat a lot of tomatoes and rice. More food pictures to come in the future.

This is how you bake when your in the Peace Corps. For lack of pot holders, I had to use my fleece jacket. Maybe someone could email Cabelas and tell them how I use their product; it could get me a free gift certificate or something:)

Let it be said that most Malagasy people cook on charbon (sp?) aka charol (sp? also). (Have I mentioned that I can't spell English words now that I speak Malagasy so much?) Most PCVs, however, cook on a gas camp stove, which is what I use.

Quick Pics

The man who runs the community center bought a lemur (this is slightly illegal, but students are supposed to go to school as well and that doesn't exactly happen either). People illegally capture lemurs and tame them, hoping to sell them to someone (they tried to get me to buy it, but what am I going to do with a lemur?). As you can see, this one is quite friendly; you can even hold it but I'm always afraid it will poop on me.

For Quinn. It's not exactly a flower, but I'll work on it. These trees are one of the things Madagascar is known for. This one is located right behind the community center in my town.