Visual Aids

Two of my friends: Mino, a teacher at the C.E.G., and Ernesta, who runs and teaches at the preschool.

Me and my friend Finaritra on the bridge at my site a few weeks ago before I went on vacation. She's also a teacher at the C.E.G. or rather, she was. Now she's living in my banking town taking a month of classes, some kind of conference. I don't know if anyone replaced her to teach her classes. It wouldn't surprise me if the students just don't study that topic until (and if) she returns. That's how some things go here.

The inside of the leeches. Werid, huh?

Leeches (I don't know if I spelled that right, lyches/lychees maybe). The Malagasy people go crazy over this fruit. When I went on vacation near the coast a few weeks ago, people were getting all excited in the taxi brousse about something. I finally realized they were excited that the leeches were ripe. They will be in full bloom around Christmas, so it's often referred to as the Christmas Fruit. Tastes pretty good, but the inside looks weird. Evidently, if you eat a lot of them, it makes you hot. I was already hot from the day when I first tried them, so I'll have to let you know if this is true or not.

One of my multiple bright gecko friends, enjoying my fruit.

Also, in a few days or weeks...Happy Birthday to my cousins Catherine and Brady, Lynn, and Tony. And Happy Anniversary to Aunt Julie and Uncle Tarron. Happy belated Birthday to John David and belated Anniversary to Casie and Mark.