A Little of This, A Little of That

Hello faithful blog readers :) Usually, I sit down to write with many things in mind I want to tell you about. Today, I don't have a particular story I'm bursting to share, so this entry will be filled with some (hopefully) fun randomness, things people have asked me or might want to know, etc. So, enjoy!

Students: I'm finally starting to learn some names. Some. My student count is up to, I think, 181. The students are in 7th - 9th grades and range in age from 11 to 21, although I'd say about 75% of each class is close to the average age in the US for that grade. The fact that, up to 2004, the students really didn't know Liberia without civil war meant that for many school was a luxury. Several of the warring factions were known for recruiting young boys to be soldiers, so for many school was not even a thought. Because so many children did not have the opportunity to attend school for many years, the educational system in Liberia has a lot of catching up to do. The Ricks Institute is doing everything it can to help close this gap and bring hope and the chance for success and opportunity to each student's life.

The Supermarket: Where we go when we need food. Which seems obvious, but this is not where most Liberians shop. Most Liberians buy almost everything they need at outdoor markets. The market has many small booths and people walking around carrying their goods, either balanced on their heads or in a wheelbarrow. There are a few reasons we haven't shopped the market too much yet. First, we need to learn what items are really supposed to cost, otherwise we're likely to be overcharged. Second, we don't really know how to cook much Liberian food yet, so we wouldn't know what to buy or what to do with it (see below). So we shop in the supermarket, which makes me feel super touristy and American (not how I want to feel). But the supermarket is expensive like whoa. For example, we paid $5.50 for a pack of 10 fruit snacks, or about $8 for a medium sized jar of peanut butter. Crazy, but we're paying for the shipping!

Learning Liberian Food: We're slowly trying to learn to eat and make Liberian food. So far we've eaten potato greens w/ rice, "beans" (small red beans, beef, red spicy sauce) w/ rice, grilled fish (the WHOLE fish, head, skin and all), plantains (YUM), cassava with cassava gravy (cassava is actually a potato-like, starchy root), and some (semi) boiled peanuts. We've had several people offer to help us learn to cook. We think we have a date for next weekend with Ruth, the school nurse, to take us to market, show us what to get, and show us how to cook! So exciting!

The President: Apparently she stopped in at Ricks yesterday. We heard she might, but didn't know for sure, or when it might happen. She came by around 4:00 and visited the boys' dorm and had a conversation with Olu for about 5 minutes. We had no idea she was on campus... Ah, well. We're hoping one of these days to meet her, but we will see!

That should suffice for random tidbits of the day. Let me know if there are other random things you want to know. I really do love blogging, and would be happy to talk about whatever! More pictures soon to come (including one of the fish we ate!).