the hamster is a bit slow

Greetings. Please excuse my frustration of today. The internet is so slow. I feel a really big hamster is having trouble turning the wheel today. When I start to think like that, I make myself stop and appreciate the fact I do have internet. I can do something in Africa and my friends and family can see it in the US. That's pretty amazing.

I have added more pics and videos to Facebook. I tried to take some "day in the life" videos. They are short but they give you a small glimpse into my life here. You may be wondering why I've never taken any pictures of the poverty. Well I'm just starting to process that myself. I mean, it's here. It's all around. I just feel uncomfortable taking a picture of someone in need. It seems too intrusive.

Oh, I forgot to blog about my adventures of last Saturday. We went to a clothing market. It was crazy-a good crazy though. It's held in the middle of one of the streets here. There are just piles of clothes. I bought four shirts and two shorts (workout clothes). My roomie bought 3 or 4 shirts. I spent $8 and she spent $5. I know it sounds cheap but I need to clarify the clothes. Most of them are used and come from the States. Some of the clothes still had Goodwill Tags on them so they were clothes Goodwill couldn't sell. As some of you know, I am a big fan of t-shirts that have interesting sayings on them so I was in heaven looking through some of the piles. I bought one that talked about science camp and junior scientists in the making. My roomie had me buy a shirt that says Just Talented. (I said it needed to have humility on the back.) My roomie and I bought mainly out of the piles which have fixed prices but there are also clothes for sale where you need to barter. I bought a nice pair of soccer shorts that way.

This past Friday, we had a staff retreat at a local hotel. It was so nice. I felt like I had just climbed out of a brown hole when I saw all the color at the hotel-bright blue water and green grass!!! The hotel was right on the ocean so we could go swimming, walk along the ocean, and then eat at the buffet. We didn't spend the night or anything but it was still fun.

Well I am off to bake. We have a C&MA get together tonight. Woo-hoo!

Beach