A fun Sunday evening

After church, Cassie and I lazed around for a while. We watched a lot of Big bang Theory (we are almost finished with the three seasons she brought on her hard drive). Betty made us rice, fried chicken, egg plant sauce and chips (french fries). I made myself eat chicken this time. It was easier since it was fried, so I could focus on the fried outer part. It all tasted really good, so I don't understand why I am so disinterested when it comes to food.

I took my camera out in to the big, dusty courtyard to take pictures of the kids. I forgot to factor in that seeing a camera can start an excited riot. The kids went crazy pushing each other out of the way to be in the picture. I went to show them the display screen and they ended up grabbing it away from me and fighting over it. I got it back, but now the screen doesn't display the picture when I am trying to take one. Bummer. I spent a while chasing them around trying to tickle them, and then lifting them up to touch the mango tree leaves. I ended up holding on girl on my lap for a while. They sing this adorable song in English: "Poor little baby, don't cry again. You mother has gone to buy bananas..AGAIN!" So, so, cute. There is one kid, Tim's favorite that he calls "Little One", we are not sure if it is a boy or a girl. He/she is super competitive and a bit of a bully which makes Tim think it is a boy. But I always see he/she with pink flowered pants on, and a pink and purple dress that his/her mom made. All of the kids are either bald or have very little hair, so in many cases it is hard to tell.

The ladies invited me to sit with them. I went over to where they were fixing somebody's hair and was offered a chair to sit in. They wanted me to try making one of the small wraps in the woman's hair, but I had no idea how to do it so I was soon replaced by an expert. The best part was when they all started playing with my hair, my favorite! They had me get up and practice their traditional dance. It really is very difficult to get the rhythm down. It doesn't help when everyone else is cracking up about how funny I look trying to do it. Then the ladies asked me to teach them a traditional American dance. I had no choice but to teach them the Macarena and the Cotton Eyed Joe. They thought that both dances were very difficult, but they are much faster learners than I am. I was just getting ready to leave when they invited me to share their dinner with them. I really wasn't hungry, but I know how important it is in this culture to be able to share with a guest, so I said yes. I got a bowl with posho (a loaf of sticky white millet) and beans. I ran back to get my hot sauce to share. The ladies made the mistake of pouring as much hot sauce on theirs as I did on mine. I think they thought it was ketchup. One lady put the hot sauce on her son's beans. The poor kid took a handful of beans and then started screaming and crying. I felt so bad! them women wanted me to take pictures of them, so I did. Then they asked me to show them the pictures on my laptop. I brought out my laptop and we went through the pictures I took of them and some of my other albums. They wanted to see pictures of America, but would then make clucking/tsking noises when they saw my pictures. I realized when I got back to my house that I had dropped my memory card in the yard somewhere. I went back to look for it and told one of the ladies I had dropped it. I gave up, but then Cassie, Ryan and Tim came out to help me try looking again. When we reached the spot we saw that all of the women had gathered to look around for it. It was really sweet and touching that they were searching in the dark for my little memory card. We found it quickly when we added our flashlights to the search.

We said goodnight again and then went to the boys' hut to play cards in the candlelight. My friend from the US called and so I had a great conversation with him for a while. It's always wonderful to get calls from the US.