Well it's been another eventful couple of days. I should immediately let everyone know that when I left the library after putting up the last post, Styles, Cassie, Sid, and I went to the local outdoor market to pick up some fresh vegetables to cook for dinner (and perhaps a couple of souveniers for loved ones...). We got some fresh green beans, tomatoes, and potatoes to cook that night. Oh yeah, and I ate worms. And locusts. You heard me. Fried moponi worms, and fried locusts. The lady at the stand wanted me to try, so I did. The moponi worms are quite common around here apparently, and can be bought either fresh or fried. According to everyone I've talked to, they're much better when they're bought fresh and stewed. Unfortunately, the fried ones are texturally repulsive and are extremely greasy and salty. I couldn't get pieces of worm out of my teeth for hours, or perhaps those were locust legs? Locusts, fortunately, are much better and although they're strange at first, they end up tasting like a potato chip. It's just getting past the texture of the legs and shell that are difficult. And because I'm such a wonderful friend and teammate, I bought a whole bag of locusts to bring back to Acacia so that everyone could try them! Cassie handled it the worst, but was adorable, as always. Joe managed to get a series of photos of the faces she made while trying to chew and swallow. Of course, I insisted that she swallow it or else it 'didn't count'.

The following day (07.18) was Madiba Day (Nelson Mandela Day), and it's tradition for everyone to give 67 minutes of community service that day, representing the 67 years of community service that he has given to the country. It was arranged that we would go to a neighboring village to perform community service, where there were many things to do in the various schools, the OVC Center, the farms, etc. As always, I picked the bit that included food, and spent the day at a center for Orphans and Vulnerable Children preparing food, which happened to be for the entire volunteer team that day as well. It was such an amazing experience. Besides being able to learn to make pap, FINALLY!, I got to talk with the many women who keep the center running. So basically, approximately 123 children use the center, but not all of them every day. They go there after school and have a huge meal prepared for them, and are also able to get homework help if they need it. For many of these kids, this is the only meal that they have all day, so their plates are truly loaded up. For that day, we prepared pap, chinese spinach, sweet potatoes, boiled peanuts, chicken, and mashed potatoes with onion. I'm not sure if they would have had all of this had there not been a bunch of volunteers to feed. It was awesome to see how they managed to pull off so much with so little, as getting water to the place where food was being prepared was at least 1/4 mile away. I got to help with that too, and was laughed at by everyone I passed because I was carrying the very heavy bucket with my arms and not on my head. One man saw me struggling with it and instead of helping, he sternly told me "I should learn how to carry things on my head". It's a woman's job around here, I suppose. I went back to the OVC with my half-full bucket of water and got back to helping with the food. After feeding everyone, the volunteer thing wrapped up with a speech from the organizer thanking everyone for their service. Then, we all stood in a circle and joined hands and sang 'Happy Birthday' to Madiba. There were at least 50-60 people and it was very moving. After that, some local high school kids did a traditional South African chant/song and dance. One of them was even drumming on a water bucket. It was really incredible, and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to be a part of something so special.

Upon returning to Acacia, it was just beginning to get dark and I'd just gotten the stew for dinner simmering on the stove. Cassie and I then decided that we wanted to get more avocados from the tree that's right outside our door (had I mentioned that we had one of those?). It was a sight to behold, and after throwing shoes at them, finding a rake to try to knock them off, and Sid boosting me up onto the tree and me trying to shimmy up it...unsuccessfully...Cassie got on Sid's shoulders and knocked some off with a rake. It was funny. Guess you had to be there.

The following morning, we went to the village for a couple meetings. I sat in on the Elderly Women's group again, and we wrapped things up with them. Their #1 priority is getting a creche up-and-running, so I truly hope that the rest of the community finds that to be a priority as well and that somehow, we can make it happen for them in the future. The Water group also met again, which is clearly a big thing, and there was also an Agriculture group and a Business group. We all needed some release after that, so we went to the local gym to exercise for the first time since we'd been here. Long story short, I ended up in a spin class with 12 middle-aged African men. The only female. The only white (well, red) person. They all enjoyed my color-changing abilities and I had one man tell me I looked like I was going to pass out. I'm not sure if they thought it was humorous that I had joined their class, or if they were annoyed that I'd intruded as they all clearly knew each other pretty well. I got a good workout, anyways.

After the gym, we headed back to Acacia as we had to get started on the big dinner we were making for our Univen partners. I made Southern American-style mac and cheese, butternut squash with cinnamon, green beans, and rice. Sid threw some chicken on the braai, and Lipika and Jessica made some beets. We also tried a new beer here called Hansa Pilsner, of which I am a huge fan. The 5 Univen students came over, and dinner was a success! We had a blast, and I learned a dance from another guy who came over named Marcus who was part of the project from the year before.

Today was much less eventful, and we've spent most of it doing logistics things and having meetings. Tonight, however, we get to go to dinner at a Chief's house who works at Univen and has been helping with the project with UVA for years. I'm looking forward to it, as I hear his wife is an incredible cook. I'm going to be the only person ever to come back from Africa fatter than when I left. Well worth it, though.

Love you all!