Poisson et Francais

6 Dec. 2010
Across the road from campus is a small hut that serves as an African version of McDonalds. Alyssa and I got to spend the morning hanging out there with a woman named Amie and learning to cook Ivoirian roadside style. We started out with a bucket of chopped fish (The whole fish - it looked like it went straight from the river to the cutting board to the bucket. Heads, tails, skin, eyes… yum! J ), rolled it in flour, and cooked it in a skillet of oil balanced on some rocks over an open fire. People would stop by and sit on a bench in the back of the hut and eat bowls of attieke and beans with onions, peppers, and fish, all drizzled with oil from the pan the fish were cooked in. Some would get it in bags to go, and one man even brought a loaf of bread with him to have her fill so he could take it with him.
We also got to practice our French with the customers that stopped by. It’s nice that they’re all so patient and willing to help us learn. Its amazing to me how many languages people here are able to speak. As I’m presently struggling to just understand French, my admiration for those who can communicate in three and four (and more) languages is growing by the day.
7 Dec. 2010
Rod took us on a nature walk today, and showed us some of the amazing variety of plants right in our own backyard. It was a nice change of pace from sitting in class, and it was fun to get to learn some of the names and uses for different things