10 December 2006
29 November 2006
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you got to celebrate with some loved ones and eat some good food. We got to do exactly that. All of Peace Corps South Africa was invited to Pretoria to celebrate with our new ambassador and his wife at their home – definitely a mansion by my current standards, and probably even my old ones. Their home is set up on top of a hill in a ritzy neighborhood with a great view of the city of Pretoria below, especially for those of us no longer used to hills. As he welcomed all of us, he gave us news that almost brought tears to my eyes. He said we deserved a traditional American dinner, and that they had even gone so far as to have Butterball turkeys and Kayro syrup (which doesn’t exist here) flown in from the US. He said he had been working with his Mozambiquan chef for the past few weeks to perfect pecan and pumpkin pies and things like stuffing and cranberry sauce. Then he told us to feel at home, go explore the house and the grounds, and pointed us in the direction of the two open bars. What a guy!! We thought it was going to be a large dinner for all the Embassy staff as well, but it turned out to be Peace Corps Volunteers and staff and a handful of others. We had a wonderful time, and ate until we were stuffed, and then had large platefuls of dessert. The pecan pie was to die for!! Thank god for Kayro syrup. When time was up, none of us wanted to leave – partly because it was a wonderful place with great food and free drinks, and partly because our stomachs were too full to move. Needless to say, it was a fabulous and very American experience, and we are forever indebted to this guy, even if he was appointed by Bush. :o)
We spent an extra day in Pretoria, allowing our stomachs to shrink back to normal size and using cheap internet and then headed home to our last full week of school. It’s a chaotic time, where teaching doesn’t exactly happen, but educators rush around trying to fill out last minute forms and report cards. The big happening in our life at the moment is the upcoming wedding #2 for our host brother. This Saturday, he will bring his bride home to her new family and they will basically have another wedding all over again, this time in our village. The number of people at our house increases daily as people come from near and far to help finish projects like tiling the front and back porches, cleaning EVERYTHING top to bottom, gathering all the giant cast iron pots from the neighbors along with enough firewood to keep them cooking for 3 days straight, and many other preparations. It’s organized chaos, and maybe not even so organized. I went to get a pitcher of water out of our family’s big water can yesterday, and instead came up with a pitcher of traditional beer. I can’t keep track of all the changes! We are also very excited to host my friend Erik from high school and his wife Rachel, who are in South Africa for part of a long honeymoon and are going to travel very far to visit us and experience this wedding chaos first hand.
I would like to say thanks to those of you who have sent us children’s books for our school’s libraries. We are keeping them all at our home for now, and plan to begin with the libraries next year. It is a project I am very excited about. I would just like to request that anyone else who wishes to send books does so by M-bag at the post office. We have had regular boxes sent and have had to pay LARGE fees to pick them up from the post office for whatever reason (customs and what not). And it’s cheaper for you, the sender, to send by M-bag as well – it’s $1/lb of books. Also, when they ask how much the books are worth, try to keep that amount small, especially if they’re used books, as we think the declared value has something to do with the amount we have to pay for pick up. Thanks!
Lastly I would like to give two quick shout-outs to friends at home. I have heard two pieces of happy news lately, so just wanted to say congrats to Katie H. on her engagement, and another congratulations to Andy & Colleen on their marriage. I wish you all the best.
Andrea
The Spread
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you got to celebrate with some loved ones and eat some good food. We got to do exactly that. All of Peace Corps South Africa was invited to Pretoria to celebrate with our new ambassador and his wife at their home – definitely a mansion by my current standards, and probably even my old ones. Their home is set up on top of a hill in a ritzy neighborhood with a great view of the city of Pretoria below, especially for those of us no longer used to hills. As he welcomed all of us, he gave us news that almost brought tears to my eyes. He said we deserved a traditional American dinner, and that they had even gone so far as to have Butterball turkeys and Kayro syrup (which doesn’t exist here) flown in from the US. He said he had been working with his Mozambiquan chef for the past few weeks to perfect pecan and pumpkin pies and things like stuffing and cranberry sauce. Then he told us to feel at home, go explore the house and the grounds, and pointed us in the direction of the two open bars. What a guy!! We thought it was going to be a large dinner for all the Embassy staff as well, but it turned out to be Peace Corps Volunteers and staff and a handful of others. We had a wonderful time, and ate until we were stuffed, and then had large platefuls of dessert. The pecan pie was to die for!! Thank god for Kayro syrup. When time was up, none of us wanted to leave – partly because it was a wonderful place with great food and free drinks, and partly because our stomachs were too full to move. Needless to say, it was a fabulous and very American experience, and we are forever indebted to this guy, even if he was appointed by Bush. :o)
We spent an extra day in Pretoria, allowing our stomachs to shrink back to normal size and using cheap internet and then headed home to our last full week of school. It’s a chaotic time, where teaching doesn’t exactly happen, but educators rush around trying to fill out last minute forms and report cards. The big happening in our life at the moment is the upcoming wedding #2 for our host brother. This Saturday, he will bring his bride home to her new family and they will basically have another wedding all over again, this time in our village. The number of people at our house increases daily as people come from near and far to help finish projects like tiling the front and back porches, cleaning EVERYTHING top to bottom, gathering all the giant cast iron pots from the neighbors along with enough firewood to keep them cooking for 3 days straight, and many other preparations. It’s organized chaos, and maybe not even so organized. I went to get a pitcher of water out of our family’s big water can yesterday, and instead came up with a pitcher of traditional beer. I can’t keep track of all the changes! We are also very excited to host my friend Erik from high school and his wife Rachel, who are in South Africa for part of a long honeymoon and are going to travel very far to visit us and experience this wedding chaos first hand.
I would like to say thanks to those of you who have sent us children’s books for our school’s libraries. We are keeping them all at our home for now, and plan to begin with the libraries next year. It is a project I am very excited about. I would just like to request that anyone else who wishes to send books does so by M-bag at the post office. We have had regular boxes sent and have had to pay LARGE fees to pick them up from the post office for whatever reason (customs and what not). And it’s cheaper for you, the sender, to send by M-bag as well – it’s $1/lb of books. Also, when they ask how much the books are worth, try to keep that amount small, especially if they’re used books, as we think the declared value has something to do with the amount we have to pay for pick up. Thanks!
Lastly I would like to give two quick shout-outs to friends at home. I have heard two pieces of happy news lately, so just wanted to say congrats to Katie H. on her engagement, and another congratulations to Andy & Colleen on their marriage. I wish you all the best.
Andrea
The Spread
The Pad of the Ambassador....USA!
posted by aliberatinsa at 7:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home