Some random things ...

:The deal with the food here:

The food here is actually pretty “American”. They eat LOTS of carbs- I’m guessing because it fills you up fast. We have either noodles, potatoes, French fries, or rice for EVERY LUNCH & EVERY DINNER. And boy do I love it! Then we usually have some kind of vegetable like peas or green beans or carrots. Then we’ll have fish or beef (which I don’t really eat) and/or beans for protein. And Sabine, our cook here at the Gitarama guest house, is a fabulous cook as I said before. Unfortunately she is leaving this weekend, so we’re all very sad. BUT we have a new girl, Jeanine, who is learning a lot from Sabine and also cooks really good!

There are times, however, where we are a little unsure of something on the table. If that’s the case and someone asks, “Hey, what’s that?” It doesn’t matter what it is … I’ll always respond with, “That’s called ‘Good’”. Because … well, it always is! Seriously!

But you see … there’s a little bit of a problem with food and me here. No, no … not THOSE kind of problems … Sicko’s. I wouldn’t talk about that on the blog! But really, I have a problem here. I don’t know what it is, but I eat, and eat, and eat and I RARELY get full. Sometimes I think, “Hmm well maybe I should just keep eating a little less and eventually I’ll be eating the same portion size as everyone else here!” I mean, do I have a hole in my stomach or what? If it’s not that problem it’s that I eat, get full, then an hour later I’m STARVING again. But I’m really not starving … three full meals a day? :::Ya, hardly starving Kristina, hardly starving:::

:Laundry:

I’m actually really surprised you all haven’t asked about laundry. I think that’s one of the biggest shocks! Then again, maybe it’s just a shock to me. So apparently there are NO such thing as washers and dryers here. If there were, it would be called “mom” and “clothesline”. I didn’t have to do any laundry until the second week here, so Alana, Caleb, Emily and I all learned how together. We start with our own bucket of cold water, add powder soap (brand name “Naomi”), and wash away. This is going be a little hard to explain, but how we do it (or supposed to do it) is by taking a part of the material in one hand, another part in the other hand and basically rub it together as hard as you can with your knuckles. I chose not to do it this way and so far it’s working for me. My clothes are coming out decently clean, so as long as I don’t stink right!? I just feel like if I rub the material together like that then it’s just going to get really stretched out and ware the material.

Alright so that was just the washing part- now comes the rinsing! So we all share the rinse buckets. After we ring out the soapy water as much as we can, we put it in the first rinse bucket, get as much soap out as possible, then again ring it out before it goes in the last rinse bucket. I’m sure you can guess the last little step here, but just so I can fully explain my experience here … I’ll walk you through it. Finally we rinse our stuff in the third bucket, ring it out, and let it dry on the clothesline for a day or two (depending on if you’re not so smart like us and wash your clothes right before it rains). Ya … our first time washing clothes we had to wait like two and a half days. Apparently college doesn’t teach you everything these days! Well, there ya have it … good ol’ fashion laundry! Aren’t you jealous? Haha Just kidding!

:How to Comment:

I got a great response from many of you after my last blog. Thank you, thank you! You can pretty much say anything you want because I will read them all and I have been. Thanks for the compliments- I really appreciate them all! I guess I just want some feedback and hear what you all want to know about. I would assume that’s why there is that option on the website, but only for those who feel like it. No pressure- I promise!! Here’s how you do it: At the end of each blog there is a button that says “comments”. Click on it and there should be some kind of button on that page that says “post comment” and you fill out the little form and write a note. Hopefully this is right because I haven’t done it yet, but one of my friends here is telling me what to tell you! If it doesn’t work I’ll punch him in the arm- don’t worry! (Just kidding!!)

***But again, thanks to all of you who are reading and responding! I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy!