Back to school season in full swing

 

Saturday was a workday at the Social Center where 60 kids and counting live, but the payoff was worth it. We hung mosquito nets over all their beds - malaria is a HUGE problem in this area and they've been promised nets by the government for years and never seen a one. This summer during our camp an NGO Peace Corps works with managed to donate these, and getting them up was a great back to school hands-on project for the group - complete with a little chaos and the 60 various ways kids went about tying them to their beds. Who doesn't love a canopy bed?
Did you know, nets are so important because malaria-carrying mosquitos only come out from dusk to dawn?

  

 

 

 

Birthday / back to school party for my scholarship recipients was a blast - friends and the birthday girl's twin daughters came along, and my banana cake and chocolate chip cookies shockingly got rave reviews -- rare when we share American dishes.



After net-hanging, it was a soymilk and tofu-making demo for the older students and personnel of the centre social, including all the women who cook for them and who I'm hoping will work soy into the repertoire.

 

We start with dry soybeans, pick out all the rocks and bugs, soak them overnight, grind them, then squeeze out the milk.

We boil the milk, sweeten it for soymilk, or continue by adding vinegar which makes it coagulate, and you get a thicker cottage cheese-y substance that you then press...

The best part is, nothing goes to waste. The remains after you squeeze out the soymilk are pigs' favorite food...and there were plenty around to enjoy this batch.

After pressing, cutting, and frying, they taste just like chicken nuggets and no one believes there is not meat inside. They were thrilled to learn - the process is a bit tedious, but most of their food prep is, and they have the time, but not the money to buy meat, which is why this is a perfect fit.

 

Four of us nearbye volunteers, one staff member (my dear friend Natalie, far right), and the WONDERFUL new director of the Center in the middle. Dream team  : )

There is nothing I love more than being asked to participate in some ceremony, photo op or social occasion solely because my whiteness is believed by the organizers to lend some prestige or credibility to the event/institution. This happens a LOT, and is quite blatent, bizarre and uncomfortable...but a definite reality of the strange racial interplay / complex alive and well here. My expression tells my unease at being asked to give a speech to a potential donor visiting an organization that I have just become a member of?! Hmm...bit fishy. I am also insanely jealous of the beeautiful African mask he is being given.  



Now this part I can get into: spontaneously requesting to show off the songs I taught these kids this summer, to add a little life to the ceremony.