Livingstone in photos!

Hey everyone! I'm a bit behind on holiday blogging, so expect more posts soon. Since I already have these photos on my computer though, I just wanted to give you a look at what I've been up to so far: 

We had the great opportunity to peruse a local market in Livingstone and have a meal there! Fairly similar to Namibian cuisine, and pretty tasty!

A close up of our food!  

We also got to take a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river, where we saw this little guy chilling on the bank.

And, of course, we met several hippo pods!

My fellow PCVs and I enjoying the cruise!

And then, just to add some adrenaline to the equation, Andre and I conquered the bridge swing and bungee jump!

Bridge swing, Vic Falls

Bungee jump - 111 meters, Vic Falls

All in all, a fantastic adventure. I'll try to catch you up on what's going on in Malawi soon :) 

Merry Christmas!

welcoming the holidays.

Holidays away from home have the potential to be awful. Thankfully, my Thanksgiving this year was not.

I had a lot of baking to get done, so right after school I started on some chocolate chip cookies for our Grade 7 farewell party the following day. A few of my favorite (I’ll admit it, I have favorites…) learners dropped by to help. We had a great time interpreting my recipe, practicing fractions as we doubled it, and (of course) taste testing!

Then the secretary from my school came over for a previously promised muffin lesson, so we whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins, and I also showed her how to work my gas oven (she just bought one recently).

In the midst of this, I was also making a Thanksgiving family favorite of mine – Challah. This Jewish recipe was especially perfect given that Thanksgiving coincided with the first day of Chanukah this year – something that won’t happen again in our lifetime!

Later in the afternoon my friend and fellow PCV, Bonnie, came over for the night and we made a delicious chocolate pie to share with my host family. Unfortunately, we didn’t cook the filling quite enough, so it ended up more like chocolate pudding. Fortunately – it was still delicious!

The original plan was for Bonnie and I to eat traditional food with my family, but they ended up not cooking that night, so we instead went back into my kitchen and whipped up some steamed broccoli and roasted potatoes. That might not sound like much… but to two vegetable starved PCVs, it was perfect!

So there you have it, Thanksgiving was a success!

On a different note, today is the last day of school! I’ve made it through my first year of teaching, and my English learners have all made a lot of progress. It’s time to celebrate by taking a new adventure… first stop, Victoria Falls! I’ll be heading that way this weekend, looking forward to spending time in new places, meeting new people, and trying new things (like maybe bungee jumping?). I’ll try to post updates where I can, but don’t expect much for the next few weeks. (Not that you would, given my sporadic posting history…. :/ sorry!)