The food cravings have officially arrived...

Last night, I joined the rest of the trainees in my community at a "spot" (that's what they call bars here-basically just a small room with tables and sometimes a fan) to celebrate three birthdays... I found out a few things at this spot that I'd like to share with you. First of all, there is a giant poster of Jesus on the wall, which is sort of a funny thing to have at a bar, but it makes sense, because here in the South, God is VERY important! About 75% of the shops here are named something along the lines of "Glory to God hair salon" or "Blessed tire shop." Every taxi has a crucifix and some sort of sticker with Jesus on it, and even when we went to visit the district assembly (local government) two days ago, the chief executive told us that "We must trust that God will take care of the people in our district." I'm anxious to see the differences in the North once I get there, considering they are so strongly Muslim...
I have also discovered that the alcohol here is little different from the states. The average beer is about twice the size of an American beer, but hard liquor is the drink of choice here. Namely Apateshi and gin. When we went to greet the chiefs in our home-stay village, everyone was offered a shot, which tends to be the trend with any traditional ceremony and religious activity. At this particular occasion, we were offered a shot of schnapps because that's what we brought as a gift (you must always bring hard liquor with you when greeting a chief, as sort of a goodwill offering). We all had the option of either drinking it, or taking a very small sip and pouring the rest out on the ground as an offering to the ancestors. This is what I chose to do, considering it was 7:30 in the morning... Anyway, my home-stay father is one of the chiefs, and he watched me toss my drink on the ground, so later he approached me with a very concerned look on his face. He said to me "Ya, why you don't take your drink? You do not drink?!? I think this is very bad!" I said to him, "Well, I just didn't know how that drink would affect me, so I chose to offer it to the ancestors. But maybe next time I will take the drink if it is small." He was very relieved when I said this, to which I laughed and we continued walking. I'm still getting used to some of the cultural norms and expectations here, so when situations like this happen, I do my best to laugh it off and learn from it... The other type of alcohol that is consumed a lot here is Apateshi, which is distilled locally and made out of palm wine. It tastes like gasoline, basically, which makes sense since it has an alcohol content of over 75%. Yes, you read that correctly, over 75%!! My family enjoys Apateshi quite often, though they also are devout Christians, which is yet another cultural difference that it fascinating to me!

Well, that's about all I have time for today. I'm hoping to buy some fabric today to have a tailor sew a dress for me this week. Tomorrow, the entire group of trainees will be taking a "field trip" to Boti Falls for hiking and checking out the waterfalls, which I'm so excited about!! It will be great to do some sightseeing and hanging out with everyone without the pressure of training...