This past weekend

On Saturday we had to send off Fiona, my roomie. I can't believe that I lived with her for four weeks, the time went so fast. She was a great roomie and now I have someone to go visit in Australia! Bringing her to the airport reminded me that I only have four weeks left and I got a bit sad. I am really starting to get into the culture and be comfortable here and I will be very sad to leave. Also, new volunteers came on Saturday and I got two new room mates, one from DC and another from Texas. My friend Meghan moved into my room too. They are all great and I am excited to get to know some more people.

On Sunday, the three local volunteers took four of us on a hike to a waterfall. It had been raining the day before and the trail was quite muddy but we had a great time. The waterfall was really great and there was a good swimming hole at the bottom. I jumped right in, knowing that the best way to deal with cold water is to go in quick. We had a good time splashing around and it was good to be cool in the heat. It was a nice hike through the jungle and we saw avacado trees, coffee trees, and plenty banana trees. A troop of local boys followed us to the waterfall, intrigued by the Mzungus.

On the way back to the car we stopped at a locals house to learn how to make coffee. They had some seeds for us which we shucked and then they built us a fire to roast them. The little boys helped us make the fire by starting a strip of PLASTIC on fire and letting it drip into the ashes and sticks. It was a bit crazy. We roasted the beans and then ground them up. It smelled so good and reminded me of home (by which I mean Starbucks). It was a good way to wrap up the weekend.