Feliz Dia de Gracias!

Yesterday, for Thanksgiving, I got together with some of my old training group in our old training center, where there is an oven. We proceeded to have a faux Thanksgiving. There was no turkey so we bought chicken, no cranberry sauce so we bought cranberry juice (which is $7 here!) Some things did turn out pretty well, like the mashed potatoes, green beans and apple pie. We shared the meal with some of the Salvadoran staff and they didn't hate it! Smashing success.

As we started to cook, we realized the stove and the oven weren't heating up. After many failed attempts, we ended up building a wood fire in a barrel in the backyard and cooking with that. Then someone figured out the problem with the stove was the circuit breaker. But we're already so Peace Corps that we didn't think of American things like that. Go hardcore us.

I feel like I always promise pics on this blog and never deliver. But the computer is now oh-so-slowly loading my pics onto facebook. I hadn't put up any so far, so we're talking like shots from the airport in September.

What else is new? I finally moved into my house and bought a lot of the things I needed. I had to use up most of my $450 move-in allowance. The house is a pretty yellow three-room thing in the center of town, between the church and the casa comunal (community center.) Still no fridge yet though. I have a terrible cold caused, I think, by moving from a very cold house to a very warm one.

I didn't find out about all the things going on in Mumbai until we turned on CNN at the hotel this morning. My heart goes out to everyone there and to everyone affected.

Paz y amor. Send me a note.