Sun and chocolate chip cookies

After a very very cold weekend (now, Chicago folk no complaining that yours was worse-I have no heating!), I am thrilled to be in Tafraoute where the sun is shining and de-thawing my frozen bones.

I spent an enjoyable weekend with some of my close Peace Corps Volunteer friends, catching up after our varied holiday activities.  Although the cold made doing anything a chore, we still enjoyed using a lot of the supplies I brought from home to cook some delicious meals.  Taco Bell packets, Grillmates, M&Ms!

Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies...real Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies!  A couple of my local girls stopped by and were fascinated by the interesting ingredients.  Vanilla extract, brown sugar, chocolate chips- all new to them.  Thanks to my dear mother, it looks like I have enough supplies to make many batches of cookies in the near future.  A little taste of home.

In the evening I took a very pleasant bucket bath (think literally buckets, water heated on the stove, over a drain) using the new shampoo, conditioner, facewash, and B&BW body wash I brought from America.  Thanks to Stephanie I smell like Midnight Pomegranate today.  :)

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the girls who are participating in the development of the women's center.  Let's hope they completed the various tasks I "assigned" them to do while I was in America.  It is amazing how dedicated they are to getting this accomplished, so I am sure they went above and beyond my suggestions.  And of course, chocolate chip cookies are in order as a snack for the meeting.

Later this week there is some sort of festival- I am not quite clear on what we are celebrating, but according to my friends in the village, Friday will not be a day to miss.  Food, singing, dancing, what more could I ask for?

Oh, and in a glorious moment today I discovered the road from Ait Oafka to my site is complete, and instead of taking 2 1/2 hours to get to Tafraoute by bus, it only took 1!  Yay!