Time keeps on ticking...

I am in the midst of my last few days of model school, and we are less than two weeks from swearing in!  Where is time going!? 

Friday, July 26^th was Liberia’s Independence Day, and it was great to have a three-day weekend!  We spent the day at home, cooking and just hanging out.  Many neighborhood children stopped by, telling me that “their 26^th is on me.”  What does that mean?  It means that I am supposed to give them something so they can celebrate the 26^th.  I ended up buying a bunch of “stick candy” – lollipops, actually – and passing those out to the children who regularly are at our house. 

My ma cooked us cabbage soup with “cow meat” – beef – and it was delicious.  So good.  I hope she makes it again.  :)  We hung out as a family and enjoyed a day off; overall, it was a great way to celebrate Liberia’s 166^th birthday!

Saturday, we headed to the market so that I could buy some lappa to get a few outfits made, including one for our swearing in!  I found some really pretty prints and we took them to a tailor.  Next week, hopefully, they will be finished, and I will be ready to meet Ma Ellen!  I also picked up some popcorn for super cheap for us to cook at home – hooray for an easy snack!

The rest of the weekend was pretty typical – we did laundry, cooked some meals, and just hung out at home.  I worked on some lesson plans and just got ready for the week.  This week has been busy with the last few days of model school, and it couldn’t be going better!  My class seems to know the content pretty well, and I hope that they do well on the final exam tomorrow. 

We have all settled into a routine here, and things seem to be the same day after day.  It will be hard to break this routine in the next two weeks, once Sarah and I move to Pleebo, but I am sure that we will be just fine once we get there.  We found out a few days ago that we are going to get to take a helicopter to our site, and I’m super excited! 

My timeline for the rest of my time as a Peace Corps Trainee looks something like this.  Friday, August 9^th, we move back into Doe Palace and get to spend the weekend with air conditioning and running water.  Then, on August 12^th, we go to Monrovia and are sworn in as volunteers.  We get to spend the night in a hotel in Monrovia – big city life! – and then fly to Pleebo on either the 13^th or 14^th, depending on the UN flight schedule.  We can take one small bag with us, and the Peace Corps car will bring our luggage out to us in a week or so. 

I’m getting very anxious to move, yet it is so bizarre to me that we have been here for six weeks.  Time is really flying, and I hope that this is not indicative of my next two years.  I would like to enjoy my time here :)

I hope all is well back home!  I miss you all.

Much love,

Caitlin