So now for some words.

So this is Natasha, a.k.a "Natcho". Isn't her dress lovely? I am wearing a boubou. This photo was taken on the front porch of the director's home for Thanksgiving. I wore this boubou because I knew I was going to need some space. I ate a wonderful meal of corn pudding, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mac and cheese, green beans, salad, stuffing, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cool whip, and mashed sweet potatoes. I was really uncomfortable afterwards, so we took a walk around the director's block and had to take several pauses. But it was amazing and I hope everyone elses' Thanksgiving was awesome, too. Have I explained to everyone what fufu is? Or pate? No? I will try...

1. Fufu is a staple in Togo and is made from either cassava or manioc, yams, cocoyams or plaintains. The root vegetable is first chopped into large chunks and then boiled until soft. The chunks are then pounded using a very large wooden mortar and pestle. Pounding the fufu is very laborious but the end result is very delicious, for some. I think it tastes like pastey mashed potatoes. You eat it with your hands and dip it into a usually boiling tomato based sauce.

2. Pate is made from cornmeal and water that they stir together with a magic wooden wand until it forms into a paste that they place into a bowl to keep its form. Like a jello mold. I don't like it very much and I have never made it. It's also eaten with your hands and with a boiling sauce that always burns the tips of my digits. And then there is beans and gari and I love it and eat it every day with a spoon.

I don't really know if I can explain how I am feeling. Some days I feel good and excited to be here. The next minute though I am ready to go back home and work at Magpies and forget this rollercoaster. It would be so easy to leave. But, I still feel like something really special is going to reveal itself to me. A buried treasure. A strength I didn't know I had. I want to cry just writing this because I miss everyone so much. I looked at the Magpies website today and showed everyone the bakery I keep talking about. I also saw an old picture of myself icing a cake (a sheet cake which actually didn't look too bad considering my history with building those bitches). I looked pretty and healthy even though I ate a pound of cake tops a day. I know being here is going to change me and maybe I need to just let it happen. My 3 months of integrating and accustoming myself to village life is over. It's time to start working. I feel useless and uninspired. It's hot. I'm a whiney baby and I want to help, but I still am not quite sure of what my role is here. I'm treated differently and with more respect that I don't see given to all. It's going to be weird to come back home and just be me again and not the yovo living in the big house that makes a specactle of herself when she pounds fufu with the kids. I miss home, but it will pass. It will come back again. And so will I in 2 years. I'm sending out lots of love to all of you. Please forgive me for not keeping up with e-mails. But, letters are so much better because I can read them over and over again at home. I read Alexia's letter to me about 10 times the day I got it. And I've read Mama's and Peggy's and Andrea's letters weeks after I first got them. Peace out y'all. Hi Niko and Chelsea you sweet little morsels...Bye byee-lo (this is bye in Ewe, Ghanaian influence?)...