June 9

Last night I went to meet the group of Americans and Europeans at a market. The “market” was actually the name of the place, and it turned out to be a restaurant. I ordered a fish, it was quite tasty. The people there were not chatty. I’m not sure what it was, but no one was in a very cheerful mood. My phone is having problems, I can hear the person on the other end, but they cannot hear me. So I have been txting when need be. I would need to take two different taxis back home, plus walk down a dirt road for about 15 minutes in the dark so naturally I wanted someone to come with me, especially because it was my first time outside of the home by myself. Everyone lived near by and no one wanted to take the cab with me. luckily I was talking to a local who works for an NGO that deals with food security. He has worked with NDEF before and knows where the office is. He offered to drive me back in his motorcycle because he lives near by. I wouldn’t ride the motorcycle with him, but he said he would escort me back. So he did. I told him I would pay for his taxi ride back but I wanted to give him something else, but I don’t really have anything. But I do have candy canes that I brought just in case. So I gave him two candy canes and he seemed pretty delighted. i lucked out with Samuel and decided not to go out again at night by myself.

Today we thought we were going to a conference but it is actually Friday and Saturday so we did work around the farm. We fixed the structure that you put cuttings in and then I set it up for new ones. I learned how to prepare cuttings and then I planted them. My new morning ritual will be to wipe down the inside part of the plastic to allow for the sun to shine through and to mist them with water.