Monday, 1-12-09

After classes today, we were taken downtown…to care for several items. Darlene and I had “passport photos” taken, to submit with the applications for extending our visas into February. We also exchanged our empty propane tank for a full tank. (Our stovetop burns propane fuel.)

We also stopped by a small grocery called Au Bon Prix (“At a Good Price”) for few groceries. Overall, food costs here are about the same, or a little less, than at home. However, the prices of individual items differ greatly from those in the US. For example, today we bought a large loaf of good bread for US $1, but the 250 grams of cheese we got cost US $8. To give another example: While a small jar of peanut butter costs ca. US $8 here, we can buy four large avocados for US $1.

We have been eating well. Tonight we had rice and beans (with some spinach) for our main entrée, along with pineapple and papaya for fruit.

Darlene called the US embassy today, to make contact with the ambassador: we expect to have an audience with her before we leave.

Tuesday, 1-13-09

I had a very full, busy day! In the breaks between my two classes, I went into both Darlene’s and Barb’s classrooms and took photos. During one session of small group work in my own classroom, I took photos of my own students as well. Then after classes this afternoon, after returning to our apartment, I met with several of my students in personal conferences. Darlene finally put a stop to it, and forced me to stop and rest!

While resting(!), I downloaded the photos from my camera as well as Darlene’s. Then all three of us looked through today’s set of pics. Now the ladies are preparing dinner (we’re having rice and beans again!). After dinner, this evening I have to finish a lecture on which I am working for tomorrow afternoon. (As they say, there is no rest for the wicked!)

Yesterday I tried to upload some photos to this blog site. But I did not succeed. I think the “problem” may be that I am taking photos on my (relatively new) camera using the maximum pixel density, and the web site has to scale down the pixel density, and so the program gets stalled mid-way through the process. I will try it with photos from Darlene’s older (i.e., very old) camera, which does not have the capacity for the same pixel density.

In preparing this blog, I have just been interrupted for dinner and then another task. The last container shipped here from the US contained ca. 10 old bicycles. I was asked to inspect them: most need some repair. I also examined a set of old cabinets (base and upper) that someone donated to HAU. The base is 90 inches, with a set of matching upper cabinets; there is also another set of upper cabinets, ca. 80 inches in length. Darlene is thinking that these might be useable in the Nursing lab.
Well, I do need to rest this evening, so I’ll sign off for now