13 September 2016: Corny dog party!

                

H2O transporter extraordinaire

          First, one cool thing that happened in my village was that Jill the orphanage director was having a retirement party. After my classes were over at school, I went over there and found all the orphanage staff and every important village person eating lunch in their multipurpose room. I met the new director and his wife and super chubby-cheeked toddler. After we were done eating, some of the kids came in to sing, a few boys did a gumboot dance, and then others did this awesome and hilarious skit about a poor girl with 4 different sugar daddies: her uncle, her teacher, the sangoma (witch doctor), and the bishop. In the skit, the girl ended up getting HIV while her sister, who was faithful to one man, didn’t get it. I've seen several of these skits that Jill puts on with the kids, and I think they're great. Not only do the kids get to practice their English, but there's always some kind of moral attached. 

The choir singing

Skit

Jill and me

                Then it was time to start what I had been envisioning for months: a combination birthday and corny dog-making party. I skipped out of the orphanage and collected Jen, Tyler, Emily, and Jeff who had arrived to my village on the taxi. We walked up my hill to my house and I just basked in the glory of all the food they brought, and we immediately made some mac and cheese. The next day, we woke up with the cold wind blowing and started off for the little waterfall near my house. The Bo Bo was quite happy to hike up there with us and, once again, piss off a herd boy by scattering his sheep. Then Tyler and I went down to the orphanage to collect British Andrew to join in the food festivities and introduce him to the wonders of American fried food and Mexican food. Jen and Jeff were already in the middle of breakfast burritos, and we all clumsily ate them while the dog scarfed many dropped bits off the floor. Having a dog makes cleaning so much easier sometimes.

"Family portrait," complete with the dog

View from the top

Jen and the doge and me

They also helped me re-attach my latrine door with wire and zip ties, which had completely blown off in the wind the previous night

                Then we made the glorious corny dogs, skewering hot dogs, covering them with batter and cheese, and frying them in my cast iron skillet, topping them with peri peri (hot sauce), ranch (made from a packet of ranch mix- ranch dressing doesn’t exist here), and ketchup (which, for some reason, is called tomato sauce here). My heart was so happy. It grew three sizes that day, both due to said happiness and because of all the new layers of crap clogging my arteries. We had more batter, so we decided to fry other things: pickles, green beans, and knockoff Oreos. Murica.

Per peri addiction

Chef Jeff

They are glorious, aren't they?

                Side note: Some people, my mother in particular, thinks that I have become a bit food-obsessive. It’s absolutely true. When you live in a village that only has tomatoes and onions alongside dry goods, you do get food-obsessive.

                After everyone left, I was alerted that in the Quthing taxi rank, they overheard other people talking about all the makhooa (white people) in my village. My party was clearly the hot gossip right then. Between all the food, the people actually coming all that way to visit me in my village, and the various card and board games we’ve all become so adept at, it was a great way to celebrate my quarter-century.