My Day . . .

At night I wake up because of the heavy pounding rain against the single paned windows, and roof. There is lightening, bright enough to read and write by, that shoots its way through the heavy curtains. The thunder makes your rib cage vibrate and will shake you out of a deep slumber.
The next morning I am very much awake and invigorated after the P90X workout my Mom and I do. We've done it religiously every morning since we've moved into our apartment. I love it, and it gets me out of bed in the morning. Then I will go and attempt to take a shower. Which is also very slow like all Liberians sense of urgency. The water pressure isn't very high and there is limited warm water in the tank for our building. So the water needs to be shut off in between the 'Shampoo, Rinse and Repeat". After this, all of us see Dad off to work and eat breakfast. So far it has consisted of eggs, cream of wheat (which was new to us) cereal, a piece of bread the size of my palm with PB+J on it, homemade doughnuts from out cook Martha, hot chocolate or juice. Me and the kids do our individual school work or studies until lunchtime, when Dad returns home. We have had egg-salad, spaghetti, grilled cheese, tuna, sausages (which is hot dogs) and a few other native foods.
The family will then go about doing the different activities set out for the day. But yesterday my Mom and I went shopping in town at our three favorite grocery stores. Payless, ERA and Stop and Shop. We have compared prices at all three and shop at the least expensive one for more of our bulk items. Some things that shocked me were seeing the $18 ten pound bag of potatoes, $13 dollar Costco sized bag or Tortilla Chips, $7-11 cereal and the little 8 to 10 ounce Ben and Jerry's Ice cream on sale for $15! We don't buy these things, but its crazy how much more expensive they are here compared to the States. We are sticking to the off-brand Lebanon food items, which taste just as good. Everywhere we have looked, there has been no lettuce. The restaurants have salad on their menu, but say the don't serve it anymore when we ask. That is the one thing I miss most from my meals back home! Luke had tears in his eyes when he started talking about our food back home.
The African food is really really good, but it is always jut one course. ALWAYS rice, with some stew or soup over it. There isn't a night here we haven't had rice. Once I am home, my diet will consist of all greens and no spicy foods! :)
Martha, our cook, laughs at us when we tell her a dish is too spicy. She says we are "Crazy white people!". But our taste buds have become more accustomed to it thankfully.
Its been great so far, and am excited for the rest to come.
~Meg