6/20/11

I’m starting to feel very at home here. When I come home I usually find mama lydie behind the house fixing dinner and i usually ask her if i can help. Today I cut the garlic while mama lydie and anne made gumbo soup called héro (like “arrow”) and cous cous de maize which is basically grits. Except instead of putting okra in their gumbo here they cut up the leaves of the okra plant. (and it’s still slimy!) Don’t worry mom, I told mama lydie you made a wonderful gumbo and i told her all the different ingredients we use in the states. After that i headed over to eric’s to watch him make his birthday cake, but he was still ironing his cake. Stefani, his host mom, tricked me into peeling potatoes while she washed the cake pans—she’s very good at getting people to work when they’re at her house. Anyway, I came back home after all the potatoes were peeled and my family ate dinner. Jerry and I watched an anime tv show called death note in the living room. It’s just strange how quick I made this place home.

I think I may have been african in a different life. My friend Rusty once told me a time when he went outside his house in the country in Missouri and saw his dad sitting and looking out on the yard. Rusty asked him what he was doing and he responded, “Just watching the grass grow.” I love that. That’s how they live here. Tonight, Mama Lydie and I stood silent in the kitchen for a long five minutes watching and waiting for the water to boil for my filter. There’s a lot of porch sitting here too. Yesterday, papa pimento and I sat on the porch for probably 3 hours after I finished my laundry and just talked and listened to barry white and elton john cds. I also told him about Antonio Pomodoro, father’s day, weddings in america, and other random things that, and now every now and then he will walk by and say “tony pomodoro” or my favorite, “my belly done flop” which is pidgin for “I’m full” and is guaranteed to be said by my host dad after dinner at least 10 times. He’s a comedian. Other awesome pidgin phrases:

gov’ment cetchum fella – police

and

buyam sellam – used clothes venders