My life as a Rollercoaster.

Sounds like a good title for a book, no?

Anyways, the other day I was at the market and I finally found the soy beans!! Yay protein! But these little guys are no edamame. Nope. I first have to sort through them to check for bad ones and bugs and rocks and whatnot. Then I have to bring some water to boil, and only then am I allowed to throw in the soy beans. Apparently, if soy beans get into contact with cold water before boiling, they produce a bad smell and taste. The beans must gently boil for 45 minutes to deactivate the protein or something, otherwise people are unable to digest/utilize the protein, and then what would be the point of eating soy beans? Oh and get this, after cooking them for 45 min, I just rinse them off, and then I can lay them out in a thin layer to dry out. And after 3 days they are dry, and then I can take them to the mill to may soy flour! I think I am going to be a happy person, now that I have found the soy bean.

Last night I made sweet and sour soybeans. It was quite an effort, and in the end it did not taste much different from my delightful teriyaki/adobo sauce. So next time, I will save time and ingredients and just make teriyaki/adobo soy beans. Regardless of ho much effort they were, they were delicious and I was happy to ingest a bundle of protein.

Seven days until Christmas. and eight days until I go on safari! I am going up north to a city called Natitingou. I have heard great things about this city and how gorgeous it is. So we will just see about that. Either way it will be nice to go on vacay and spend some time with other volunteers that I have not seen in FORever, well since stage ended back in September. It is Dennis’s birthday on Christmas. awww, he’s a Christmas baby. Dennis is a great guy and I am glad that a bunch of us we be gathering for his birthday! It should be a lot of fun.

And then I do not know what plans are in store for New Year’s. I hear that Christmas Eve is the bigger of the two holidays, so I don’t know what is going to go on. Or where I am going to go.

Alright, it is now 10:02 and I wanna bike down to the cyber and get some exercise. I am trying to shed the pounds I gained while stuck in Dakar. I guess one good thing about being away from home I don’t have to worry about those holiday pounds that always get to me. ;)