My across the street neighbor, Ceil, and some kids from the neighborhood singing their best rendition of "The Rat and the Cheese". Zahn, my "up the street" neighbor's son turned 6 on Saturday and they had a big birthday party. Kids from all over the village came. Zahn is in the middle with the light tan collared shirt. My house is the white one in the background. On the northern end of the island. The falls of Baleine are somewhere over the ridges behind me.

"The Rat and the Cheese" 03/02/2003 This has been a very busy week. I was going to start a new computer course for the teachers that work at the primary school, but on Friday I was told that I had to attend MCSE training all week instead. That meant that I had to wake up at 5:30 to travel all the way to Ottley Hall. Then nine and a half hours of Microsoft this and Microsoft that. After that, the trek home. That left little time for anything other than going straight to bed. I missed being able to hang out with my neighbors in the afternoon. I did learn quite a bit though. On Thursday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a cocktail party for the Peace Corps volunteers in honor of Peace Corps Day. It was really nice, except that some of the volunteers drank a little too much again. Fortunately I wasn't one of them this time. Seeing as the slightest little sip of alcohol gives me a headache I've decided to just give up trying. Let me see...Nasty tasting beer or a nice yummy Orange Ju-C (Ju-C is the local brand of soda pop). Today, I went for a hike to the falls of Baleine with Kevin, Martha, Matt, Amanda, and Mr. Kim. Mr. Kim is Kevin's neighbor and the principal at the Owia primary school. The hike was really tough. The trail skirts along the North edge of the volcano, so it is very very steep. You are always going straight up or straight down on a trail that is tilted to one side and very muddy. Then there are the thorny palm trees, itchy plants, and mosquitoes. The forest is extremely thick which makes it ideal for ganja farming. Only about 30 minutes after we had left the last town, Fancy, we came across a guy with a shotgun guarding the trail. Good thing we had Mr. Kim along. There are ganja farms everywhere. It isn't too dangerous to be wandering around if you are a scruffy looking Peace Corps hiking to the falls. Look out if you are a tourist though. Chances are pretty good that you will be donating your backpack to pirates as most tourists try to take a boat to the falls. Anyways...The falls are incredible. Well worth the 8 hour hike. Unfortunately, I don't really have a good picture of the falls since the mist kept fogging up my camera lens.