Things are looking up!

The photo to the right is what a cashew looks like straight from the tree. The nut grows inside an outter shell that sits on top of an apple like fruit. The fruit grows in yellow or red and is edible. It tastes sweet and the texture is nothing like an apple. its actually quite rubbery. The fruits are full of acid and leave me feeling sick every time i eat them. The nuts are pulled off the fruit and are cooked over a fire in the shell. The nuts are full of acid that can burn your skin if the nut is cracked open uncooked (remember what happened to me last year??) The women cook the nuts and then peel off the outer shell leaving what we call a cashew. The outter shell can cause a huge rash (remember what happened to me on a different occasion last year) and many people are extremely allergic to it. Thats why cashews are so expensive. They are very hard to process. I have become very allergic to all parts of the cashew and the fruit. I am staying far away from any form of cashew this year!

Today, i did have my first mango of the season. The hot season came with a vengance and mangoes are already ripening. Mangoes season is a great time of year because i live near lots of mango orchards and that means tasty fruit at all hours!

The school garden is finally up and running. The mason is not quite finished with the well but he finally reached water about 9.5 meters down. The school got really excited about the garden and decided to go ahead and plant in the garden even though the well is not finished yet. they are using a nearby faucet to water the garden. Using the faucet can get expensive so I am hoping this will be extra pressure on the workers to get the well finished asap. The school planted one section o the garden last week and have been watering it faithfully. I hope they keep up the good work!

Book Mobile news: Our driver accidentally backed the truck into a concrete fence and sidewalk area and did some major damage. The fence was in front of a very expensive, nice house. the owner was actually really nice about the whole situation and we are trying to get it all fixed up for him as quickly as we can. The truck is not doing so well. not really because of the situation with the fence, the truck is just old and is in constant need of repairs. David and I have been having real trouble working with the NGO that co operates the Book Mobile with us. The owner is an american lady that takes our work for granted. People at their organization expect a lot out of us and give us absolutely nothing in return. We have continued working with them because the project is a good one that we both believe in. When we take out the truck, the kids make it all worth it. We are trying to get the truck all fixed up by next week so we can take it out Tuesday to start our March run. I kind of have a feeling its not going to happen but im still keeping my fingers crossed.

I am having another volunteer visit me for the next few days. My friend Daniel and I are going on a two day bike ride and hoping to catch up on some swimming in the Mangroves. I havent spent much time their lately and want to hit up the mangrove beach before i leave... Speaking of beach, Ablaye and i had a wondeful weekend in Poppenguine last weekend. We only stayed for 3 days but it was well worth it. The water was freezing but we swam quite a bit. The water ended up being infested with black jelly fish. Thank God neither of us got stung but we did see several other people that did not end up being so lucky. The first time we entered the water we got out to about waist deep and then we noticed that there were hundreds of jelly fish all around us. It was scary but we managed to get past them and stay out where the water was deeper... for some reason they kept getting washed up to where the water was shallow..Im sure there were planty more that we couldnt see but we tried to forget about them and have a good time. Anyway, the beach was great and the weather was perfect!

I hope everyone at home is doing great. i hear the weather is starting to get warmer and people are spending more time outdoors. Also, enjoy your spring break vacations!!!