Happy big news :

Might be able to save up my money in time for a good ticket to see Die Walkürie in December/ January ! They're doing it at La Scala. 4 hours and thirty minutes of the most bombastic opera in the world. In Bolivia I watched the whole ring cycle on DVD over a period of 5 loooong days. Now I'll be able to see one of the parts in person at the greatest opera house ever. Not sure if it will work out, but its cheap to get there just for the night in order to see it.

Now, today as I write, Im thinking of the time frame that we have here as volunteers. What we're able to observe over long periods of time. You really get to catch a large part of the narrative of so many people's lives.

One examle is my friend Mimoun, who was the first person outside of my host family to open up to me. Being here 9 months now, Ive seen him leave to work in Agadir. This past week I went to buy cucumbers to make tzatziki sauce (natural, sugar free yogurt with diced cucumber, garlic salt and curry powder) and when I looked up I saw Mimoun there, the first time in 5 months. Another thing is that for months I knew my little friend Osama, that everyone calls L'italien, and now his mother has arrived from her home outside the Milan airport. Short term things like that, you don't see.

But other things you observe are more direct, happens in five minutes or else you've missed it.

One thing I saw yesterday was that I was moving my ponj that I bought from the taxi stand to my home. The bus there had a flat tire and so they repaired it for the next 20 minutes. Well, one person that I saw get off the bus wandered around Nkob during that time.

I lose track of this, but after some time the van passes... and then I see the man sprinting down the entire length of the main drag, waving his hand frantically at it to stop. He left all his things in the van, went to get a coffee and then the van rushed away after it repaired its tire. He instead was stuck in Nkob. And there was nothing I could do--i didnt have a car--and so I turned down a side street to go to my house.

Another thing that I observed today was both a long distance trend and that was a blink-and-you-missed it kind of thing.

After finishing the tutoring session at Dar Chebab, I went to the cafe next door to practice Spanish with my best language student, Lahcen. His absolute best friend Mustafa I had met when I first got here, and I knew them well because we spoke English all together. But he had gone away to live in the nearby college town Risani.

Until we both looked up and saw him half falling down the hill leading towards us. I looked at him and thought he must have come back during the weekend when I hadnt seen Lahcen, or he would have told me. But when I looked across at Lahcen, it became very clear by his dumfounded, increduluous look that this was the very first time they'd seen it each other--and it was a complete surprise.

So I had the luxury and great privilege to sit next to these old friends who hadnt seen each other in 4 months while they caught up. In contrast to seeing the guy that got left in my town, this was a real uplifting happy joyous thing that I got to share.

This is a better recipe of the same thing that I just found online. Very good on an egg sandwich in the morning!

Ingredients:
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4 cups plain yogurt, regular or nonfat
2 or 3 large cucumbers, peeled and seeded
Salt
2 to 4 garlic cloves (or more to taste)
1 tblsp fresh lemon juice
1 tblsp high quality olive oil

Mix all together