day 15

Today I needed some distractions to improve my mood and Margaret's birthday (the wife of the school's director and one of the teachers) was the perfect occasion. 

First, I planned with the kids to sing "Happy Birthday to you" after the lessons, then with the other two volunteers we had already decided to throw her a little birthday party. So after school, we went to Kpeve market to buy the ingredients to make Fufu. As I already said, it's a great place. It's so colorful and lively that it's easy to get distracted. Sellers there aren't aggressive; they simply smile at you saying “Hi!”. It could seem to be a mess but there's an order to it, and we seem to be the only ones looking for it, but it's lovely to get lost anyway. 

Back in Have, we prepared Fufu and with the help of the woman who's hosting the other two volunteers, we prepared grasscutter soup (kind of a huge rat that lives under the bushes)! We invited a couple of teachers and kids and there were 16 of us in total. We used some wooden boards and we put them onto some desks to make the table, I put together a couple of lamps with candles and cutter plastic bottles. It couldn't have been more "rustic" and yet more perfect at the same time. And yes I ate grasscutter, it was really good even if when I got my portion it was quite dark and I didn't realize I was going to eat the head!!! It was the entire head, with teeth included. Immediately the kids started saying "Give it to me!!!", "I want the brain!!", "Let me eat the eyes!” Some hardcore eating!!

In any case, during the toast made with a blue non-alcoholic wine, Margaret said that we made her day and that it had been the best birthday she had ever celebrated. Enough to make me smile.