Nuskin Part 1

                Happy 4^th of July! We celebrated this morning by having some hot chocolate at breakfast.

                Yesterday we had a busy day. It started early in the morning around six when Nicolle and I had to rinse off our laundry that had been soaking all day on Tuesday because there was no water to rinse it. We were in a hurry because we had to leave at 6:30 to go to Malingunde to start our day tagging along with Nuskin Japan and Korea. I was the last one in the bus after running around to get everything I needed in my purse and then grabbing some breakfast to go.

                In Malingunde there were tons of people there sitting in rows and then huge bags of vitameal that they gave us to pass to the children. Each child got a 2kg bag to take to their family but only the children got some. We passed it out for a while and then they had them hold them all up over their heads to make sure everybody got some. Then they were excused to leave. Lots of the kids came up to us to shake our hands and talk to us a little bit. They were very cute. Then we left.

                We made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way to Blessings where they make the vitameal at ate lunch on the way. The tour was pretty nice. It was really interesting and the Koreans were really fun to tour with because they really got into it. They thought it was really cool. The vitameal here is made with corn and soybeans. The soybeans are roasted to inactivate the trypsin inhibitors and then everything is ground and fortified before it is bagged. After the tour it was time for lunch. Oops. We took what was left of our lunch and joined Nuskin. They had a really nice spread with little mini pizzas, pigs in a blanket, wraps, juice, cake and so much stuff that looked so good and we were at our own table eating bread and apples. We were full already but the food was just so appetizing that we all caved and went and got a plate of it anyway. It was the most American food we have had since we got here it May. It was just the best.

                After lunch we went to the orphanage and they introduced themselves and sang up some songs and did a little dancing. It was really fun to watch. Then there was a soccer match between Nuskin and the orphanage’s soccer team while the rest of us watched and talked to the kids and played with Frisbees and such. Some of the people from Nuskin brought Polaroid cameras with them and took pictures of all the kids for them. On one side there was a soccer match and other the other side was everybody else shaking their pictures. We met some other people that were more involved with the orphanage from the US and talked to them a little bit. It was a really neat experience.

                After the orphanage we went home. It was a long day and some of us didn’t even eat dinner because of all the food we ate at lunch. When we got back to SAFI we noticed a few things. The trees and brick that border the gardens were painted white and a new playground was put in next to the daycare. Everybody at SAFI was working all day to get ready for Nuskin. I think it’s strange how donors get a glamorized view of these projects but at the same time, it would seem a little rude to not do anything to get ready for them. Interesting. After we got back we caught up on emails and such and chilled in preparation for today.

                This morning we weren’t is as much as a rush as yesterday but there were still things to do. I had Whitney braid my hair this morning. She just braided one side of my head and then put it all in a ponytail. It looks really cool. Then we had to get ready for our short little presentation for Nuskin. It wasn’t much we just set up the small solar dryer next to the big one by the warehouse and waited for Nuskin to come around. Betha had a display of all these dishes from Malawi for her part which is Nutrition. I wonder why we don’t get those things like soy sausage, banana cabbage and such. I would really like to try some of it. They also had the big brick oven warming up to make scones. There was just so much cool stuff going on today it was fun to see.

                We waited a long time for Nuskin to come our way so we asked Betha some questions about the logistics of our sensory panel that we would really like to get done next week. She said there would probably only be about 40 people and that we probably couldn’t get them to come to a classroom to do it because they’re sick of class and ready to leave. I wish we could tell them that it wasn’t really a class. We would only spend like 5 minutes explaining to them how a sensory panel works and then they would taste 5 samples of sweet potatoes, take a break and taste another 5 then be done. We might have to pay them but if we can’t get them to come it will be so much harder to get this panel done because we’d have to either set it up by their homes (or in an empty one) or take it to them and do it one by one with a translate which would take forever. I’m starting to wonder if this will actually happen.

                Tomorrow we are going to see Feed the Children which will probably also be cool but we have down time for the rest of the day so we’re just hanging out.

Super Moon

Whitney did a fabulous job