This semester the members of the GCS Girls Club have been busy with their hands! We’ve met twice now to bake together and hope to continue with this activity in the future. The first time we met, we made 2 batches of tasty banana bread, drank juice that had no actual fruit juice in it, and had a blast listening to (and dancing small to) some Liberian music on my porch. Before we baked, we had discussed the instructions in a meeting earlier in the week, and we also created a budget a budget together based on the quantities and pricing of the ingredients. Then we did some maths (!) to calculate how much we would need to charge customers for each piece, based on the total actual cost in order to make a profit…in the event that a member would want to bake items to sell in the future. And to top it all off, the girls platted (braided) my hair!
The second time we met, we made 2 batches of chocolate cake and I put my “Golden Girls” to work! They had to create the budget and purchase the ingredients on their own, and they also prepared the batter with very minimal involvement from me. They learned “da baking business fast-fast”! The chocolate cake recipe is also vegan (sans eggs) so I talked about low cholesterol foods small and emphasized the convenience of an eggless recipe when no one in your town is selling eggs because “dey too dear-oh”. Afterwards, we made earrings together! Each girl now has a couple pairs, along with a bracelet, for bluffing purposes. In the future, we plan to do more crafty things, like making tie-dye t-shirts. I printed photos from each of our get-togethers and plan to give each member a copy when we have our school closing / graduation ceremony in late June. The photos will serve as a little reminder, along with the recipe sheets, of our baking sessions together and of the fun we had while making those tasty treats.
To check out all the photos from these gatherings, click here. Otherwise, check out some of the highlights below!
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| Banana Muffins! |
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| Platting My Hair |
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| "Looking African" |
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| Baby Human & Baby Monkey! (Both belong to G.C. Secretary, Del) |
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| The Girls Club AKA "The Golden Girls" |
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| Making the Chocolate Cake Batter |
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| Bluffing (Showing Off) With Our Earrings |
Gbarma Town Jogging Club:
This semester I started a jogging club with my school and we’re going places…literally! We run 3x/week, go various distances and destinations, and do “training” afterwards. Horse-stance, butterfly, secretary, plank, table, reach the sky, talk to God, scissor, cycle, clock, sit-up-punches, push-ups, and downward dog. Those are just some of the exercises we do to stretch out and tone our arms, back, sides, abs, and legs. After about 5 weeks of training, we were ready to do our “big run”. We ran ~15 Km (~9.5 mi) from Gbarma westward to Vaye Town…and ALL of the eight kids that ran made it there successfully. We actually shaved off 15 minutes from the time it takes me to leisurely run the same distance by myself, so that tells you something about the energy these kids have got! Of the eight male students that participated, two are from the primary school (!), two are from the jr. high, and four are from the sr. high. Their ages range from 13 to 19 or 20. I’m super proud of these my boys!
Before the run, we had a traditional American pasta dinner at my house (carb-loading), and after the run, we had a traditional Liberian spaghetti and beans meal (carb-replenishing). I have literally never seen that much spaghetti at one time in my entire life; It was a lot of spaghetti! I think everybody ate enough spaghetti for at least two people.
Anyways….
We had planned to do another jog, ~20 Km (~12.5 mi), from Gbarma southeastward to Tubmanburg. However, no one was coming to the trainings when I created and posted the new schedule. I should’ve known better…that’s just what happens at the end of a school-year here. Everybody loses steam and just stops showing up to things, including school. So I’m trying not to take it that personally. And now with final exams coming up and the rainy season, I doubt we’ll be able to make our T-burg run happen at all. The time is just too short, but at least we got one big run in, right? I also plan on presenting each of the eight buys who successfully completed the run with photos from the day we ran to Vaye Town. Even if they don’t continue distance running in the future, at least they’ll have a little reminder of the run…of that one time they climbed that final big hill, reached the end, and felt victorious!
To check out all the photos from the run, click here. Otherwise, see some of the highlights below.
This semester I started a jogging club with my school and we’re going places…literally! We run 3x/week, go various distances and destinations, and do “training” afterwards. Horse-stance, butterfly, secretary, plank, table, reach the sky, talk to God, scissor, cycle, clock, sit-up-punches, push-ups, and downward dog. Those are just some of the exercises we do to stretch out and tone our arms, back, sides, abs, and legs. After about 5 weeks of training, we were ready to do our “big run”. We ran ~15 Km (~9.5 mi) from Gbarma westward to Vaye Town…and ALL of the eight kids that ran made it there successfully. We actually shaved off 15 minutes from the time it takes me to leisurely run the same distance by myself, so that tells you something about the energy these kids have got! Of the eight male students that participated, two are from the primary school (!), two are from the jr. high, and four are from the sr. high. Their ages range from 13 to 19 or 20. I’m super proud of these my boys!
Before the run, we had a traditional American pasta dinner at my house (carb-loading), and after the run, we had a traditional Liberian spaghetti and beans meal (carb-replenishing). I have literally never seen that much spaghetti at one time in my entire life; It was a lot of spaghetti! I think everybody ate enough spaghetti for at least two people.
Anyways….
We had planned to do another jog, ~20 Km (~12.5 mi), from Gbarma southeastward to Tubmanburg. However, no one was coming to the trainings when I created and posted the new schedule. I should’ve known better…that’s just what happens at the end of a school-year here. Everybody loses steam and just stops showing up to things, including school. So I’m trying not to take it that personally. And now with final exams coming up and the rainy season, I doubt we’ll be able to make our T-burg run happen at all. The time is just too short, but at least we got one big run in, right? I also plan on presenting each of the eight buys who successfully completed the run with photos from the day we ran to Vaye Town. Even if they don’t continue distance running in the future, at least they’ll have a little reminder of the run…of that one time they climbed that final big hill, reached the end, and felt victorious!
To check out all the photos from the run, click here. Otherwise, see some of the highlights below.
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| Me & My Boys, Pre-Jog |
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| En Route |
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| Climbing the Final Hill |
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| Success! |
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