An interview with Crystal about Napa

An interview was conducted with Crystal regarding her trip to Napa Valley, California, during the week of April 4-10. She attended the CIA's (Culinary Institute of America) Baking and Pastry Arts Career Discovery course.

Interviewer: Hi Crystal, thanks for meeting with me.
Crystal: The pleasure is certainly mine. I'm so glad I can get my story out to the general public.

I: Would you care for some wine? [holds out a bottle of Folie a Deux's Menage a Trois, a Napa Valley wine]
C: Well, I don't usually mix business with booze, but today I can make an exception. Thank you.

I: So I'd like to start by asking you what the course is about and why you signed up for it.
C: The course is for people interested in learning about careers in baking and pastry arts. For example, working in a bakery or food writing or becoming a pastry chef in a restaurant. I've always loved baking and have considered going to baking/pastry school but wanted to test the waters before plunging in headfirst. So that was the point of the course - to try to make up my mind on whether on not I should enroll in pastry school.

I: And did you come up with a decision?
C: Yes! I loved the class so much that I've decided I'm going to do it - I'm going to go to pastry school, and hopefully this fall. In all my years of college (6-1/2, but who's counting?) I was never as interested in a lecture as I was for this course. I was hanging onto this guy's every word. And I don't feel too guilty about making such a huge jump (from wood products engineering to baking) because baking involves a lot of science, and I'm confident I can transfer my wood science skills to the baking field.

I: Tell me more about the course. What did you do? Did you make food? Who was your instructor?
C: My instructor was Chef Aaron Brown, a really cool, funny, and smart-as-hell guy. He acted kind of laid-back which gives one the impression that he's spacey, but man, that guy is on the ball. You could ask him anything and he'd have an answer. I was totally impressed with him and his vast knowledge of baking. [finishes glass of wine] So here's how the class worked - first we'd attend lecture for about 2 hours, going over each recipe we'd be making and discussing the theory behind it. Then we'd go up to the kitchen and begin working. We were assigned to teams of 2, and were usually given about two different things to complete in the next five hours. My partner and I made:
Chocolate chip cookies and walnut shortbread (where we studied the creaming method),
Lemon meringue pies and tiramisu (making pie crusts, custards, and whipping cream),
Sourdough bread and soft rolls (yeast doughs),
Lavash and pita bread (flat breads made with yeast doughs), and
Chocolate ganache tart and white chocolate-cointreau-coconut bonbons (tempering chocolate = huge pain in my ass.)

I: And what about the other people in the class?
C: There were eight of us, all women. Four of us were between 28-38, and four of us were in their 50s or 60s. The younger women were like me, trying to figure out if they should go to pastry school, while the older women were business entrepreneurs wanting to know more about baking and experienced chefs working on their technique.

C: Oh, and I have to add something. My career discovery class weren't the only people in the kitchen. There were culinary students and pastry students there, too, working on their own creations. Every night I looked forward to dinner, where at 7:00 we'd drop what we were doing and eat. All the food the culinary and pastry students made that day was served. It was just tons of entrees, one after another, taking up two 20-foot tables. The week I was there was "Asian Week" for the culinary students, so I got to eat Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Indian food all week. Plus the TAs have to make food just in case the student-made foods don't turn out or are running late, so there were more traditional foods served, as well. And for dessert you could choose from about 25 creations from the pastry class. I had to try at least four different pastries, cookies, cakes, and pies each night. It was amazing.

I: Wow, sounds delicious. I bet I'd gain 50 pounds if I went there.
C: Yeah, I admit I went a little apeshit while I was there, but I think if I were a "normal" student I'd be more careful about not stuffing myself. But since I was on vacation I just enjoyed myself and lived life to the fullest.

I: So are you going to go to school at the CIA?
C: I don't think so. I just can't afford the tuition. As it is, I'm still paying off loans from my first round of college, so I don't want to add onto that too much. I'm currently looking at the Culinary Institute of Michigan at Baker College in Muskegon, so we'll see where that goes.

I: What did you do in Napa besides go to school?
C: Well, I was a couch surfer for the week. I stayed with my friend Anthony and his housemates, who were really cool. I like hanging out with artists and poets and musicians because I feel like they're my kind of people, so I really enjoyed their company. Plus we went out at the end of the week for some dancing, and it was fun to just let loose and have fun (not easy to do in Grayling). Other than that I went to a local museum, ate a great burrito, and did some cooking for my new friends.

I: Did you go wine tasting?
C: No, and I can't believe it. I just didn't get a chance! With my class being from 2pm-8:30pm it just wasn't conducive to taste wine and go to class tipsy. At a normal college that would've been okay because you just sit in class and daydream, but being in the kitchen you gotta be on top of your game to make the best pastries you can. So I was waiting to do it on saturday, but that day there was heavy rain, which isn't good for touring vineyards, and I ate an awesome burrito that unfortunately made me feel sleepy. So it just didn't work out. I bought a $6 bottle of Napa valley wine at the store and called it good.

I: Did you take any pictures:
C: Naw, my camera's batteries died and I never got around to getting new ones. You'll just have to imagine Napa valley with its rolling green hills, vineyards, winding roads, and "quaint" mansions.

I: Well Crystal, thanks again for the interview. It sounds like your trip was a success.
C: Absolutely! And thank you.

Freezing in Napa

Okay, so I made it to Napa in one piece. It was some serious traveling - first a 3-hour busride from Grayling to East Lansing. Then a night in a run-down Super 8, but near the MSU campus so I found some good Thai food and spent some time hanging out at Meijer. Then a 5:00 bus to Detroit. That was interesting because first the hotel's shitty alarm clock never went off, and the cell phone alarm either didn't go off (I guess the phone needs to be on) or I silenced it in my sleep. So I get up at 4:15 and jump in the shower. I had arranged for a taxi to pick me up at 4:30 and they showed up at 4:20 and started banging on the door and calling me. I'm like, "dude, you're early. I'm coming." So anyway, I make it to the bus station, head for Detroit airport, and then proceed to travel until 8pm getting to Oakland. Three different flights with stops in Colorado and Salt Lake City. Good times.

I make it to Oakland and practically have a heart attack when the car rental guy says they need to charge my debit card an extra $250 as "insurance" in case something happens to the vehicle. So today I am at the library to check my account and make sure there's enough money to cover this little incidental.

I'm couch surfing with a guy named Anthony. His house is freezing. It's about 45 degrees outside and it's the same temperature inside. The house has big single-pane windows and is heated by a woodstove that sometimes is lit. But Anthony and his roommates are really nice and I'm headed to the thrift store to pick up some sweatshirts. And soon I will be going to my first career exploration class. Wish me luck!

A new job and Napa

I have exciting news!

A few weeks ago, while I was working at Kmart, this customer, the manager from a bank across the street, liked the way I interacted with customers and encouraged me to apply for their seasonal teller position. I took her up on it, put my application in, had a couple of interviews, and... I got the job! I will be starting at the end of the month. The good thing is I get 40 hours a week and $8 an hour (Kmart is $7.40/hour and I get 25-30 hours/week). I will also have a consistent schedule, none of this weird 3-9 pm stuff one day, 9-5 the next.

The bad news is, I actually like my job at Kmart, and I'm worried this job will be boring. And I have to dress up.

But that's also good news, because I love clothes and dressing up. So I'm kind of pumped to go shopping for "business attire." When I was a little girl and thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I just imagined myself wearing a powersuit and high heels. I never had an idea of what job I'd be doing, I just knew what I wanted to look like. I'm glad I finally have an excuse to wear a powersuit and high heels.

The bottom line is, I'm going to stay at Kmart, as long as I don't get too burned out. I don't want to burn any bridges there. And I was just starting to get tight with the girls in fashions...

So yeah, that's my latest job news.

Tomorrow I'm going to Napa for a career exploration class in pastry at the Culinary Institute of America. I found a couch to crash on, and it's in a good location and the dude has roommates so it doesn't seem too scary. I'm going to rent a car so I can explore the area. Tomorrow I'll be hopping a bus to East Lansing, then spending the night there and flying out of Detroit City. Hopefully this class will help me find some answers about what I want to do next.

A walk down the road

The weather has been beautiful here lately, and I'm trying to take full advantage of it.

I took a walk down my road. I purposely didn't bring my mp3 player because I wanted to hear the birds and see the beauty of my surroundings with no distraction. Here's some things I saw:

Mailboxes hit by plow trucks.


There's a state-owned game refuge along one side of our road.


I liked this knobby-looking tree with its shiny new sap droplets.


I love the ground cover - dead oak leaves with lots of dried-up moss. Very crunchy when you walk on it!


And some nice pussy willow down by the riverbank.


Last but not least, my favorite picture:

Packages to Afriq

I've been collecting things to send to Niger for quite some time. We even had an earring-making party to send to the ladies. I sent the packages out today, one for my villagers in Niger, one for my friend Ma Mouda in Ghana (he takes care of my villagers when they travel there to do work).

To my villagers, I sent:

• 2 big packages of bubble gum.
• About 40 pairs of earrings, plus necklaces and bracelets for the ladies.
• A couple leftover euros to buy the kids a soccer ball.
• Small bottles of hand lotion.
  
• A WWE t-shirt for Issoufou (only 99 cents at Kmart).
  
• A pair of sunglasses for Malam Ousmane, the village Fulan leader.

Malam Ousmane. I had a secret crush on him. :)

• I also sent a few things for Ryo, the local JICA volunteer (like Peace Corps from Japan) who I'm sending the package to - he will then give it to Issoufou to bring back to the village. I had to send the stuff to Ryo because he has an address and my villagers don't. I hooked him up with almonds, granola bars (with raisins, since it's hot season right now and chocolate will melt), and jelly beans.

Petting baby camels with Ryo.


And for Ma Mouda in Ghana, I sent:

• $40 cash for him to exchange. When I went to Ghana he hooked me up (let me crash at his place, took me out to dinner, bought me minutes for my cell phone) and now he takes care of Issoufou and friends.
• Granola bars (again, without chocolate chips).
• Makeup samples and a few headbands to give to the girls (Blackie had to try them on first).

Ma Mouda


I'd like to extend a special thanks to Alanna and Heather for sending me goodies to send to my friends. :)

Couchsurfing, grrr

My Peace Corps buddies told me about couchsurfing.org, a program that connects people to crash on each other's couches while traveling and, in return, host people to crash on your own couch. My first thought was, "is this safe?" I mean, you sleep on a complete stranger's couch. What if that person is a psychopath or a rapist? But my friend Chelsea assured me that yes, you have to be careful about whose couch you sleep on, but there are ways to check that person out first. You read their profile. People who have already slept on their couch "vouch" for them - "John is a really great guy. I enjoyed hearing his music and his friends were really cool." Also, they can be "verified" by couchsurfing.org, where they contribute some money and their identity and address are verified to be true so you know it's not some creepy freakazoid pretending to be a cute female college student. Also, there are "friends" like in facebook, only in this website you have to say how you know that person. You can use all this to make sure it's someone you want to stay with. Then you send them a message, asking if you can surf at their house, and voila - you have a place to stay and a potential new friend. That's the best case scenario.

I joined couchsurfing.org so that I can find a place to stay while I'm taking my pastry career exploration class at the Culinary Institute of America. The school is in St. Helena, CA, which is right smack dab in the middle of Napa Valley. Wine country, baby! In the past month, I've sent out over 20 messages to people asking if I can surf on their couch. Some never gave a response. Others said they're going to be out of town, or have someone already staying with them, or that their couch is just "not available."

I'm getting frustrated. I'm leaving for Napa this saturday, and I have no idea where I'll be staying. I'm starting to lose my faith in the whole program, as it's not helping me out so far.

The good news is, I have a backup plan. I found a cheap hotel that's only $50 a night. After living in Africa for two years, even the shadiest hotel is probably "not that bad." Hotel's got some cockroaches? Try having them crawl over your foot when you have to pee in the middle of the night. Hotel's got shady plumbing? Hey, at least I can drink it without getting diarrhea. And it includes a continental breakfast. I'll give it a couple days. If I don't have a place to stay by wednesday, I'm booking a hotel room.

Never part of the crowd

I like my job at Kmart. It's challenging, I get new things to do, and I like interacting with people. But the problem is, I still don't feel like I fit in there. The people I work with, the other cashiers and the customer service people, have their own little cliques going and, as usual, I'm the odd one out. It doesn't matter how long they've worked there, there's this group of people who hang out all the time and even new employees somehow have joined this "club." But I'm never invited. I get that I take my job more seriously, more professionally than others. Maybe they see me as someone different because of that. And I get that I'm different because I'm in my late 20s while they're a lot younger, like 20 or 21. But that doesn't mean that I don't feel left out.

I don't know why I'm so upset. For the most part I don't even like these people. There's the girl with the newborn baby who drops the baby off with her parents and goes out every night. There's the girl with a new scuzzy boyfriend each week, complaining about her relationship problems. And there's the lazy boys who, at every given chance, run off to a corner and "hide" from the management, thus ignoring their work and leaving more for me the next time I come in.

These are some of the feelings I had in high school, where I never felt like I fit in and didn't make connections with most of the people I knew. I've never been a cliquey person, and that's something I'm usually happy with. But every so often I feel left out, and it's lonely.

My time in Teyiss

My Niger boyfriend, Darey, finally rejoined civilization and was in an area where I could call him. I was so happy to hear from him, and hear how he and his family are doing.

Now who is this guy? I use the term "boyfriend" loosely. While I lived in Niger we had a kind of third-grade romance: we'd see each other every few months, bring each other little gifts, express how happy we were to see each other, etc. When I left he was like, "please don't forget me!" and how could I? I had a lot of adventures with Darey. He taught me a lot of Hausa (my Niger language), he taught me about his culture (the Wodaabe people), he taught me some cultural norms, and we just had fun together.

I first met him at a herders' meeting near Abalak. He is very much a politician, always meeting people, making contacts, trying to get help for his people. He's also handsome, with dark skin, high cheekbones, a straight, long nose, and beautiful white teeth. I also like his polite, soft-spoken manner. Never one to get angry or upset, and always gentle.

We were together for about a year, but only saw each other every few months for about a week at a time. He would come down to Konni to visit me, and a few times when I hadn't seen him in a while, I traveled up to Abalak to see him in his village and to stay with his people.

Staying in Darey's village was so different from living in my village. My village seems rich compared to his. In Darey's village (known as Teyiss), there are only about 5 houses. The houses are made out of sticks and old rags, and some don't even have a roof. The land is dryer as his village is further north, and so the lush, leafy Neem trees that we get in Korap don't even grow in Darey's neck of the woods. All they have are thorny Acacia trees and this invasive exotic tree from Asia that looks like a woody milkweed. You really gotta watch out for those thorny Acacias - the thorns fall on the ground and will pierce your foot right through your shoes. If you want to sit under one for shade, you have to be careful not to get stabbed in your butt and legs.

These people are truly bush. They don't listen to the radio like my villagers because they can't afford batteries. The kids don't speak Hausa (they are Wodaabe and they speak Fulfulde), and flashlights are a rarity. The Wodaabe people's livelihood is their cattle. Some cows have been around for a decade at least, and wherever there is grass, that is where the herders take them. They walk through trail-less, thorny bush land to get water from the wells and find something, anything for the cattle to eat. They camp out under the stars every night, carrying their possessions in a backpack or in calabash bowls they balance on their heads. There is never enough water for bathing. While some family members are herding, others are staying in the village, the homestead. These are the people I stayed with.

In the true Niger tradition, they gave me the nicest bedding - a cot with blankets and a real pillow. At nights we sat around fires (at least there's more firewood up north since they don't have farms), the old men making individual pots of tea, us young kids sharing our own pot of tea. The Wodaabe people are cuddly, young men and young women not shy about touching each other, and I would snuggle up with my friend Mariama as we huddled under a blanket. When darkness really fell, we would go to bed, where I slept warm and comfortable under the cold Sahel sky.

In the mornings I'd awaken to the sounds of fire-building, tea-brewing, and goats and sheep running around bleating. I'd find some kid to fill my water bottle, my Nalgene bottle which never left my side, and use the bathroom (go to some bushes). It's culturally appropriate to walk around to each house greetings its occupants ("a waali jam?" "How did you sleep?"), then taking them up on any offers to have tea or eat food. It would easily take an hour to visit four houses.

To kill time, I'd read a book I'd brought (I remember reading "The Poisonwood Bible" in Teyiss) or do some sewing. When you live with others, you feel as though you have no personal space or time to yourself. Being a visitor can be trying on a person. Plus, I didn't speak their language, so the energy spent trying to learn Fulfulde would kick my ass. I also couldn't take part in conversations unless they were in Hausa, and listening to people speak in a language you don't know gets boring. Throughout the day we'd move our mats around to follow the shade, as it moved along with the sun. At midday they let me stay in the teacher's house, the only building with a roof, so I could get shade.

If school was in session, I'd go sit in class just for something to do and to talk to the teacher, my friend Boubacar. He had each of the kids draw a colorful bowl, then gave me all the pictures. These kids are about 7 years old, so the pictures were pretty cute. I still have them.

One afternoon Darey's grandmother invited me into her little home, a 4' by 8' tent made with a wood frame and rags. I walked in and it was just full of stuff, including a pair of Darey's shoes that I remembered giving him a while back. She laid out a mat and invited me to sit down. Then she laid down, saying she was tired. I realized she was inviting me to take a nap with her. It was so sweet. Unfortunately, I had just awoken from a nap, which I told her, and when she was close to falling asleep I left her on her own. It is not unusual for people to sleep together in Niger - men, women, kids, women and kids. Often grandmas will sleep with a couple of grandkids each night. I remember my neighbor/best friend Rabi offering me her daughter Habsu to use as a sleeping friend.

The beautiful Darey.


One of the old guys, I just call him "Baba" (Dad).


Zamani, who braided my hair and whose house I hung out at the most.


Darey's cousin, I forgot the guy's name. He was just stopping through. Notice the tea brewing on the charcoal stove.


My homegirl Mariama.


The kids! I taught this girl, Halima (the taller one), how to play cards. Jyo'di, the boy, is the little guy in the Niger shirt. And the baby is my little friend Zeina (we have the same name).


How could I have forgotten a picture of grandma?

St. Patty's Day cupcakes

My dad's workplace had a potluck lunch on St. Patty's Day last week, and he predictably signed up to bring a dessert (he knows how much I love baking.)

I tried to get creative with this one. When I think of St. Patty's Day, I envision corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes (who doesn't?). But those don't really fit with desserts, so I went a little further and thought of Irish coffee - coffee with a shot of Irish whiskey and a shot of Bailey's Irish Creme. I did a little research on Bailey's to figure out how I could replicate its flavors, and learned it's cream flavored with chocolate, vanilla, and possibly caramel and hazelnut. So maybe I could make a cupcake with an Irish cream filling (that you inject into the cupcake using a pastry bag), and with some kind of chocolate frosting.

I made standard yellow cupcakes using a recipe from The Cake Bible. For the cream filling, I made pastry cream, which is basically a thick custard. I flavored the pastry cream with vanilla, a little chocolate, a little coffee, and just enough whiskey to give it a kick. For the frosting, I wanted to try working with ganache, as it's something I have little experience with. Ganache is a chocolate glaze made with heavy cream and chocolate, and works perfectly when making chocolates, chocolate-covered strawberries, and any cake where you want a glaze hanging over the sides that isn't too fluffy like frosting.

Something happened to the pastry cream and it came out kind of thin. I had a hard time injecting it into my goods because it just tried to squeeze out the top of the pastry bag. Even now, I have leftover chocolate-coffee-whiskey-flavored pudding in the fridge, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I've already put it back on the stove twice for additional cooking, but it only helped a little. I'll try stiffening it by mixing in some cool whip, then use that to make a couple pies for people to bring to work.

Injecting cupcakes.


I didn't have cupcake liners, so I tried making some by squishing parchment paper circles into a cup shape. It kind of worked.


Voila! The final product.


Here's how they look on the inside.

Exciting new coat

The only mild-weather coat ("mild" meaning anything above 45 degrees) is a long leather jacket that I got at a thrift store. This guy I knew in college called it my "pimp coat," and the description rings true.

Since pimp coats are not in style at the moment, I need something to get me through the Michigan springtime. My criteria:

• It has to be stylish, so I'd prefer a military-style jacket or something with studs.
• The coat must have a lining to stand up to this chilly Michigan weather.
• It needs to fall at the hip - anything shorter and my already substantial hips would look bigger; anything longer would look too formal for daily wear.
• To complement my shape, I want it to have a belt, drawstring, or tailoring at the waist.
  

After hours of searching for the coat online, I finally found something I like. Behold, the Hurley Newman YC Jacket:



I'm getting it at zappos, my favorite shopping website, for only $60 including shipping. I can't wait to try it on!

Great family movies

We have a subscription to Netflix, and everybody puts their movies

Hummus and pita bread

When you live in hicksville and you're craving good food, the sludge at the local dives just doesn't cut it. You gotta make it yourself. Last weekend I made Chicago-style deep dish pizzas. Today I made hummus and pita bread.

It actually took some forethought. I had to prepare the pita bread dough ahead of time so it could rise a couple times. I used this recipe to make it. The bread is said to be best when it bakes up puffy, but out of 16 rounds I could only get 2 of them to puff up. I have no idea what makes them do that, but it turns out they don't collapse and then you have this crazy bubble bread that you can't put anything inside of, so I actually prefer the flat ones.



I made roasted red pepper hummus. I used canned chickpeas, but first I removed all their skins.


Ever wonder how chickpeas got their name? I personally think it's because if you look closely at one, its shape resembles that of a butchered chicken. Like those roaster chickens you see in the supermarket.


I attempted to blend the skinned chickpeas in my mom's blender, but it wasn't powerful enough. The chickpeas just sat in the bottom while weird fumes wafted out of the blender's motor. So I moved some of the mixture to the Magic Bullet, which still wasn't able to puree the dang things. After going back and forth between the two appliances, I realized the Magic Bullet had the best chance of pureeing the chickpeas, as long as I added a lot of liquid. It took about an hour to do it, but we finally had some delicious hummus for dinner. Next time I will dig my food processor out of the attic.

Latest purchases

I got my first Kmart paycheck (a whole $88) and desperately needed a few things. So I went internet shopping.

I checked this book out from the library and it's amazing. With recipes like deep dish pizza dough, lemon squares, and raspberry-coconut cloud cake, I need a copy. I got one used from amazon for $21 including shipping.


My life has seriously changed since I got a Kitchen Aid mixer back in 2006. It makes kneading bread so much easier, and my loaves rise and bake better, too. So I want to try making sourdough bread. However, you have to have a starter to get that nice, sour flavor, and I read that homemade starters for sourdough don't usually work out. So I ordered one from here for $6 including shipping.



Yesterday my dad, Tom and I took a ride to the rinky-dink town of Falmouth, near Cadillac, to go to their amazing meat store. It sells all sorts of local meats and jerky, and we've been talking about going there for a while. The bad news is, the place was closed because it was sunday. But the good news is, we stopped in Houghton Lake, went to this cute gourmet food/meat store, and I scored some salt pork (2 6-oz packages for $1.50 each). Even better, daddy-o paid the bill.

You're probably wondering what one does with salt pork. Well, when you're cooking something and you need to brown meat and onions, instead of putting oil or butter in your pan, you can throw in some salt pork and let the fat melt, then use that melted fat to brown your onions and meat. It gives an extra dimension of flavor to food. Yum!

Now I want to get some juniper berries (they're great in sauces with meat). I tried to get my dad to pick some off the hedges at his office, but he said they may not be "food grade" and he'll just buy some for me. Now we just need to find them. Maybe my next paycheck I'll look some up on the internets.

Since we're on the subject of cooking, I should mention I'll be brining a piece of beef round roast to make corned beef for St. Patrick's Day. It's going to rock! Stay tuned!

The Latest

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind.

I've been working mad hours at the Kmarts and that combined with a nasty cold last week kind of kicked my ass. Plus our internet was down for a couple days, and when I wasn't working I was making my mom's birthday cake, giving a talk about Peace Corps to some high school students, and having lunch with would-be employers from a local wood products company.

Okay, what do you want to hear about first? My mom's birthday cake? Okay.

I made her a Blackout Cake from an America's Test Kitchen cookbook I got at the library. Blackout Cake is basically rich, dark chocolate layer cake with chocolate pudding filling. Then you "frost" the cake with the pudding, take one of the cake layers, crumble it up, and cover the cake with it.



The picture doesn't do it justice. It was so decadent and rich, the first time I tried it I could hardly finish my slice (and that's saying a lot - I can really handle dessert.) Since both the pudding and the cake were made from scratch, the amount of sugar was perfect and it wasn't overly sweet like you would experience with packaged cake mixes and pudding mixes. Once it sat in the fridge a few days, it just got richer and yummier. I finally ate the last piece last night.

So this would-be employers thing. While I was in college for Wood Science, I met "Maria," a Michigan Tech alumnus and fellow female wood science person. She works for the local wood products company that is here in my hometown and we've kept in touch over the years. I was featured in the local newspaper, which ran an article about my Peace Corps experience, and she read the article and heard I'm back in town. It turns out the company is looking for someone to work for them doing quality control, a 9-month job on swing shift, and they asked me if I'd like to take the position. I had to think about it for a while. First of all, I realized I don't really want a career in wood science. I wish I hadn't chosen it as my major in college, but I'm not being hard on myself because I was just a kid and didn't know what I wanted. The job has good pay, but if I committed myself to a 9-month gig, that could interfere with doing something I really want to do, like going to pastry school or finding a better job elsewhere. Plus I'd be holed up in a laboratory doing monotonous work, and I really like talking to people (which is why I like my job at Kmart). So against my parents' advice (they still have dreams of me being a high-paid engineer, like that's going to happen), I turned the job down. But the people from the company invited me to go to lunch with them to talk about my Peace Corps experience, and that was a blast. I showed them pictures and we laughed and it was a great time.

I'm really trying to share my Peace Corps experience with people in the community, so I emailed the social studies teachers at the high school to see if I could do a presentation for their class. A few of them said maybe the next trimester, when things are less busy, but one guy was available that week. So I went to his Financial Literacy class and talked about Peace Corps and volunteering, life in the village, the work I did, Buddy the Camel, etc. Everyone seemed to love it. I did get a couple of "huh huh huh"s from the back of the class when I talked about how shocking it was at first to see women openly breast feeding their kids - I guess I forgot who my audience was for a second (boob-obsessed teenage boys). Next I'm going to email my parents' friend from the Rotary Club and some language teachers from the high school to see if they'd like a little presentation.

And I've been doing stuff with my parents' church. Friday was the World Day of Prayer, and my parents' church hosted it for all the churches in the community. Unfortunately, since it was on a friday during the day, not a lot of people could make it, but we had about 35 women anyhow. The focus for World Day of Prayer this year is on Cameroon, and since I was the local African expert, I was asked to talk about village life and share stories of the hardships and also the sense of community they have there. A lady brought all sorts of African artifacts sent by her son, who works in Africa, and we were provided with a CD of African-style church music. I wore my embroidered Wodaabe skirt and my mom wore one of my crazy African shirts. It went pretty well.

The next day, Saturday, was my mom's Women of Wisdom meeting. This group is organized by Sister Jean, a wonderful, progressive local nun who is an inspiration to me and others. She organized a drumming workshop where a woman came up from Ann Arbor with about forty drums and we had a big drum circle with games and exercises. Then Sister Jean led us all through a meditative clay-molding session, where we were supposed to mold something from our hearts. I had been thinking a lot about my friends in Niger and the everyday struggles they face, and I let my hands take control. They flattened the clay into a disk. Then I wondered what I could do with this disk, so I kind of played around with it, and when I rolled it, it reminded me of a headwrap. So I molded a little head wearing a headwrap. It wasn't anything special but I felt it really represented what I had been feeling at the time.

After the Women of Wisdom meeting, our friend Bernie led an earring-making workshop to make earrings to send to my friends in Niger. You see, there is a problem with super-cheapo earrings from China containing cadmium, and I know the earrings my villagers wear are from China (cadmium is a hard metal and extremely toxic.) So I wanted to send them some American earrings that would not only be safer to wear but something cool and different from what they get at the market. The problem was, earrings are expensive here. My mom and I have all these beads sitting around and some earring hooks we could use to make earrings, and I mentioned to Bernie the idea of having an earring-making party after Women of Wisdom. So we did it. She did all the arranging and brought in her own beading materials and taught us how to wire wrap. It was super fun, and although only six ladies could stay for it, we made 25 pairs of earrings. My mom and I want to make some more and hopefully I can get them in the mail next week. I'd also like to send a big shout-out to Alanna for thinking of my villagers and sending me a package of wonderful jewelry, lotions, makeup samples and washcloths. They are going to love it!



Okay, I'll quit now. I know this has been a long post. I'll try to make them shorter and more frequent!