Clear blue day

So, it is Saturday. It is immensely bright and blue outside today, I don't see a cloud in the sky. Last night was pretty as well, I was out in the middle of the compound spitting watermelon seeds out, and I looked up and through the mango tree leaves, I could see the moon (almost full now) with wisps of silver clouds around it. It looked amazing.
So, about the watermelon... They started to show up in the market about a week or so ago, and ever since then, I have had my mind on it. So yesterday, in the evening , about an hour before breaking fast time, I decided that I would go down and get one. I didn't want to walk because they are piled up in front of the post office, and it would have been a long walk with a heavy watermelon. So I decided to take my bike, ( which now has a yellow covered basket strapped perilously to it) . I thought if I put the watermelon in the basket just right, with a blanket around it to make it more stable, I would probably be alright to ride it home. So I rode off, and soon got to the area where they have a ton of watermelons just piled up on the ground in front of the post office. The vendor looked as if he was doing a brisk business, because that is a particularly busy time in the market. After I greeted him, I pointed to one of the melons and asked how much it was, he told me 55 Dalasi, and I said no thats too much. So I pointed to one right next to the first that was a little smaller, and asked how much that one was. He said 45, but I said no again, and kinda started to back away, when he asked how much I would pay. I said 30 D and he kinda just laughed, but I handed him a 50, put the melon in my basket, and asked him for my change. He laughed but I told him I was paying 30 for it. When he said no no no, I began to take the melon out of my basket, and he suddenly so ok ok ok. And gave me my 20 D in change. After which my basket promptly turn sideways with the weight of the melon. I am lucky it didn't tumble out, so I turned it upright, thanked the man, and walked my bike all the way home. I wasn't going to risk having 30 D of smashed watermelon on the road on the way home! So after dinner we cut it in half, gave half to the family, a quarter to another family in the compound and slurped up the other quarter between Andy and I . When I went over to the family's living room last night, they were gathered around a gigantic bag of sugar, and were counting out scoopfuls of it into plastic bags. They did this until they had several plastic bags full of sugar, piled in a bucket, and the big bag was completely divided up. One of the girls told me that they were giving it away to people. This just goes to show you how generous our host family is all the time, and nice and genuine. :) They take good care of us. Like last night, we get dinner, and then they brought us roasted peanuts, and then juice, and we go and give them melon. It is like we are always going back and forth with things to share with each other. Its kinda nice. This morning Andy and I watched one of the girls prepare the chicken they had just killed. We watched the whole process of plucking, and cutting, and washing, and it was all very amazing. Nothing like going to the store, buying the frozen, boneless, skinless, gutless, etc. chicken. The whole process Andy reiterated for me so that I could write it down step by step how they did it in a notebook, it was about 30 steps! All over a open fire. It was cool. The other lady in the compound wants me to cook with her today, so I have to head back to the house soon, (we are at the college now) The college is supposed to start next week some time, and there has been some issues with the scheduling of classes etc, so I still don't know when, how, what I will be teaching, hehehe. We are supposed to have a staff meeting next week, and then I will meeting with my counterpart again after that. I think school might actually start, not next week, but the next, but you never know! I am just trying to be as prepared as possible, and am getting the ball rolling on the nursery school next Saturday, we are going to go in and rearrange the class, and go through a new schedule, and make all kinds of fun stuff for the one class I am working with now. Ok, well, I gotta go!Hope you are having a great weekend! Write me! (email, letters... :)