It’s the vanilla harvest season and everything is much more expensive than it was only a couple of weeks before–but the good news is that more things are available to buy, Rachel says. This morning a little girl came by her house with a basket of huge shrimp from the bay–’as long as your hand’. They were not inexpensive, but Rachel decided to buy 5 of them. Her neighbor was nearby, curious to see how many Rachel had decided to buy (as always, very interested in money matters) and kindly offered to help Rachel prepare the shrimp for cooking. She showed Rachel how to take off the exoskeleton head to tail, leaving the eyes, brain, and legs on the body of the shrimp, then cutting along the back to remove the digestive tract. When the neighbor wasn’t looking, Rachel cut off the head parts and fed them to another neighbor’s scrawny kitten. When dredged in a bit of cornmeal and fried in oil, the shrimp were very tasty!

Rachel bought some macaroni at the market and made mac and cheese with the Trader Joe’s cheese powder. Also yummy, she said. Tasted like home. She enjoyed the chocolate tea (also from TJ’s) with a bit of sweetened condensed milk.

She gave one of the TJ’s balloons to the little boy who lives near her. He blew it up and carefully tied it with a piece of plant fiber to play with, then untied it each time and so managed to make it last for three days! [see photo of him playing with balloon when it gets posted]

Someone is planning to start a private Sixieme (first class of Middle School) in the village. It will not cost much, though there will be a small fee. The government schools are only half-day, since there are too many children so the schools have to do double duty. The person who is planning to open the little school asked Rachel whether she would be willing to teach an ecology class when she is in the village. She would be delighted, though she warned him that she will be away on transects and such from time to time so can’t be counted on as a staff member.

Rachel saw what might have been a leopard or panther chameleon in the wetlands behind her house today. It had rainbow colors and white spots [Teresa googled but is not sure which one it may have been]. It appeared to be keeping a close eye on Rachel, but suddenly it shot out its tongue, caught, and devoured a grasshopper. The other eye must have been on the prey!

When Rachel has finished looking at the pages of magazines that we send her, she lets the kids look at them. They come to her house to ask for ‘boky vaovao’ (new books) and by the time they have finished with the pages, there is little left of them. But the kids have a really good time looking [see photo when posted].