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<\/a><\/p>\nMeet Alo, our good friend who lives on an island in the Pacific Ocean and views life from a completely different point of view, not to mention the fact that he speaks a different language.\u00a0 Well, actually he’s a teacher who lives on the other side of campus, but by playing his part and letting us interact with him we learned a lot about learning the language and culture of someone completely different than ourselves.<\/p>\n
Class this Monday was cooking – a group of us learned to make some food that is typical of the food I may find in West Africa.\u00a0 What a great way to spend class – cooking and eating the whole time!<\/p>\n This would be a glimpse into our building class.\u00a0 Here, we were learning how to make a pole stand up straight in the ground so that you can make your house level.\u00a0 I also learned how to make stairs that you won’t trip over on your way up.\u00a0 A level house and stairs that are all the same height – these are things that we take for granted here in the US, but if I’m helping to build my own house overseas someday, these skills may be important for me to know!<\/p>\n Yup, this is me making cookies.\u00a0 These past few weeks I also made bread, pretzels, ice cream, tortillas, and noodles, all from scratch.\u00a0 For just over a week, everything I ate had to be made from scratch.\u00a0 The goal was to help prepare us for when we will live overseas and won’t have all the mixes and pre-made food that we can get here.\u00a0 Meals took longer, but they were <\/em>quite yummy.<\/p>\n Another day of class was about pressure canning and pressure cooking.\u00a0 And thanks to a $1 investment at a rummage sale this summer, I have a pressure cooker that I can practice with!\u00a0 Pressure cookers are nice, and can even work to keep your meat preserved if you don’t have a fridge.\u00a0 You just heat it up on the stove each night until it’s pressurized enough inside and the meat will stay good if you leave it in there for up to 24 hours.<\/p>\n I’d still prefer to call a plumber if I have a problem, but now, after my plumbing class, I have a little more idea about what goes on through that maze of pipes hidden behind the walls and under the sinks.\u00a0 And what do I have in my hands?\u00a0 A big valve which can block the path through a very fat pipe.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n