27monthswithoutbaseball

This is a picture of shebekia, the ubiquitous sweet that's available every night at L'ftur, the Ramadan break-fast. More on Ramadan is coming in longhand, but I thought I'd post this picture now. Especially since my friend just told me that I look like a madwoman in my last post!

I received four letters today. Thanks again, support team! They're from unexpected places, too - and there was a Newsweek there for us too. Old news, but news nonetheless. I've been reading Peace Corps reading still.

It was interesting hearing everyone's presentations today - our artisan groups have similar issues (for example, selling things for less than they cost to make) but are at different stages in terms of their organizations and their business skills. Everyone is a pretty good presenter, too - considering that we're from many different backgrounds, that's impressive. I keep meaning to write about the other people, but I also want to respect their privacy, so I'm still thinking about how to do that.

We found out that someone in the stage before us is ETing this weekend - early termination. The stage that's about to leave just as we got started has right people left from 20-something that started - people left for medical reasons, frustration or administrative separation - i.e. they were sent home, for rules violations. That was pretty sobering to us when we heard about it though. The stage before us (people about halfway through) has had just a few people leave, for medical reasons. The woman who is leaving this weekend is someone I had heard about but not met - she's 67 and was a Peace Corps poster child, someone they used in publicity. She never learned the language but integrated well into her community - her artisans were crying when they heard she was leaving. Her site is one of the CBT sites, too.

OK - a little Newsweek and a check of scores and maybe more later...or else tomorrow, imshallah...