Election part deux and cooking

It’s been 2 months since I arrived and so on Saturday I decided to make hamburgers for the sisters. I also wanted to make burgers for the girls who are still here (most of them went home for the elections) but I found out that you can’t buy ground beef here. That just doesn’t exist here in Duekoue apparently and the meat that Sr Vicky had taken out of the freezer was meat that she had bought in Abidjan. Also the only cheese you can buy in Duekoué is Laughing Cow cheese but it’s not refrigerated and is therefore suspicious. So we went to the market and bought tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, ketchup (Heinz!) and potatoes to make fries.

Sr Vicky helped me make the burgers and as I was frying them in a pan she said ‘get your camera. You can show your mom you cooked and she’ll say it’s a miracle’. So it was a miraculous day and we had fried burgers on baguettes (no buns in this town) and I wore my Obama girl shirt. Since Sr Vicky told me that even if hamburger meat was available, the girls wouldn’t like it because they’re not used to it, I bought potatoes for the girls to fry. They love fried stuff and use an absurd amount of oil.

Election day was yesterday and I guess it went well. There was some demonstration in Abidjan that got nasty and in a village near here someone stole the urn with all the votes in it, but nothing too bad. There is a 10 pm curfew until Wednesday so I sadly will have to wait to hit up all the sweet clubs and bars in Duekoué. Supposedly they’ll have the results by Wednesday night. It’s funny compared to home where they report the votes as they come in and there is no wait. Here they put a piece of paper in a box like they’re voting for who will be homeroom representative. The election is between the current president (Gbagbo) who has been the president for the past 10 years or something and a guy (Outtara) who was at one time the prime minister. In the debate I liked Outtara better even though some people think he kind of started the rebellion in 2000 or 2002. He’s Muslim and his wife is blonde, French and Jewish. A dynamic duo! I don’t really know how interesting all this is for you so anyway…

Today at the dispensary there were maybe 8 people and we finished at around 10 compared to other Mondays where we finish at 2 or 2:30. So one of the girls and I went to the tailor to choose a style for my fabulous new outfit. There were all these photo albums of different styles so it was kind of overwhelming, but I ended up choosing something pretty simple so hopefully I won’t look too stupid. Having an outfit tailored uniquely for me, including the fabric, will be less than 20 dollars. Hello new wardrobe! Just kidding I think one outfit will suffice.

So that’s what’s new in Duekoué. Just waiting for the election results. Waiting and waiting…