busy bee

recently i've been working on my old lady skills.

first of course is the rustic sort of culinary projects i've told you about. i can't quite decide if i feel like a gramma, a crunchy hippie or some sort of pioneer woman when i soak my chickpeas over night, strain them for stones and bugs, sort them for bad ones, take off the peels and theeeeen add them into soup (complete with rachel's awesome home-made veggie broth). maybe none of the above. maybe just someone without a whole lot of money but pleanty of time on her hands. and besides, food tastes way better when you've spent that much time with it (:

i've also been mastering the fine old lady art of embroidery. i've been exchanging english lessons with this wonderful woman, hajiba, for moroccan style embroidery ones. i use the term mastering loosly... dabbling might be a better word. every wednesday i go and spend a few hours with her in her workshop and she guides me through the impossibly intricate patterning. she has a few other students also- three moroccan girls. the workshop space also serves as a gossip circle for the four women. the language barrier prevents me from understanding most of the good stuff, but now i have a good goal for learning arabic...

my days have been filling up nicely lately. i've got some new tutoring clients and i've just started volunteering at this pretty awesome woman's empowerment association in town. i'm teaching both the staff and a group of young girls english lessons. i'm especially excited to be working with the girls- they are all girls who have stopped school and are at risk of becoming house servents- this association is working with them to get them back in school and also does vocational training. pretty awesome place. i'm really happy to be able to do something that feels useful there, and to have students who aren't totally spoiled rich kids.

yes, yes, all of this recent activity has severely cut down in my aimless wandering and exploring time. i think i'm pretty ok with that.

ok, thats all. hope you're all staying warm.

maura