Tickle Ferns

Have you ever seen a sensitive plant? You know the plant that when you touch it the leaves close together? Well, they grow everywhere here. Sometimes they are the main "weed" that you walk through as you walk through a vegetated area. The other day we were walking through a big patch of them and we started talking about what everyone called them. My two favorites, though, were: 1) "fake death plant"- I thought it was fitting. 2) A friend on the trip - her name is Elly- grew up calling them "tickle ferns". That one is definitely my favorite.

Today we went on a spice tour. I can now say I know where nearly all of those little jars of powder in our kitchen come from. It was so cool to see nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, anatto, black pepper, cacao, mace, and all kinds of other exotic things growing just like any other plant. We also tasted what are supposedly the hottest peppers in the world. One little lick and my tongue was nearly numb. Two of the students at whole ones (they are really small). I thought they were going to die. They just thought that they had eaten fire.

After the spice tour we went to see an abandoned slave chamber and go to the beach. There was beautiful coral and shells all over the beach and a little cliff to jump off- so much fun!

We have a meeting in a few minutes. I just wanted to say hello. Tutaonana baadaye(translated: we will see each other later).