Day 76

Cassie and I woke up at 6:45 and left by 7:15 to meet Jackie and Lauren to go to our 1^st counselor’s cocoa farm. We got to Asamong in record time and waited outside the church for Jackie and Lauren. We walked together to Brother Tawia house and waited for him to finish his breakfast so he could take us to his farm. We made a pit stop at his storage shed so he could pick up his cutlass and put on his boots. We got to the entrance of his farm and he led us in with a little helper boy following closely behind him. He told us about how he inherited the land from his father and how he shares it with his two other sisters. There were cocoas everywhere and he showed us the difference between each one. If they were black it meant it had the black pod disease, which can spread and infect all of the other plants if not cut down soon. Brother Tawia gave us a cutlass to share so we took turns looking out for the black pods and hacking away at them. We stopped and Brother Tawia chopped down a cocoa and let us eat the middle of it. It tasted really tropical which makes it hard for me to believe this is what chocolate is made out of. He showed us the cola nut, which makes coca-cola. We stopped and took a few pictures before going back to his house. We had to stop off and return the cutlass and boots to his storage shed so while he did that we sat on a bench and watched a lady cook a whole goat. She had the goat cut up into different pieces with its head completely intact faced towards us. Once he finished up we continued to his house making a quick pit stop while Brother Tawia bought us crackers and black current Fanta. We ate them at his house and met his whole family. His older brother had just passed away so they were painting the house in preparation for the big funeral that was to occur there soon. We walked back to Mamas house to watch a movie. Mama made us delicious bean and rice stew to eat while we were watching the movie. After the movie we all took a nap. I had been feeling weird all day long so I was happy to get some rest in. I woke up in a daze while the other girls began playing Skip-Bo. We played some other card games but during the middle of one I got a call from my parents so they could tell me some exciting news. I got to talk to them for a while and hear all about their life. I can’t wait to see my family in such a short time. I got a couple of recipes from Mama Doris for me to cook for my family when I return. I returned to playing our game just in time for Mama to heat up our bean stew again and cook some more rice for our dinner. We spent the entire day there so once it started to get dark we walked to the station.