There’s a first time for everything….

I got my first experience grinding grain today when I took some barley to be ground for the goat site. Luckily, I also got to take one of the site workers with me. Seeing as how I had no clue what I was doing, she was a great help.

Although I was very intrigued by the grain grinding process, it seemed that everyone else there was most intrigued by me. Do you know what it feels like to be standing there minding your own business and have 40 pairs of eyes glued to your back? I do. Apparently, I was far more interesting to them than the grain that was being ground. I did as little as possible to keep from drawing any more attention to myself than was necessary.  I certainly didn’t want it it to be any more obvious than it already was that I had no idea how to do this….not when every female in the countryside from age 7 and up obviously made grinding grain a part of her daily tasks. For that reason, I still can’t really tell you what you do to grind grain. What I can tell you is that it is a very dirty job! And I am glad I don’t have to do it often!

Upon entering the house, we were immediately passed to the front of the line. I didn’t say anything at the time, but as we got in the truck I asked my friend why we didn’t have to wait. I was very much under the impression that it was because I was a foreigner and I really did not like that idea. Turns out that she told them that she wouldn’t wait. The grain house we went to was in her neighborhood and apparently she does this often. She just tells the workers that she won’t wait and she doesn’t have to! Not exactly the way I would have handled that.

To top the morning off, I went back to the goat site and ate a meal of bread fried in palm oil and eggs also cooked in about a cup of palm oil….and that is not an exaggeration! Bring on those transfats! I love eating mass amounts of fat that will never leave my body!