Eggplants and Soccer

Last week we got a free bag of eggplants from Ms. Kay, the computer teacher from Taiwan. She's good friends with the Taiwanese guys who run the training farm in Laura, and she's always giving us the extra produce she can't eat when they give her a big bag. The eggplants were a beautiful light purple, and delicious of course. I made eggplant caponata, sauteed eggplant (an excellent after-school snack on the first day we got the veggies) and a stir-fry with eggplant, onion, cabbage, and potatoes. The produce is always a surprise, and sometimes I wish it was like the states where there's an endless variety of every fruit and vegetable, constantly available, but a sudden pile of eggplant or papaya or bananas or sweet sop (an interesting pacific fruit) definitely makes us get creative.

Allison and Heather and I have been going for runs for a while now, and except for the frequent dog attacks (no one's been bitten...yet) it's pretty fun. Last week we headed to the Laura fields to run sprints on the overgrown but still-functional track, and we discovered the pickup soccer game that happens every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The Baptist missionaries told us about it and have been inviting us for a while, and I'm glad we finally went. Heather and I played and it was tons of fun- running around in the rain, playing defense against guys twice my height and a kid half my size, splashing through puddles on the track to go after the ball (no side boundaries or throw-ins, just "play on!"), kicking the ball with bad aim but good intentions, and generally having a ridiculous time. I was wearing tennis shoes, no cleats or shinguards, but I could complain- some guys were playing barefoot! It's nice to find a sport I can really play. I'm not good at soocer (haven't played since 5th grade) but I'm able to play it and get involved, which is very different from my hilariously incompetent volleyball and basketball skills!