6 February, 2000
3 February was a very wintry day. The temperature was –3C, the wind was howling and snow was falling faster than I’ve seen it fall here before. I liked it. After all, I was still on holiday and didn’t have to go anywhere.
Also, on 3 Feb, I woke up to severe pain. I have a pinched nerve in my neck, or something of that sort. It must have happened when I was sleeping, as I was fine yesterday. OUCH! I could only move my neck a certain way or I had a wave of severe pain that went through it.
Finally, on 3 Feb, there was a special on CNN WORLD called Cry Freetown, a film documentary by Sorious Samura, a Sierra Leonese journalist, who documented the atrocities from last year in Freetown, Sierra Leone on film. It was very graphic and gruesome (I admit that at times, I had to turn my head away from the screen) however, it is real life for parts of Africa. It showed killings of adults and children, maiming (people’s (including children’s) arms and legs were SAWED OFF ! (they didn’t show that part, just the aftermath)), rebels shooting at random and setting fires, etc. It was too graphic for many TV companies to show. However, it was important for him to document it and get it aired somewhere so that people of the west knew what was really going on. If you thought that Kosovo was bad (I did), compared to this, it was a walk in the park. I wonder why the west isn’t doing more to help the nations of Africa that really need it. In the past few years there have been so many atrocities that have gone on (Rwanda, Burundi, etc.), and so little has been done to help them. Why? Is it because the African nations are not oil rich like Kuwait is? Is it because the African nations are not a threat to Europe, like Serbia was? Why? The UN sent in 6,000 peacekeepers (4,000 Nigerian, the other 2,000 are Kenyan and Indian). Will that help? I hope so. Until then, the only thing I can think to do is ask for people to remember the people of Africa in their prayers.
4 February, 2000….I am dying for Mexican food. I need to find a site on the internet (if it ever works) that has some recipes for things that I can make from scratch (with chicken, as we don’t have ground beef ). I know how to make a lot, but not from scratch. Also, I don’t know how to make tortillas from scratch. If anyone does, please email me the recipe. I have an idea…if anyone that reads this has a favorite Mexican recipe, please email it to me! It could be a recipe for ANYTHING Mexican (tortillas, salsa, etc.). I think I can get most of the ingredients except chilis here, but I can substitute chilis with paprika. It would be much appreciated. I’ll try any that I receive and let you know (on this website) how good they came out. My mouth is watering now. Maybe I should teach in Mexico next.
