Hey Irene

So, Irene has been a total dud. I mean, I know I shouldn't say that because it would actually be terrible if things were really crazy in our part of Virginia. But still. If we're gonna have an earthquake AND a hurricane in the SAME WEEK, we may as well go all out. All we've gotten so far is rain for literally 12 hours straight, plus wind. The power has gone out about 6 times but we've got generators so NBD.

What does the Sub-Saharan Africa affinity group do when we are stuck inside all day? We make bread and beef jerky. Duh. Our affinity leaders are awesome and they are trying to teach us everyday practical things that we could possibly use on the field. We were supposed to incorporate some chicken killing/plucking today, but we have postponed that for another time without hurricanes.

Start out with some basic ingredients. As in, five ingredients plus stuff to mix it in.

Invite all your closest friends who are also experiencing a hurricane.

Next we moved on to meat drying. Get ready.

Lots of meat, lots of seasonings.

I've never been very enthusiastic about eating meat so most of this kind of grossed me out, but the whole process was just so ridiculous that I kind of enjoyed it. We used paper clips to hang meat strips on a hanger. This stuff has to dry for days, so I think some people have it hanging up on their shower curtain rod in their bathroom, or maybe over the dryer.

So, I probably wouldn't rank Hurricane Irene as one of the highlights of my weekend, but we still managed to have fun!