Meeting our Teammates and Nigerian Chinese Food

Saturday we met with our teams for the first time and discussed the agenda for the training workshops. The highlight of the day - or at least the training- was lunch. I was hoping for a similar lunch I'd had the day before- some fried rice, maybe some chicken- but everyone was encouraging me to try the agoussi soup and pounded yam. Because I promised my mother I would try new things, I reluctantly gave in. Maria decided we could share... The pounded yam was in a ball and tasted sort of like a dry version of heavy mashed potatoes. The agoussi soup had white stuff (later identified as ground up melon seeds) in a yellowish colored spicy broth with hunks of fish. It did not look appetizing. Maria doesn't like fish, so she was no longer "sharing" it with me. I tried a little of the broth and the melon seeds...but then someone mentioned that the fish HEAD was the best part. No thank you... The melon seeds and the broth were edible, but fish HEADS were a deal breaker and I lost my nerve. (picture below is "borrowed" from my co-worker Bill's facebook album so it's small...but you get the idea).

After the workshop was done, we headed across the street to get some snacks at the bakery. Crossing the street is no joke in Kano. It was similar to playing a game of frogger...only we were the frogs and didn't have an extra life. The bakery was wonderful- cakes, pies, cookies, bread, sandwiches, you name it- they had it. After stocking up on snacks, we again played frogger. There were several people outside the bakery that had asked us for money. The median in the road required Maria and I to hike up our skirts so we could jump up to safety. We get to the median and Maria says "I didn't give them any money, but showed a little leg!".
That evening, IITA took us out to dinner at a CHINESE restaurant called the Pink Flamingo. I traveled thousands of miles and had Chinese! HA! After experimenting at lunch, I wondered what we would have for dinner, but it was VERY good. We had rice, egg rolls, chicken and veggies and they had a grilled fish that was delicious and all parts were located where they were supposed to be and easily identifiable! It tasted DELICIOUS!