Lots and lots of homework!

We have been pretty busy lately with classes and our assignments. During the month of January we added another class that met all day on Saturdays. So, not only have we lost an extra day to do work, but now we have more to do. Fortunately it's a great class and it's been very interesting. Actually, we love all of our classes. We're so grateful for the opportunity we have to be here and learn valuable information from great people. Though assignments can be overwhelming, we're enjoying every minute!

This is Uche's area of homeworking. It also doubles as our dining table. On average I think we have read over a couple hundred pages a week, plus papers, interviews, research, presentations... I need to stop now I'm stressing!!

This is my work area the desk. The laptop you see there doubles as our tv/movie center as well. We've got a lending library exchange thingy happening with our next door neighbor. But have I mentioned we've had a lot to do, so no movies lately!

During our health and development class we learned how to take each other's blood pressure. Learning these kind of skills is not the point of our class, but it was a fun activity. In the class we've been focusing on the concept of wellness in a community. So, we're thinking of the whole person and what it means for them to be healthy in all areas of life. Uche and I will be doing a presentation in this class on HIV/AIDS and how it affects relationships and communities and how it impacts the poor.

After taking each other's blood pressure we worked together to create meals that high nutrition, but are affordable for a low income family. Thinking through this process was pretty interesting. What if you only had a couple dollars a day to feed your entire family, how would you spend it so you can get the most nutrition possible? This is a problem that the people we hope to work with have to deal with on a daily basis.

This was taken during our Saturday class, Intercultural Communication. We had different glasses on and we were talking about how our culture determines how we see things. Just like the differences in the lenses of each pair of glasses affected how we saw things in the room. These glasses were crazy. The "lenses" are just plastic lines. It was so hard to see out of, and they would've given me a headache if I had to wear them for any amount of time!

We decided as a class the only possible function for these glasses would be to help you keep your eyes on the line you're reading and not lose your place.

Around the town

My brother Gus came to visit us this past week and schools started again after the Christmas break, so it was a bit of a crazy week. Here's some highlights from Gus' visit.



The main reason for the visit was dental work. There are some really good dentists here and they are much more affordable than in the States. Here Gus displays the pieces of a tooth he had to have pulled. There's a closeup picture of the teeth that I will save you from having to view.



Here's Gus trying on some jeans at Greenhills. This mall has a bunch of stalls where you can buy a variety of items from purses to sunglasses to jewelry. This booth sold jeans and when it came time to try them on they whipped out the dressing room curtain.

Here's Gus enjoying some tropical fruits, papaya, mango and pineapple with pandesal (delicious Filipino rolls).

At Powerplant mall in Makati. I love this mall because it's beautiful and quiet. Most of the malls here are loud and crowded, but this place is just relaxing. There are lots of designer stores here, and of course, I can't afford to buy anything here, so I just enjoy it.

This is at the American cemetery in Manila. There are thousands of graves here for men who lost their lives during World War 2. It's a beautiful and serene place.

The landscaping at the cemetery is beautiful and well maintained which makes for a nice background for a picture of us.

We also spent some time in Intramuros (inside the walls). The walls were built by the Spanish hundreds of years ago and we wandered around for a little bit.

We enjoyed a Middle Eastern lunch complete with Lebanese music videos.

Awww, Starbucks. Did we really live before Starbucks...

Happy New Year!

On New Year's Eve we travelled to Tokyo so my sister in law could spend New Year with her parents there. It's a big family holiday for Japanese people. It was fun to see a bit of Tokyo. We didn't get any pictures cause we were in the van the whole time, but it seems to be a pretty cool city. It was really fun to look out the window and watch the crowds.

My sister in law's parents bought some noodles for us to eat. It's a traditional New Year's Eve food, and it was quite tasty!

Fortuantely noodles are easy to eat with chopsticks! I think I got every last one.

Group shot. Nigerians really have far reaching extended families. So, Uche says that my sister in law's parents are his in laws as well as my parents. I guess now I'm related to people from 3 different continents!

This is the area where we rang in 2009. It's kind of hard to see, but there's a ferris wheel in the background that had a clock in the middle. The white dashes in the middle counted the seconds. So, we counted down and rang in the new year in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan, 17 hours ahead of all you west coast Americans.

It was a little brisk, ok, honestly it was freezing!! I borrowed a coat from my sister in law or I would never have ventured out of the car!

Uche sporting a borrowed coat as well.

The group (minus the guy taking the picture).

On New Year's day we went out visiting. We stopped to see a friend who was dressed in traditional Japanese clothing for work. We got some pictures with her; it was a pretty complex outfit.

How boring do my clothes looked compared to her outfit??

Day trip

The other day we all loaded into the van to take a little road day trip. We left the city and headed for the mountains. We drove along the coast for a while and then started climbing and climbing. We arrived at a summit and pulled over at lookout area to take pictures and see the sights. The views were amazing. We got to see Mt. Fuji and the mountains surrounding it. We also could see Lake Ashi. We then drove down to the town of Hakone and did a short cruise on the lake. It was a gorgeous day with lots of sunshine, but it was COLD, especially on the mountain. We took lots of pictures and they all turned out great, so I will try to post a few to give you an idea of our day out.

View from the lookout point.

Uche holding up the post.

I have no idea what this post says, but the numbers say we are 1011 meters above sea level. I looked up online and that's 3600+ feet. We started at sea level and climbed all the way up in a matter of minutes. It was quite a drive with some great views of the sea.

Welcome! Sarah as tour guide.

During our boat cruise we saw this pirate ship on the lake as well. It was pretty cool looking.

It was a very pretty cruise with lots of photo oppurtunities.

The whole crew. U&S with Uche's brother and his family and a guy from Nigeria with his girlfriend.

Christmas 2008 in Japan

On Christmas evening Uche's brother invited a few Nigerian guys over to eat Nigerian food to celebrate Christmas. In Japan, Christmas day is not a holiday, so it's a normal day that people work and do life as usual. So after everyone got off work they came over to celebrate Christmas and welcome us to Japan.

Uche with his nephew and their matching Santa hats.

My sister in law bought a cake for the celebration. She loves cake, another reason why she and I get along very well! I've been told that pretty much all the Japanese cakes come with fresh strawberries, there's also strawberries in the filling between the cake layers.

Candles came with the cake so the kids got to blow them out. I don't know if this was the first or second time they were lit. The little one didn't get to help the first time, so they were relit for her to help blow them out. Kids are the same all over the world!

Our niece doesn't like the cake, just the frosting, so she picked all the frosting off her piece. I think she probably got some frosting from her mom's piece as well!

The guys enjoying their Nigerian food. In my opinion Nigerians are the loudest people in the world, these guys didn't disprove my theory!

The international Ajero family.

Eating out Japan style

My Japanese is not so great, so I can't tell you what this is, but we ate at this restaurant.

Uche is pretty good with the chopsticks. He was showing off by picking up single grains of rice.

I might starve to death if I had to eat with chopsticks all the time. I finally gave up trying to pick up all the corn kernels from the salad.

They gave our nephew a fork and spoon to eat his meal. I would have asked a fork, but they were clearly for the children as it had Snoopy for a handle.

Guess where we are right now????

Taiwan. On our way to Japan.