sweets and games

Good news to all those who use Internet Explorer. The photos link on the main page at www.rogerandcourtney.com has been fixed. All you have to do is click on "photos" and it will take you directly to our breathtaking pictures! You should definitely check that out!

Now, on to other news in the wide world of Hampton's...

As everyone knows, we have the distinct privilege of teaching English in the Islands at Easy English Course (EEC). Usually when we have a class that finishes a level (approx. 3-4 months) we like to have the students over to our house to hang out and eat yummy American snacks. They are particularly fond of our cakes and brownies. They always devour all of the sweets and are very forward about asking for leftovers. This is certainly not the cultural norm for the Islanders. Usually they are very reserved and would never be so forward about something. They are a very subtle people. But, without fail, when it comes to brownies, they throw all their cultural norms out the window. Why is this? I believe I have the answer. It's probably because all of their cakes and "sweets" are terrible! Cakes and such are very readily found in this country. They are elaborately decorated and look so pleasing to the eye. However, as soon as you give in to the temptation and attempt to enjoy this "savory" delicacy, you are left with complete dissatisfaction and perhaps the gag reflex will kick in. The taste is like cardboard. Or sometimes like lard. Other times it tastes like we took a bite out of a sponge you would find by the kitchen sink. The most disgusting one had a curry flavor to it. Sick Sick Sick! I always love when classes come over and taste American sweets for the first time and throw all their inhibitions out. It can become pretty cutthroat as they all vie to be the lucky person to take the brownies home...hmm...maybe we could earn a little bit of extra cash and sell that stuff here; we'd make so much money of that junk!



Having classes over to our house is always so much fun. It's nice to hang out with them in an informal setting. Last week we had Roger's level 3 class to our house. We had a good time of eating brownies and Courtney's famous homemade chocolate cake with frosting made from scratch...she's becoming quite the homemaker. We taught them to play "spoons" and then they taught us a new island game called "nyamuk", which in the island language means "mosquito". One of the customs I really enjoy about playing games with Islanders is the punishment given to the loser. Usually in America, when we play spoons or other games, the loser of each round is eliminated from the competition. But this is a much more collective society so the loser isn't eliminated from play. Instead, a powder and water concoction is mixed together and everybody smears it on the losers face. As you can tell from the photo below, Courtney only lost one round but Roger lost two...how embarrassing!