The Best Meal I've Had in 6 Months!

Last night we had a WONDERFUL meal. It consisted of tacos (with hard shells), cheese dip, tortilla chips, and refried beans. It is probably important to say that the only thing that came from Africa in this meal was the meat, along with tomatoes and the mozerella cheese for the tacos. And even this came from Bamako, a mere two day drive. Then we began to think about how expensive this meal really was. The only thing that we purchased here in Timbuktu was the tomatoes for about 20 cents. So here is the breakdown for our meal:

Velveeta Cheese - brought with a volunteer team from the States and given to us. Plane ticket, visa, shots, passport, cost of cheese - probably around $3,000.00

Rotel Tomatoes - sent in a flat rate box for $37, plus cost of tomatoes

Milk - about $1

Hamburger Meat - about $4 but our supervisor brought it to us from Bamako. This means between fuel and hotel arrangements, maybe it cost somewhere around $184

Taco Seasoning - compliments of Jessica's aunt, came in a flat rate box of $37 plus $1 for the seasoning

Tortilla Chips - $18 shipping plus $3 for chips

Taco Shells - $18 for shipping plus $2 for shells

Refried Beans - flat box plus price of beans = $38

Mozerella Cheese - came by plane when we visited Bamako in February. Cost of plane tickets about $600 plus cost of cheese = $601

Tomatoes - 20 cents

New Gas tank for oven because ours went out the day before - $25

and a new hose for the gas tank because ours broke the same day - $14

GRAND TOTAL - $3,983.20

That's a pretty good meal! We are so blessed to have so much support from our families and friends!

Sorry no great pictures of the event. I'll really update my blog in June when we have faster internet. Plus you can see pics of me, my mom, and my aunt all together in our finest African attire!