A Glance Back Over the Shoulder

I'm spending part of today working on my Description of Service, the official government record of my activities here in St. Kitts.  It's simple enough to take the complete but concise overview of each project of mine from the trimesterly Volunteer Report Forms I've submitted before, but adding in the quantitative and qualitative impact into each item – that's a little tougher.  Furthermore, neither making it fit into a more or less standardized form nor limiting that to at most three pages is consistent with my natural writing tendencies.  Not that I'm strictly concerned; I just want the official standard record of my service here to be clear and complete.  And like this blog, the usual way that I ensure both standards are met is to overcompensate on thoroughness and repetition. (You're welcome.)

I've had occasion to tell others about the work I did at the Smart Moves Strategy Board Game Summer Camp, and whenever I do, I'm always inclined to rank it as among the most rewarding work that I've had the privilege to undertake in my term of service.  So much so, in fact, that I volunteer my own willingness to have a go at it again, though likely not in a similar camp setting.  Fortunately, my secondary attachment at The Ripple Institute gives me the opportunity to do exactly that, with the blessing of my IPP already.  Whether or not I will personally be around to lead instructional classes on Chess or manage a local chess club, I can certainly hand off my lesson plans for each of the days I taught at camp to another qualified individual.

I've been asked by a local friend of mine to appear on his radio show on Sunday.  I'm to prepare notes on what I would like to do on My Perfect Day: no expense barred, no location too distant, and (shockingly) no time-space continuum interference.  So for the hour broadcast, I will get to talk about how I would spend an 8 hour period seeing all my favorite time periods from history, with three meals unfettered by the bounds of reality, and set to whatever soundtrack I desire.  Quite the open-ended question!  I've already got some ideas, but I don't want to spoil them here in the event I am able to acquire a recording of the broadcast - I'll certainly keep everyone posted on that.  In the meantime, a new Funnyquote is expected on Friday.  I can't wait!

Funnyquote Friday

Well well, it snuck up on us again... the Funnyquote Fridays in Review!  And you know what that means: even more funny, often inane, but occasionally insightful, translations from our friends at Bad Translator.  Here are the last 24 weeks of funnyquotes and their repeated translation through 56 different world languages:

16 September 2011: *Whistle* "I'm coming back.  Coming back!"
... becomes, "Get the police!"

23 September 2011: "As Benjamin Franklin, former U.S. President, famously said..."
... becomes, "The most popular singer, Former President of the United States, said of Benjamin Franklin, and the most popular artists..."

07 October 2011: "Your wife's HOT!"
... becomes, "Spice Girls!"

14 October 2011: "You'd never see a movie called Boyz in the Bonnet."
... becomes, "The film takes place here."

21 October 2011: "That's not air conditioning, that's cold storage!"
... becomes, "Air conditioners, refrigerators, no!"

28 October 2011: "We do everything we can, but we can't do everything."
... becomes, "We can do that."
... and, "We tried, but did not."

18 November 2011: "Don't date the local homeless guy [just to date someone]."
... becomes, "It's time to go home."

25 November 2011: "So it not turning on, or it just running slow?"
... becomes, "You need glasses."

16 December 2011: "Ask not about the stipend. When it is ready, you will be informed. In the meantime, learn as much as you can!"
... becomes, "You don't have to pay the witness to find that now."

03 February 2012: "What is this, opera??"
... becomes, "This is for me?"

10 February 2012: "The Sea Hustler – it doesn't really hustle..."
... becomes, "Very sharp lie."

17 February 2012: "They all have a Blackberry®. I have a gooseberry."
... becomes, "Can I have a strawberry?"

24 February 2012: "Keep going until you pass the squished frog."
... becomes, "The first set of compressors."

02 March 2012: "What other 4A6 teacher do you know that comes to work on a Friday?"
... becomes, "Mr. President, no dispatch on Friday?"

16 March 2012:  "Now if only the White people would stop coming."
... becomes, "If there is one of these eggs on the ship..."

23 March 2012: "Good night! Drive safely!"
... becomes, "Good night stupid!"

30 March 2012:  "His head was in the living room, and his feet were in the kitchen."
... becomes, "Cooking, cleaning, and living space summit."

06 April 2012: "Please answer 'A' for this question."
... becomes, "Welcome to the response."

13 April 2012: "Boy I wish my camera had a phone on it right now."
... becomes, "I think this would be a mobile phone camera fan."
... and, "My God.  My camera."

20 April 2012: "Hey, you are falling out of tune!"
... becomes, "However, you can create what has been broken open."

27 April 2012: "Woo Peace Corps!  Even lower down the totem pole than UNDP!"
... becomes, "Helping the UN Association of Self-Employed Female Workers group."

04 May 2012: "I can't change the laws of math!"
... becomes, "Count!"

18 May 2012: "Same s**t, different dialect."
... becomes... Well, actually, it rather ironically doesn't change at all.

25 May 2012: "... (Are you reading this, Chris?)"
... becomes, "Even Christopher Lee?"

EDIT: Woo! Got the photo slideshow up and running, finally.  Check it out in the upper-left corner.  From there you can navigate the random 50 photos and also click on any one you want to see larger - it opens in a separate window/tab.  Enjoy!

"Can't Stay" Says May / Too Soon for June

Wow, 70 hits for Monday's blogpost in two days?? Maybe I should title all of my future posts with allusions to popular rock songs from the '80s.

Now seems like it would be a good time to recount some more achievements of mine since starting my Peace Corps service all the way back in September 2010.  Using the previously seen GamersCorps Achievements format, here is an update to how my last 20 months have shaped up in my mind.

... Oh, and one that stands out above the rest:

It's satisfying to have all of these positive reminders of a fruitful term of service all in one place here.  Hopefully I get to add a little more to it come October and tally up my final score.

Also, new blog header.  I tried to pick the clashingest colors I could find, and I think I succeeded.

Something Old, Something New

As my term of service stands roughly at one full year, and I recently submitted my third trimesterly progress report to the Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C., I felt like this would be a good time to take a small glimpse into that report.  Of the many angles we are asked to look at our service over the previous four months, the most difficult for me to answer is the section labelled "Success Story."  You may come to your own conclusions why that it, but I fear it has mostly to do with my tendency towards apprehensive pessimism.  I do not remember perceived successes as sharply as failures, and this bias often clouds my objective assessment of the effectiveness of my work here.  With that said, here is the story I chose to be this semester's "success story:"

With the school year winding down, I knew I had a little more free time to devote to new secondary projects during the summer.  So I scheduled a couple of meetings in the interest of kicking off a pair of new projects: one with Fr. Christopher Archibald, Associate Rector at the St. George's Anglican Church, in the interest of starting up a youth group to combat AIDS spread and school drop-out rates, and a second with the Ministry of Education's Curriculum Development Unit in the interest of promoting the Math Activities pamphlet and distributing it to the schools on the islands.
Five minutes early to the meeting with Fr. Archibald, I considered the directions he gave me to the church office, and yet I was unable to pinpoint which building was the office.  I spent the next half hour trodding up and down the residential street, stopping occasionally to inquire at houses and ask if they knew the whereabouts of the office.  Finally, as I came upon it, Fr. Archibald met me outside as he was leaving to go on an emergency call he had just received.  We quickly scheduled for next week, pushing my two meetings to the same week.
Attending the CDU meeting which a contact had set up for me, it became clear as time neared that the contact was going to be unable to make the meeting.  Furthermore, the CDU representatives were under the impression that I was prepared to make a multimedia presentation; I had simply brought a single hard-copy of the Math Activities booklet.  Thinking fast, however, I obtained a virtual copy of the document from a previous e-mail I had sent, and borrowed one of the CDU's student-use laptops to make an off-the-cuff hour-long presentation of the material.  The CDU director was pleased, and I will shortly get back in touch with him to finalize the project.
Later that week, I trudged through the beginnings of Tropical Storm Irene to meet with Fr. Archibald, and this time I was forced to wait at his office, as he forgot our agreed time and drove from home to meet me.  In time, however, it became clear that my suggestion for a youth boy's program was something of interest to him and the church, and indeed until just a few years back, the church had been sponsoring a program very similar in nature.  So with many of the foundational aspects already in place, I offered the willingness to pick up a share of the legwork it would take to bring the program back, and this was met with enthusiasm.  I was very grateful, therefore, after much time and anxiety borne of ambiguity, that my ideas for new projects were met with such positive results.

I may not have mentioned yet that I was asked by the new principal of Dr. William Connor Primary to collect some new books in the interest of expanding and revitalizing the defunct school library.  I was referred to a charity organization called Hands Across The Sea, a book purchasing and donating organization whose goal is to promote child literacy in the Eastern Caribbean.  They've already helped several of my compatriots on other islands around the EC, donating upwards of US$25,000 worth of books annually.  Upon contacting them and learning that their book drive delivery is usually mid-October, and that they are in full swing to begin delivering shipments to the 80 schools and libraries they serve, they were still graciously willing to accommodate DWC Primary's request.  This is my first procurement/fundraising project, and it's starting on a strong foot!  Please check out their website, which shares some of their success stories, both in letter and video forms, as well as my own request for aid on their wishlist page.  I am asking for $300 to help HATS purchase new books from Scholastic®, a total which will then be matched by HATS and the sum quantity sent to DWC Primary.  In order to be in compliance, however, we need to have raised the money by November.  So I appreciate any speedy help in achieving this goal.

And I'm pleased to introduce a new blog header for the occasion.  Those are Ting brand bottle caps in the middle.  Enjoy!

Funnyquote Friday

It's that time of year again... the Funnyquote Fridays in Review!  And that means more funny, often inane, but occasionally insightful, translations from Bad Translator.  Here are the last 24 weeks of funnyquotes and their respective 56th translation:

 25 February 2011: "Well, your six months of vacation are over."
... becomes, "So, you can download important messages."

04 March 2011: "The pessimist says, 'The glass is half empty.' The optimist says, 'The glass is half full.' The Peace Corps Volunteer says, 'Who poured the bath for me?' "
... becomes, "The volunteer group for the bathroom said, 'This is the glass half empty; he said he was optimistic.' "

11 March 2011: "Just because the Peace Corps has three goals, doesn't mean you have to start with the first one."
... becomes, "In fact, the Peace Corps has three goals in its first match."

18 March 2011: "You so slow, I'm gonna lap you in the 100 meters."
... becomes, "In my case, 100 meters is very difficult."

25 March 2011: "Would you like to be the Country Director's water carrier?"
... becomes, "How are the locals?"

01 April 2011: "I'm tired of pretending I'm not a total, bitching rock star from Mars."
... becomes, "I'm a rock star to my dismay, Kaye, and very tired of the government."

08 April 2011: "I'm sure Mr. Nelson would rather go home, eat tortilla soup and watch TV."
... becomes, "I think it features Nelson, Tom, and I on TV cooking shows."

15 April 2011: "Morning, Peter.  Cabbage, Ma'am."
... becomes, "Hello, Colonel Peter woman."

22 April 2011: "It's Kurt... like Kurt Douglas."
... becomes, "Kurt Douglas out, especially sun."

29 April 2011: "I don't want fried chicken.  Right now I'm so hungry I could go for all of Noah's Ark deep-fried."
... becomes, "I designed a good appetite: I do not like fried chicken."

06 May 2011: "Simma Dung."
... becomes, "Reduction."

13 May 2011: "Please feel free to contact me with questions.  (As an Alaskan, I am an expert in frostbite and hypothermia, so if you ever get those, you’ll be in good hands!)"
... becomes, "Communication problems: I was frozen in Alaska, the land of experts!"

20 May 2011: "Love the car, Adrian. Love the car!"
... becomes, "Oooh I love the car and my wife!"

03 June 2011: "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go."
... becomes, "This is what you want to do."

10 June 2011: "My theory is that the buses here actually hover an inch above the ground."
... becomes, "My theory is the bottom line."

24 June 2011: "I don't phone 911."
... becomes, "Article 911."

01 July 2011: "We have a special term for them in St. Kitts: we call them 'I' specialists."
... becomes, "San Francisco Information and I, Chris, is closed."

08 July 2011: "Too good to be true."
... becomes, "Maybe."

15 July 2011: "On behalf of the A/C Repair class, I would like to thank you... for doing your job."
... becomes, "Social process: that is the name of the class."

22 July 2011: "Don't take too much advice from other PCVs."
... becomes, "There are many other volunteers to rule the world."

5 August 2011: "So they figured, [after you,] how could they do better?"
... becomes, "You're very popular."

19 August 2011: "...And a very happy birthday to Ms. Janet Caines. She was born on the same day as Fidel Castro."
... becomes, "Congratulations to Mrs. Jeanette Holiday. Fidel Castro was born."

26 August 2011: *gasp* "That's almost thirty minutes!"
... becomes, "Thirty minutes is enough!"

02 September 2011: "Ram's: Where shopping is a pleasure."
... becomes, "Farm attraction."

... and that's it!  Thanks for sticking around for this review edition of the Funnyquote, and for another 25 weeks of the blog!

My GamersCorps Achievements

Saturday was full of surprises.  One of the big ones was the revelation that they have ice cream trucks here; much to my dismay, it was the same kind that play the same silly tunes that nobody knows, as loudly as possible, and are just catchy and irritating enough to get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.  But here in the islands, there is an added twist: since the special refrigerated truck is not manufactured anywhere around here save for the States, the driver's side is, as with so many industrial vehicles here, on the left side instead of the right.  Nothing particularly strange about that, but as it is set up for children to approach the passenger's side to purchase ice cream, this means that (no exaggeration here) children have to stand out in traffic as they wait for their ice cream.  Brilliant.

Also on the highlight reel was a remarkable first: the family in my neighborhood that was the first to actually initiate a conversation with me also was the first to offer me a meal – in this case it was a sampler plate from a child's birthday party that was going on concurrently with my passing on the road, and so was a polite gesture and a good-faith gesture of their promise to visit me in my "new" home soon.  But nonetheless, I very gratefully accepted it in the spirit of a better-late-than-never housewarming gift.  And it was wonderful!  And I thought to myself, You know, I finally broke a barrier there, and I want to acknowledge it.

So in the spirit of XBOX Gamerscore achievements, I made an achievement for myself.

At that point, I thought to myself, What other achievements would contribute to my GamersCorps?  So here's a look at some of the potential noteworthy events I have or have not achieved.

Funnyquote Friday

Hey, guess what – it's the 25th edition of Funnyquote Friday!  And in honor of this (in)significant achievement, I present: Funnyquote Fridays In Review.  I'm going to go through the 24 previous weeks of quotes and, as an added twist, run them through 56 translations on my new favorite toy, Bad Translator!  Here goes...

27 August 2010: "If you see red, turn it into Pink Clouds and float away on them."
... becomes: "You know, I wear a red rose."

03 September 2010: "(No) Beach Corps"
... becomes: "Sex on the beach (not available)"

 10 September 2010: "There's something calling me to Nevis... And it has a British accent."
... becomes: "That's what Snow said: 'FS British accent.' "

17 September 2010: "The Best Water People"
... becomes: "People are drinking water."

24 September 2010: "[Much like the Red Cross,] in this day and age and no matter where you are in the world, Blackberry can save your life."
... becomes: "The Red Cross and the living world of Blackberry exceptions."

01 October 2010: "If you like it up North, stay up North."
... becomes: "You and I live in the North."

08 October 2010: "Did you know that there is a tropical cyclone formation right over you?"
... becomes: "You know, you are tropical cyclones?"

15 October 2010: "For the next activity, I want you all to pretend... like you can work together."
... becomes: "I'm from the future, I want everyone to work together, I like that in general."

22 October 2010: "Enjoy the ride! P.S. The weird looking thing in the freezer is Conch."
... becomes:  "You can stop it in the refrigerator, and Travel Bolts is a very serious matter."
... as well as: "This is a serious problem, Cool on the Main Street."

29 October 2010: [Recipe for Curry Eggplant] 1 Medium eggplant, 4 tbsp. Butter, Juice of 1/2 lemon, 102 tsp. sweet or hot curry powder
... becomes: [Engine Recipe] oil, lemon juice or a teaspoon of clean water and four kinds of hits.

05 November 2010: "If the wire reaches everywhere in your house, it counts as wireless."
... becomes: "He said to the house, '...and if you have time to fly...' "

12 November 2010: "16 3/4 Miles to Dieppe Bay; 14 1/4 Miles to Dieppe Bay"
... becomes: "Sea 1000 3.4 14:16, 4 kg"

19 November 2010: "Sometimes it's okay to throw stones at women."
... becomes: "Sometimes the best women throw stones."

26 November 2010: "You know, algebra is just so useful, all of the time... I'm just sayin'."
... becomes: "... But I know algebra."

03 December 2010: "Your references are always lost on me."
... becomes: "I lost a contact."

10 December 2010: "OK, that stinks. Well, have fun reading this weekend."
... becomes: "So during the week there's no hope."

17 December 2010: "Tonight, I bring a message for our Very Anxious Times (VAT)."
... becomes: "Now, we learn that the Times (ICM) is a concern." 

31 December 2010: "I think it's just despicable that you're in a short-sleeve shirt and shorts..."
... becomes: "Shirt and pants, I'm afraid... "

07 January 2011: "Life: remember to keep breathing."
... becomes: "Do not forget to breathe new life."

14 January 2011: "It's okay to let spiders chill in your bathroom for months... until they are the size of a Susan B. Anthony."
... becomes: "Susan B. Anthony dressed like a cold shower... a trillion in the next few months."

... and " 'Silent Night' is followed by a j'ouvert."
... becomes: " 'Ropes Night' rust."

... and "Everyone in your village has an uncle in New York or Miami."
... becomes: "Miami, New York: where everyone makes comments."

21 January 2011: "The way I see it, if I fall on my face, it won't be on concrete, it'll be on the sand."
... becomes: "If you have sand on your face, in my opinion, it is obvious at first sight." 

28 January 2011: "No podría comprender al profesor, porque pronuncía mal."
... translated to English, is "I couldn't understand the professor, because he pronounced poorly."
... becomes: "The teacher knows very well I do not understand him."

04 February 2011: "Birthday or Anniversary?"
... becomes: "...or His Majesty the King's birthday?"

11 February 2011: "Ghost Prosecution Planned"
... becomes: "The Phantom of the Accusation should be taken."

And for an update, you know what I got to do yesterday?  I hiked the trail up to the rim of the crater atop Mt. Liamuiga, the highest point in St. Kitts and the original volcano (dormant now) that formed the island.  It was a comfortable hike for the most part: a clearly defined trail on a shallow slope going about 2.5 miles in, and taking about one-and-a-half hours one way.  The closer one got to the top, however, the steeper and rockier the terrain became, and for the last 50 feet or so, one has to do a lot of careful maneuvering on very large rocks using all four limbs.  But the spectacular and one-of-a-kind view makes the effort quite worth it in the end.  I got lots of good capture, and promise to share it with everyone... but for now I'm saving some material for the end of the month highlight film – gotta hold back something to show then!

I hope you have enjoyed this very special Review edition of the Funnyquote Friday.   Have a good weekend.

Too School For Cool, Part 2

In keeping with this week's theme, here is a look at the pageviews accrued by the site so far, and that data extrapolated over the remainder of my term of service.  With only a handful of months to work with, the projection process was far from scientific and delved more into glorified guesswork.  But the idea remains the same.  My ultimate goal, I suppose, is to match or beat the projection of 18,000 I'm throwing out there right now, and as such I promise a special site surprise when we reach half that mark.

I'm at an unusual and mildly frustrating point in my Peace Corps service, presently defined by a number of projects well thought-out but ill-managed.  As is the way with all of my projects right now, it would seem, there is but one thing holding up progress on the Iron Band: finding a viable and willing source of "instruments."  A good friend recommended I go to the resort hotels and ask their kitchen staff if they had old or unused pots and pans that could be converted into noisemakers, with no concern for human eardrum health, and so I plan to make a few phone calls this week and see if this is possible.  The culture here does not habitually put any inherent value on volunteerism or donation, so even this good idea may prove fruitless; even so, it doesn't cost me anything to ask! (assuming I can use the PC Office's phone, because otherwise it would cost me something.)

A meeting with the new EC Country Director on Friday regarding 50th Anniversary goings-on in the Federation will undoubtedly give me something new to report on next week.  But before then, I'm sure everyone will enjoy a special Review edition of the Funnyquote Friday.  I know I enjoyed making it.

Also, my life after the spider.

Too School For Cool, Part 1

In light of six months in the Caribbean and 75 blog posts to account for it, I wanted to introduce today some new (old?) material that I've been working on for a little while – but due to my hectic schedule, I won't be able to squeeze it all into a single blog post.  (Notably due to the fact that the second half is, in fact, not finished yet.) So I opted to spread out the theme of "Six Months In Review" across three posts this week.  In the first entry of this two-parter, I present readers with this histogram of all of the previous posts on this blog, with the corresponding number of reader comments per post.

The post with the most comments, Lots of Things Going Down, is unironically also the post with the most pageviews in the blog's brief history.  The inset sorts all of the comments by author, and as the reader will notice, Jonathan and myself represent more than 50% of the concerned commenters on this blog.  All of this may be just a sly way to guilt those of you who have not posted comments yet to get around to doing so.  Or not; a sincere thanks, by the way, to everyone that has contributed and continues to follow along.

On a different note, sometimes I feel like my life is like a big Pac-man: gobbling up experiences and materials, and the majority of my attention is given over to focusing on the meanings and essences of each and trying to make sense of them, contributing to some anxiety when I get overwhelmed.  This has not changed in my life in the Peace Corps.  I know what those much wiser and more balanced in their life would say to me: I need to find make time to step back, step out of the stream of life, and spend that time instead in meditation and reflection.  I think my emotional balance and senses of self-awareness and self-confidence would all benefit from this choice.  Pray for this inspiration to carry over into practical application soon, as well as for continued motivation in each of my projects, especially those that are very, very slow to progress.

Hey, look what I found!  It's my PCV roomie's blog straight from Antigua & Barbuda.
(Pronounced an•TEE•gah and bar•BOO•dah, by the way)  He has a cool collection of quotes applicable to Peace Corps life as well.

Funnyquote Friday

Today is a special 3-for-1 edition of your favorite Friday series.  These quotes come from the column "Readings from the Peace Corps Rulebook," a department of the EC's own Serious Ting, a periodical contributed to and published by the 100-or-so PCVs in the Eastern Caribbean.  Here are the quotes:

"It's okay to let spiders chill in your bathroom 

for months... until they are the size of 

a Susan B. Anthony."

" 'Silent Night' is followed by a j'ouvert."

"Everyone in your village has an uncle in 

New York or Miami."

Interestingly enough, I did have a monstrous spider attack in December of this year – a bright orange spider about 4.5 inches in diameter (mostly legs).  Don't go thinking it was just another Daddy Long Legs, I'm inundated with those; this guy was living under the couch in order to get in on some of the ant/mosquito action.  But despite its altruistic intent, I made it clear that it was not welcome to scavenge on the same 326 sq. ft. as me.  So here's hoping it's another very long while before one builds up the courage to show its unnatural mug again.

Yes, everyone here seems to have a relative in the States, or has visited the States in many cool places that I have not.  Even my landlord currently lives in the States.  One of my coworkers spent part of the month of August this year in Atlanta.  You can bet someone on this island has been to Helen, GA.  People here are telling me about how cool (and cold) New York is. 

Yesterday I was going through some of the notes in my Moleskine from Pre-Service Training, and I happened across some poignant entries: 

• 8/25 It's funny that in a few days we've managed to redefine the word "overweight."
• 8/27 Blogging the first of my "Funny Quote Fridays."  Hope it is a hit.
• 8/28 Did Yoga in the evening.  Much more relaxed now.
• 8/29 Slept well last night.  Musta been the yoga.
• 9/03 I'm looking forward to not walking on eggshells around my host family.  It's a lot of emotional energy.
• 9/04 Rode the bus home for the first time today.  Very empowering.  Looking forward to walking home on my own.
• 9/05 Erica discovered the [Nintendo] DS so now I think the damage is done.

Ah, the things you say to yourself when you think no one else is looking.  FYI: Overweight, in this context, refers to the state of one's luggage per airline restrictions.  And don't take the wrong impression from my entry on Sept. 3rd: at the time I was still a little shy around my host family, but I am since quite comfortable around them and feel like I could talk to them about anything.  They have always been very accommodating, and continue to watch out for me from a distance.  I know I am welcome at their place any time the need arises.

For a time after the 5th, Erica would find herself outside my room if my door was open and she'd peek in and say, "You have de puzzle game?"  Since the system has a pretty simple touch-based user interface, she latched on to it instantly, and loved perusing the menus and moving blocks and changing their colors with no help from me.  I didn't mind the company, of course, but every now and then one of Erica's grandparents would query from the other room, "Erica, you are harassing Chris?" This always got a laugh from me.

I am looking forward to having friends over for dinner this evening: home-style lasagna and sauteed green beans.  Yum!