Hooray for Maple syrup!!!

Hooray for Maple syrup and Hooray for the economics class! As a part of their curriculum the economics class at our school chose and ordered items from The States to sell (as a fundraiser for next year's project) to the supportive, deprived and/or curious folks on our campus. Bake sales and this type of fund raiser usually get good support because many of the customers live on campus and find it difficult to get into town to buy things, or just don't have the time to make them. This week, the majority of the customers are just plain deprived because the items being sold are not available to purchase in this country. The rest of the customers are curious because they don't know why you would want to buy those things and want to check it out for themselves! Today (day after payday) I splurged on purchasing some maple syrup (ironically it was selling like... HOTCAKES!) One of the students hovering near the sales table asked me, "Miss,"(they always call me "Miss, Miss" if they are local kids... I definitely prefer it to the "Teacher, Teacher" I was used to in The States)"why would you want this? What do you put it on?" A question which, when answered, was quickly followed by, "What are pancakes?" However, I apparently didn't need to answer this one because her friend smacked her on the arm and rattled out something in her native tongue causing her to smile, nod her head, and give a knowing look of "Yes, of course, I knew that all along!"


The kids were thrilled that we were able to celebrate our new purchase with pancakes and locally-purchased peanut butter. As a side note... I actually prefer our homemade syrup - it has a much richer flavor!