Happy 4th of July

This is my 2nd 4th of July overseas.  In 2007 we had Hamburgers and Hotdogs in Swaziland, Africa.  Last year of course I was at the Camp in Lugansk, Ukraine where we had an "American Breakfast" which was a fried egg on top of a bowl of Chili with a hotdog in it!

Over the last few years I've had the great privilege to meet and know people all over the world.  Today I've seen Facebook Statuses (Stati??) from friends celebrating the Fourth of July in Ukraine, Russian, South Africa, Korea, Peru, Guatemala and Cambodia.  That's crazy!

Today has been pretty low key so far.  We had an early morning Airport pick-up.  Later today I'll go with a local bus driver to pick-up 2 groups totaling 27 people.  Once we get them settled then I can enjoy the rest of the 4th of July with my fellow staffers.  I think we have Hotdogs and Watermelon.

BUT the big surprise for today was a special lunch.  One of our staffers, Toya, definitely has a "Momma/Cook" Gene and she cooked me a Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Fried Okra.  The steak was pretty tough but it was spicy and very tasty the way she cooked it (which was quite a fete by the way...she was basically cooking over an electric hot plate!)  

Mmmm