When I was in 4th grade, I went to a state spelling bee. Truly this was my first experience as a staff kid at Oneida Baptist Institute.  I remember that everyone in my class participated (all 12 of us) …even though the state fair was in summer or at the end of it.  I had been given this list of a bazillion words to practice almost as soon as we had moved there in July- and I actually practiced a ton of them.

 I don’t remember if I made it through the first round or not- but I got out on the word cocoa- because I put the ‘a’ at the end of the first ‘o’.  Really, I should have gotten some points for including it at all- because in my opinion- it is still a completely unneccessary vowel at the end of a sufficiently completed word- and a rotten trick to play at an elementary spelling bee.

Before we moved, I remember crying to my father because I thought I would have to go to tutoring for not being as smart as all the other staff kids. They could sing all of the presidents in order- and multiply  two 3-digit  numbers together already.  Even though I couldn’t spell coaco correctly, I eventually learned that song- which I still have to sing to myself sometimes to get history straight.   

But back to the real topic of this blog: I’m drinking real hot cocoa- that I made with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Its the perfect addition to a my long research material booklist.

I chose my topic because,  deep down, I love using alliteration in the titles of my class assignments.  My current topic “Development -Induced Displacement” provides great potential for this. I am likley writing specifically on dams in India- so that may come in handy as well.