Boarder Running

Well Hello to all! Basic summary: the birthday was amazing. Not necessarily because I got to go to Gambia- but just everything went perfectly, and it seemed to go on for about three days. Its like those days where your just incredibly happy-and you really don’t need to justify it

-New Years- crepes with chocolate and banana and chocolate and lemon (because I was to lazy and enjoying myself to much to go and get the sugar). They were heavenly I have to say. Usually I win my battle when telling Aida that Im full and would like to stop eating. I gave and just let her feed me about three crepes and couldn’t fit the fourth one that she gave me for the walk over to Awa’s, so I just gave it to Awa. There definitely was contemplation of eating it throughout the walk, but it would have been physically impossible since I had eaten a lot at dinner (breaded fried chicken, the best type here, I just try to stop thinking about how much oil goes into everything, and I had already eaten melon)
-New Years is so much less here. I was doing a crossword puzzle and they flipped the channel to a view of Dakar and there were just a bunch of people in the streets and about three or four firworks in their midst (I guess you could say that is dangerous). A bit later I looked at my phone….. It was 12:15. Turns out that was the big scene that went off when the new year came in. I guess you could say I started the year on an intellectual note, looking on the bright side of it.
-Woke up a bit before 6am on my birthday to get ready to go. I made a sandwich with pain au lait, peanut butter and then chocolate on half and honey on the other. Quite a superb birthday breakfast I think. I would like to take a pause and talk about the deliciousness of the honey here. After I discovered that I could eat it and not throw up or get incredibly sick (SCORE), Ive been eating it ever since, with breakfast that is. It is better for you than jam, correct?
-I wore a dress for my birthday- the Senegalese one I got made. Yeah, see, the dress thing is real, who woulda thunk?
-Got to see Rachel for the first time since she came back from the states (she spend all of new years eve/day on a plane. That is real dedication). She said she liked my dress. She brought me calcium (now praying for the hair debacle to cease), quaker instant oatmeal (possible to make here; reminds me of the Lindquists, not that they eat huge amounts of it, but oh well), and gum. Alec and I rode in her car with Babacar driving-Alec fell asleep and was drooling. We all laughed a bit. Shout out for Paul Simon- that was the first cd we listened to. Overall, it definitely didn’t feel like a five hour drive
-Did some stuff……at the Gambia border we ate lunch-sandwiches. Another shout out for smoked turkey (delish) and Schweppes, which I know how to pronounce but never do it right. Got in trouble for taking a picture of the border post, supposobly its illegal or something. I was not arrested. It was super bizarre to have people crazy selling cashews and other very Senegalese things… in English (gambia was an English colony).
-There was this group of American (we think) tourist that were also crossing over the border. They all got completely mobbed and jipped by the cashew sellers. That is why you don’t wear fanny packs, visors, shorts or anything that shoes your knees, and big flashing signs that say ’ I didn’t bother to read up on the cultural notifications before I came, so Ill just give you some money to apologize.’

-Took taxies to the ferry which took us to the capital Banjul-so amazingly beautiful. It was like Dakar, but there were trees, the sellers were less belligerent, and the architecture was English colonial, not French. Got some sweeeeeet pictures. They were still celebrating the new year (tamxarit, not the western new year) which we found out by hitting a parade of people screaming ‘one love’ and ‘happy new year’. Some people had Halloween style masks on…… and then there was a person dressed as a fruit basket. I mean this with all seriousness… he was a fruit.

-We got to go up on this huge arch, kina like the L’arc de Triumph. The security guard was wearing a hat that said “uncle sams guard”. Beautiful view.

-Then recrossed the boarder and ate Madelines on the way to Babacar’s family’s house in Tambacouda. Rachel had interviened in the cooking and made them make rice without Maggi and very little oil. Newsflash: there is hope for Senegalese food, its just that no one knows it yet.

-Went to our ‘hotel thing’ which consisted of rooms and showers. On the bright side, there were showers and it was pretty clean in general. There was also a gazebo for some reason, but hey, I wasn’t going to argue. (this was around 11pm by the way).

-So Rachel told Hilary and I that Victoria had this massive bed and that we would be jealous, so don’t go look. Naturally we both sprinted to Victoria and Gaya’s room- I leaped onto the bed. Bad move, as I broke it. Rachel laughed a lot. It turns out your supposed to put as little pressure on Senegalise beds as possible because the boards are usually really really thin, or already broken. So I will now never be able to live down the fact that I broke the bed-and everyone says it was my jayfunday-they thinks its more fun to say that its that than the mere jumping action and weak boardness.

-Victoria and I were sitting on Gayas bed when everyone comes in with this super mini cake with two candles-the happy birthday song for the both of us. Gaya brought trick candles.

-I just didn’t really go to sleep. And Nic called me at 3am to wish me happy birthday! But I had to go because hilary was in my room. Probably fell asleep somewhere around 5.
-We had this amazing breakfast over at Rachel and Babacars hotel, which is basically a resort. There was even a swimming pool. It would take to long to describe how much I ate (at least four pastries, threeish pieces of break, fruit, coffee, juice, obeseness), but it was a lot. And delicious. I figure it still counted as my birthday so why not eat tastyness while I can?
-Babacar can eat a whole banana in around two bites- that is ridiculous. I would almost go as far to say as law defying. Newton would have a hiss fit with it.
-Senegalise people love me a disproportionate amount for absolutely no reason. One of the running jokes is about how Im Babacars favorite. And then his family loved me, asking me to sleep there after dinner, of course, just making it worse. I mean its not a bad thing, its more that we cannot figure out why it happens with everyone. Rachel said one possibility is that I laugh a lot-but who knows.
-Two days ago my host father said that he will miss me a lot when I go back to america. Aw shucks.
-I ate two bananas and an orange on top of breakfast and lunch today. Granted, lunch was at 4pm today because my host family made food for the towns people who are building a wall around the cemetery. Since it was my day off I read, did yoga, did laundry, and am now doing this…. And ate.
-Im sorry for talking about food all the time.
-I stayed in Dakar after the Gambia trip so that I could pick up my packages on Monday. Which would constitute the third day of my birthday because I got to open some of the most amazing presents and cards ever. Words don’t quite express how happy I was, and they really couldn’t ever do it justice. I put some of the wrapping paper up on my wall collage because Im that cool.
-On January 15th, I will be half way through my stay in Africa, which is ridiculous to think about. Coincidentally it coincides with our next monthly meeting-which is in Dakar, but for the middle day we will be in the Mourite capital, Touba (mourtides are a sect in the Islamic faith, led by Cheikh Amadou Bamba)
-Hopefully Ill get to start my study this week!!! And I had my first day in Rufisque with an English club at L’Ecole la Sagesse (school of wisdom). I think it will basically turn into me and Hilary teaching the kids things that they would actually use in a real conversation/ how to understand what they are saying, not just memorize it. Its really interesting because that’s actually the goal of the school (private)-to differentiate from the regular Senegalese school that just makes kids memorize everyyyything. The kids are seriously memorizing the same passages that their parents did 40 years ago. What a need for educational reform. So there is a lot of opportunity there. They brought me into the room-kids lining the wall- told me to introduce myself- and then the lady was like, this is my co-leader. Now can you do something for us? So much for having time to plan. It could have been a lot worse though. Also, I get to eat at the principals house (he is short, my heightish. I don’t know why I keep noticing short people), and he doesn’t like magi or oil either!!!! Probably because he’s really good friends with a Canadian-who put him in contact with GCY.
-Its amazing how talking to someone for even a few minutes, makes me so happy. There would be no asymptotes on my happiness curve, which is exponential. You know you went to Raleigh Charter when you even think things like that, much less arnt embarrassed enough to type it out and not delete it.
-Ive been ridiculously tired the whole week. Its possible that its from my epic battle with sleep on the gambia trip (being up for almost 24 hours, and then getting three hours of sleep, and then about 5 or 6 when I was in Dakar), or that the random awakenings have restarted ( the odd things is, Im really awake, as in I could go for a run…. At 4am), or who knows.
-Two French ecovoluntiers are here. They are quite pleasant. One is named eddie- he kina looks like a dwarf, not in the short way, but in the very stocky big nosed jolly way. He also had a rattail which is bothersome. The other is named Camille- she is pleasantly plump, but doesn’t seem to eat a lot. Or maybe she just eats lots of delicious cookies-they gave me one. They are called pepitos and they have a little animal with a sombrero on the front. They are from here, or France technically, trader joes? Note: they were actually not made in Turkey. Its okay, I was shocked too.
-I still have the henna on my nails from Tabaski. I think it will wear off just in time for the henna that they plan to give me before I go back to the US.
-It hailed once in Senegal sometime around 30 years ago, just like the cookies, another shocking thing. The people ate it off the streets.
-There was a flipped car last night from someone hitting a pot hole. No one was injured. It was quite a side to see a car flipped back over.
-Last night was my birthday dinner since I was gone on my birthday-yassa poulet ontop of Moroccan couscous (my host mother was reluctant to make the couscous, but she knows I love it. Who cares if they think its cheap. Its tastier and healthier=fabulous). It made me very happy.

Hope this finds you all well,even though I dont really know who that means, but as always,

With love,

Ananda