Thanksgiving!

The past few days were the best Thanksgiving a PCV could ask for! It started, like most of my trips to Dakar will, at 5:45am when I got on the bus, now nicknamed "the magic school bus" and started my trip to Dakar. I got in without many issues and negotiated a cab to a bank (see one post earlier) and then to the PC office where I had some stuff to drop off. As a sort of holiday gift, I suppose, I got my mandatory flu shots (yeah, 2) and went to the regional house (aka 6, because that's the neighborhood it's in).

I have photos I'll be posting at some point in the next few days, but the regional house is basically a house PC owns that has 4 rooms of bunk beds (with mosquito nets), a kitchen, some bathrooms (with hot water!), and a living room. I was the first one too the house so I hung around and napped for a little bit while I waited from everyone else. Next Tamar came and I was able to hear about island life, followed shortly by Jackie and Alyssa with their epic ride to the regional house (I'm sure it'll be in one or both of their blogs). We hung out around the house for a bit then headed off to get Chinese food. The address of the restaurant was completely unhelpful so Jackie and Tamar took turns trying to get directions from the place itself before we finally gave up and gave the cell phone of the taximan (what they call cab drivers). He turned off the main road and down some back streets until we were in front of the restaurant, un-named "Chinese restaurant." We were, not surprisingly, the only people inside but we were given menus (in French and Chinese) and tried to order. After a few minutes of gestures and failed pantomiming (they didn't speak French, English, or Wolof) we ordered chow mein, szechuan tofu, rice, cumin calamari, and we learned they didn't have egg rolls (which is REALLY hard to pantomime). The food was AMAZING and I'm pretty sure it tasted like Chinese take out does in the US (I'm not sure if it was good because of what I've been eating, but I think it was good relative to all food).
After dinner we started the search for Yogoglace, a frozen yogurt-y thing that Alyssa gets in Thies and Tamar and I had never had. We tried the gas station (where Alyssa gets them) and left without Yogoglace but with 3 boxes of wine. We went back to the house and two other PCVs where there watching the Great Escape. Despite my nap from earlier in the day I was sleepy and content so I went to bed fairly early.

The next morning, Wednesday, everyone else had errands to do at the office so I went along for the ride. After some time at the office we walked to Casino the big, American-esque grocery store... boy it did not disappoint! It was amazing and just like a regular grocery store. I bought salt and vinegar Pringles to eat by the pool and we bought brie and bread to split. Next stop was a leisurely afternoon at the American Club where Emily, another girl from my stage, met us. After a few hours of lounging, we headed back to the house and found that more people had started to arrive. Around 7:30 we rushed out to try and make a happy hour special downtown (no worries, we made it in time) and met some other ex-pats that some of the year-in kids knew. Happy hour was followed with a BRILLIANT three way sandwich split between Tamar (Mergez), Alyssa (Chwaram), and me (Falafel) and then another bar where there was some live music. After enjoying the American tradition of going out the night before Thanksgiving, we headed back for a night's sleep in preparation for the big day.

Some of the guys left early to play football on Thanksgiving morning, but I hung around the house with the "potato crew" (basically the 4 other people I've mentioned by name) and enjoyed some delicious bean sandwiches and cold water (there's a fridge at 6). The plan for the day was to head over to our boss' house and make mashed potatoes and then leave for the Ambassador's from there. The Ambassador had invited PCVs to her house for Thanksgiving and we were asked to bring something. My friends and I quickly called dibbs on mashed potatoes but we had no idea the quantity (were we supplementing? bringing for all 40 people?). We ended up buying 6 kilos (slightly more than 13 pounds) of potatoes, some onions, garlic, butter, and (finally) found some Yogoglace (which was as amazing as promised). The afternoon was spent making what seemed like a million mashed potatoes and hanging out in our boss' kitchen. It was great to cook a little bit on Thanksgiving considering I grew up helping in the kitchen and last year I cooked one of the sorority's turkeys. Around 4pm we left for the Ambassador's armed with a GIANT pot of mashed potatoes (all mashed by hand).

Dinner at the Ambassador's was amazing and I am so thankful (not to be cheesy) that she invited us over. There were about 25 PCVs, a handful of Marines (each Embassy has Marines guarding it), a few other people. She had delicious, moist turkey, everyone's sides (including our potatoes) were outstanding, and it was great to spend Thanksgiving with a ton of people, especially the people who have sort of formed my make-shift family over the past few months. The Ambassador even had us go around the table and say what we were thankful for which was nice to hear (it ranged from "my family back home" to "that there's cranberry sauce here"... no the second one wasn't me but I seconded it). We all lingered after dinner not wanting to leave the holiday feeling, but eventually set out for the Marine house where we had been invited to watch the football games. The Marine house is nothing like 6: it's really clean, has lots of food, a big tv, books and movies about war and fighting, and generally a different feel. It was still nice to hang out and I enjoyed watching the football game even though it's not something I do in the States. Around the end of the 3rd quarter a cab of us headed back to 6 because we knew we had to get up EARLY this morning.

Tomorrow is one of the biggest holiday's in Senegal and everyone (mostly our Senegalese families) told us we were crazy for trying to travel on the day before Tabaski. No one, myself included, wanted to miss Thanksgiving or Tabaski, so we settled for getting up at 5:30am and trying to get the first cars out. The group going to Thies was very successful and I hear they made it back in about 3 hours (which is almost a normal trip time). I was heading past Thies with one other volunteer and we had some issues being WAY overcharged so we turned the first few cars down. About 3 cars in we settled on a higher but not ridiculous price and started our trip back to site. The garage in Dakar was CRAZY but there was kind of a holiday-ness to the atmosphere (maybe that's just because there were sheep EVERYWHERE... more on that tomorrow). I walked into my compound around 11am - so 5 hours total. It's a little long for Dakar-Bambey, but I made it back and that's all that matters.

Overall the trip was great. I obviously wish I could have spent the holiday with friends and family in the States, but because that wasn't a possibility, I'm glad I have great friends/make shift family and caring people like the Ambassador that I was able to spend it with. I'm exhausted from not getting much sleep but the holiday is just gearing up here... I'm sure I'll have PLENTY to write about tomorrow after celebrating my first Tabaski (which is also my first Muslim holiday because I was living with a Catholic family during Ramadan).

I hope everyone's having an excellent Black Friday and getting lots of great deals! I've already started listening to Christmas music!

KO