Pjangoes!

This last weekend I took a little mini-vacation and finally visited Jackie (she lives about 40 miles away so it doesn't make sense that I haven't been to visit). Pout, her site, is about the same size as Bambey but set up a little differently. Jackie has her own three room house so there was a lot of space for the 4 of us (Jackie, Tamar, Alyssa, and me). Not only is Pout overflowing with mangoes but it's also close to a monastery that sells goat cheese so the trip was full of amazing food. We had goat cheese and crackers, Indian food someone had sent Alyssa, and Pjangoes! Pjangoes are our own creation that involves blending ice, fresh mangoes, vodka, and mango juice concentrate to make a delicious smoothie. Oh, and the name comes from P(out)J(jackie)(m)angoes. The night was full of amazing food and watching the latest season of Project Runway (what more could a volunteer ask for?).

The next day we went to Mboro (about an hour up the coast) to help another volunteer and our Peace Corps Trainer give a training. Mboro is not at all like Bambey, it's tropical and significantly cooler. It actually looks what I think most people think of as Africa (tropical and green) compared to the desert that is Bambey. After the training we started prepping for Oliver's birthday party which was the next day. The 5 of us in Mboro bought a TON of rice, beans, and veggies to make a taco salad kind of thing while everyone was else was getting to Mboro. About half of the party goers got there the normal way (cars) and the other half walked from Oliver's site to the beach (about 20 miles). We had rented a house on the beach and spent the night dancing and eating mexican-ish food. We went to the beach around 10pm to discover bio-florescent bacteria things in the water aka the water was glowing. It was really amazing that any movement in the water created an effect that looked like little fireflys in the water. The next morning we cleaned up and I came back to Bambey. On my way back home I bought some mangoes for my family and I think, to really take advantage of mango season, I'm going to buy mangoes for the family every Sunday.

The rest of this week should be pretty busy... my boss is coming to see Bambey today, I have scholarship stuff to do, some artisan stuff, and I need to prep for the SeneGAD meeting this weekend.. oh and of course studying for the LSAT (which I take in about a month now)!

KO