Putting it all together on a Sunday afternoon

 


Puzzles time has always been a fun distraction for me and my family stateside. Sunday, I brought out a Christmas care package goody of a 300 puzzle to see if puzzle time would be fun for my family in Senegal too.

My host bros have never 'played' puzzle, but they caught on fairly quickly and we're good sports about helping out despite the diabolical level of this puzzle that was basically only two colors and had way too many trees.   Although, there was some grumbling that this was the hardest 'game' they've ever played.  The best part of the whole day was finishing, not just because we managed to finish in less than a day, but also due to the playful fighting over who could put in the last piece - just like back home.

Sweet Salone

After a whirlwind couple of weeks of intense info sessions (In-Service Training, my sector summit, All-Volunteer Conference, and the West Africa International Softball Tournament) my BFF Amber and I went to Sierra Leone to visit our mutual friend and fellow UCLA grad, Amanda, serving in the PC there as a science teacher.

Down south the hills are greener, the food a little oilier and the language a bit easier to pick up.

Highlights include:

• Massive consumption of palm oil and rice. Unfortunately, palm oil is my least favorite type of oil, but at least there were usually some beans too. Hurray protein.
• Salone volunteers live in their own houses, which gives a great deal of independence, but it also means they must cook for themselves, buy food or find a neighbor family to adopt them. While I don't mind Amanda's usual breakfast of wheatabix and powdered milk, I was very happy her neighbor, Auntie Ami, made Amber and I breakfast every day we were there such as the plaintains and omelette pictured at right.
• Palm Wine, also known as God's gift to man, is easily available out in the Eastern Province.  Men scurry up palm trees, tap them and then we all enjoy large glasses of fizzy, white 'wine' at some long benches in the shade.
• Amanda introduced me to a pulaar man at her site who makes attaya and cafe touba - I'd been missing sugary caffeinated beverages, even just after a few days.

Many thanks to the girls for being great travel buddies. Hopefully, we'll get to stuff ourselves into the back of a taxi/poda-poda/ferry again sometime soon.

Happy 2012

Happy 2012!  Sorry its a little belated.

In order to celebrate the start of what will hopefully be an incredible year in senegal, I came to the capital, Dakar to spend some quality time with most of my stage and my older host siblings.  It was a fun weekend just before the start of a lot of trainings complete with yummy Dakar food and some beach time.

Resolutions:

1. Learn pulaar. My current language level is embarrassing, especially with the new Aggie training stage installed and speaking better pulaar - they got here three months after me!

2. Paint something in my hut. The wall, the door, my desk - something needs a splash of color.

3. Take more pictures.

4. Start a cashew co-op.

5. Snail mail more often with friends and family back home.

If you want to help complete any of these tasks, let me know!

Holiday Pre-Party has officially started

Tree, check. 

Family Christmas letter, check. 

Hot enough to go to the beach, check. 

Christmas in Kolda is looking like its going to be just like Christmas back in Cali.

Merry Christmas!  A little tree and bunches of goodies have arrived just in time to help me and my hut feel festive for the holidays.  Endless gratitude to my family for feeding my junk food, peanut butter, and tea habit from afar as well as helping me spruce up the walls of my hut with some super sweet letters from home.

Love and hugs to my family and friends back home. I miss you all very much and hope you are having a wonderful Christmas with loved ones (minus me of course).  Please eat an extra slice of pumpkin pie for me and blast that NSYNC CD I make mom play every year.

Belated Turkey day love

While I was enjoying two turkeys, some chicken and various other fixings with my Kolda volunteer family, my mom made sure to send some love from home via flipcam.  One of my favorites, posted above, features my uncle who's sporting a beard in solidarity of my voyage overseas - he's not shaving til I get back.  I think my aunt is now considering buying plane ticket home just to put a stop to it.

Its a little belated, but I am so thankful for my family back home who has been so supportive, emotionally, mentally, physically (my need for chai tea is a serious physical need, that lipton stuff gets old after a while), etc. Also a big thanks to my PC family for being available for everything from brainstorming products to showcase at a local fair to grabbing a beer on a lazy Sunday afternoon.