Happy New Years!

I would like to start this blog off with some holiday cheer from Senegal since I still have yet to write about it, so, here I go. One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me......A Baobab as tall as the giants feet.... On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me two toubabs visiting 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me three donkey calling 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me four dog's are straying 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me five cups of attaya (Senegalase tea) 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me six kola nuts (natural caffinated nuts) 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me seven meters of lapi fabric (Nice Pular fabric) 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight Ceeb mama's cooking 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine Talibe children begging 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me ten marabu praying 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me eleven Woolofs speaking 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me twelve Tapalapa (Poor mans bread, but toubabs seem to like it) This years Christmas was spent in Tambacounda. The morning was spent waking up early and making hot chocolate with cinnamon rolls.

After, there were a few of us that wanted to go check out the morning mass at the local church. We attempted to go the night before for Christmas Eve but found that it was later then expected. We were told that the mass would start at 9:00pm but instead it started at 10:30pm and found out that there was going to be another mass in the morning. The morning seemed like the better option.

Once we got back from mass we prepared some drinks and sat around in the library to play white elephant. Everyone got a gift to put under the tree and each person picked which gift they wanted. If it was a person's turn and they wanted someone else's gift then they would be allowed to steal it. We were actually all pretty good about wanting to keep our gifts. We had a total of 16 people with lots of food. We decided to do a classy Christmas party partly because back home my friends would host a classy Christmas party and it has kind of grown as a tradition.

On the menu for Christmas dinner we had squash soup, spring soup, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, vegetarian gravy and ham. One of the volunteers was able to actually buy a pig and put his previous skills to use to butcher the whole pig without the head. There is pig meat still left over till this day. As for the desserts we has squash pie, sugar cookies, lemon meringue pie, rice pudding and honey cookies. We had so much food that we were able to go around three times. The afternoon was spent talking, relaxing, watching "Love Actually" and playing activities. Thanks to Allah we were able to have internet for skyping family and friends as well. It is amazing how we are able to keep in such good contact with people abroad now a days opposed to before when there was no phones or internet. The holidays don't have to seem as distant and far from home. After the main course we started to eat desserts and played a game where you have a name on your back and by mingling around you have to ask questions about what it is on your back without the person telling you exactly what it is. I had coal on my back. Now how did that happen? Lol

As for new years this year was my second new years in Senegal and decided to keep it low key. We made breakfast for dinner which consisted of "fluffy" pancakes, french toast, deviled eggs and irish coffee. We were able to start brinner (breakfast-dinner) around 8:30pm and continue our game of cards against humanity. The newest best thing in Tambacounda, after chedder cheese and before toilet paper. If you are asking yourself what this game is the best way to describe it is that it is similar to apples to apples with a twisted twist. It was kindly given to us by a current peace corps volunteer's family that came for holiday. There were quite a few families that came in this holiday and it was nice to see the parents of the people we have all learned to love and care for. I hope that my family had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. I am thankful for their guidance and unconditional love. I hope to see them soon in the coming New Year! Love you guys!