Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!!! :) Can't believe it has already past!  My Christmas was good! I spent a week in Dakar with some amazing people! We spent some time on the beach, eating great food, and passing the time with Peace Corps friends and family :)  It was such and expensive week, but it was definetly worth it :) We even went to the French cultural center to watch a film. We saw "A Nightmare Before Christmas" in French--it almost felt like Christmas with the movie and the xmas lights! Good times!  Towards the end of the week, Ali, Jes, and I left the PC regional house and stayed at the third year apartment that our friend Darren let us use while he went home to America for the holidays.  Thanks Darren!  :)  We spent Christmas eve eating cheese and crackers by candlelight and enjoying the beautiful view of the dark city and ocean from the window of the apartment.  We even made "dirt"--Ali's recipe: chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, and gummy worms. Yes, very nutritional :) hahahaha! It was fun! 
Christmas day was great, even though we were so far away from our families.  We served appetizers of cheese and crackers, chips and dip, fresh veggies, and wine.  For the main course, Ali and I cooked a giant dinner of pesto pasta with mushrooms and artichoke hearts and l'emmental cheese, a fresh green bean salad with tomatos, carrots, green bell pepers, and other veggies drizzled in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Ali used some fresh olive bread and made a buttery garlic sauce to garnish it. :) For dessert we baked a chocolate cake (from a bag) and put out a box of assorted xmas cookies to accompany our vin chaud (mulled wine).  We ate so much, but it really was a nice dinner!  We really wanted to bake some Christmas cookies but we couldn't find chocolate chips, baking powder, graham crackers (or anything remotely similar), and the shredded coconut was too expensive for our "village pay" But we still had a pleasant enjoyable Christmas at Darren's borrowed apartment.  It just six of us celebrating together: Me, Ali, Jess, Mohammed (Ali's friend from Niger), my host brother Djiby, and a random Senegalese man that Mohammed invited and I forgot his name (We share everything in Africa--it's part of the culture, so it wasn't really a big deal that we had a stranger at our Chrismas dinner). 


Random Senegalese man, Jes, Mohammed, Ali, and Djiby on Xmas dinner

After the big dinner, Jess and I found some Talibe (children that beg for money on the streets in the name of their Maribou, or Islamic leader).  We brought down a few bowls of food to feed the Talibe.  They seemed to enjoy it :)  The kids are so cute and they all speak pulaar.They were given away by their parents for various reasons (oftentimes because they can't afford to take care of them) and sent to Islamic school to study the Koran. Part of their "learning" is to go on the streets and ask for monetary contribution for their Maribou. Some of it is legitamate and the kids are well taken care of, and sometimes, like most things, corruption plays a big part.  It breaks my heart sometimes to see the Talibe, but I know it's culturally acceptable and it's something I have to respect and realize it's just different from my culture....

The Talibe eating some Christmas dinner

Well, Merry Christmas to all of you! I miss you a lot!  I'm currently in Tambacounda for 2 days and then I'll be heading to Velingara tomorrow to check for care packages! :) yea!  Next stop is Kolda for New Years then back to site!  Wishing everyone a beautiful Christmas season full of love and happiness!  xoxoxo :)