Today was an awesome day! I feel incredibly sick as I'm writing this blog entry. I haven't felt this full since I left the USA! I had two rounds of dinner and I'm waiting to devour dessert, after some waiting time of course. There's no way I can eat anything else right now. So I'm here in Kolda for Thanksgiving, and I'm celebrating with the other volunteers in the region! We spent the day cooking and baking. For the actual dinner we had stuffing, candied sweet potatos, garlic mashed potatos (vegetarian and non-vegetarian), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (shipped from the USA), salad, corn, watermelon, garlic breadsticks, roasted chicken, and turkey. YES! We actually had a turkey for the holiday, thanks to me and my girl Ali! It's a little ironic too because I'm a vegetarian, and she is semi-vegetarian, but we were the ones who went out of our way to get a turkey.
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| Geoff getting ready to cut the turkey. Check out all our food! |
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| Geoff and Meg cutting the turkey |
The story is incredible! On monday, Ali came to Kounkane and told me that she needed to go to a nearby village to check out a turkey for Thanksgiving. Yes, a live turkey. I decided to accompany her and in the late afternoon, we set off to buy a turkey for the Kolda region. We biked to her village Goundaga to get some directions, and then we set off by bike. We biked about 15k using a bush path full of rocks, trees, cows, and sand. It was a rough road but we eventually got to our destination of Saare YeroBa, a small village in the backlands of Senegal, West Africa. The village itself probably housed like 30 people or so. We arrived and found the house of a Samba Balde who apparently owned the turkey. We talked with his family in Pulaar and told him how we biked all the way out there to buy his turkey for our American holiday this upcoming thursday. We argued and negotiated with the price and we were finally able to agree on 15,000cfa or 30 dollars for a live turkey--under the condition that they package him up tight and put him on Ali's bike. The family gave us a broken bucket and a tattered pair of pant to transport the turkey. They tied his legs, put him on the pants, and then placed him in the bucket, which they tied with elastic to the back of Ali's bike. We started to go back to Ali's village, but the road was rough and bouncy. The turkey fell of the back and I was following Ali, so I had to serve and throw myself into the bushes so that I didn't kill our future dinner. Ali and I re-fastened him to her bike and continued on. Not 10 minutes later, the turkey fell of the bike for a second time. It was horrible! We re-tied the elastic and put him back on the bike. We then walked to the next village, and begged the people there for assistance. They were amazing and tied some wood onto Ali's bike to stablize the turkey. They also gave us a basket to switch out the broken bucket and gave us extra elastic to secure the animal. It worked! We made it back to Goundaga in the evening, and I was forced to bike back to Kounkane in the dark, but I did make it home safetly. :) It was quite an adventure and something I never thought I would ever do in my entire life?? Bike out by bush path to the middle of nowhere Senegal to buy a live turkey?? Really? Yes, I did do that, and it's a pretty bad ass story! Plus all the volunteers here were very happy we did--apparently he was delicious! We named him Hirande (which means dinner in Pulaar) and we enjoyed his company for a few days until this morning when my site mate, Geoff killed him and deep-fried him. It was an enjoyable Thanksgiving though, just done Senegalese style :)
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| Hirande (dinner) that Ali road with on the back of her bike |
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| Hirande getting deep fried |
I can't wait for dessert! We have pumpkin pie, apple crisp, carrot cake, and egg nog! Pam and I made the carrot cake and egg nog. For the dinner, I made a giant salad with homemade dressing and I bought a watermelon for some fruit!
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| The carrot cake that Pam and I made! |
I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving and that you enjoyed my little Thanksgiving tale! Eat lots of food and give thanks for all the many blessings God has given us!
Sending love from Senegal!!! :) xoxox
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