Best cake ever, best day ever (Forgive the superlatives. I'm just in love with my life.)

I guess I’ll start with Thanksgiving, since it was the first major holiday I’ve celebrated away from family. Frankly, the weather is largely so non-American-November-ish it doesn’t feel like it could possibly be the date it claims to be (tomorrow is December!!) Also, without cardboard turkeys in pilgrim hats and shiny shoes with buckles posted in the boutique windows, … I just never got super geared up for it. Also, right before Thanksgiving I spent nearly a month in village. So rather than going to Ndiom for the big Peace Corps volunteer celebration, I opted to stay in the then vacant Saint-Louis apartment for some mostly solitary noppalu. I ascended and slept ‘til I could stop falling asleep every time, then did some more. I crocheted and ate yummy breakfast bean sandwiches. For the day of Thanksgiving I cooked scrambled eggs with Lots of zucchini, green pepper, onion, tomato, and Edam cheese (a break from Ementhal…) which I ate with a friend Senegalese style—tear off bits of bread to grab some yummies. The next day, four of us tried to make a real miniature version of Thanksgiving dinner. I cooked an incredibly yummy (and unhealthy) Tropical dump cake:

1 20 oz can of pineapple in syrup
4 large bananas
1 6(ish) oz can of coconut milk
1 cup of almonds (hey, lots is good, and pecans are probably better)
2 sticks of butter, and…

Cake Mix:
1.5 cups flour
1 cup sugar
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Put the fruit and coco milk in the bottom of a pan. Put all the cake mix on top, spread as evenly as possible. Cover with the butter all cut up into slices. Add nuts. Lots and lots of nuts.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. YUM!

We were each in charge of one dish, essentially, so there was squash-roll dough rising while patas (a white sweet potato) was cooking on the stove to go in a delicious looking casserole involving apples, raisins, honey and cinnamon, and then the gas ran out. At this point me and another volunteer were on a run to the fast-food restaurant to get a chicken, so we searched for boutiques with gas (not easy to find, especially at 7 PM). We found some, but it (of course, thank you Senegal) did not fit the attachment we had at the apartment. BUT, when we opened the chicken bag, there was bread, and a small mixed salad, and the chicken itself was wrapped up with French fries and onion sauce (of COURSE! THANK you Senegal!) And we ate the casserole anyway. Then we all said what we were thankful for, closing our laptops temporarily to really honor each other’s presences. J

I’ve been back in village for … (why is this always so hard for me to figure out anymore??)… Four days. Three of those (consecutively) have been without electricity. Or, I promise, I would have done this sooner. Just found out this morning, that the reason may or may not be that some guys wanted to watch more international football games by splitting the cable line. Well, they got the wrong line, fried and power station and fried themselves. Or maybe just one guy. I don’t know if this is true… its tragic, if so, and also somehow… nearly Darwin award worthy, right? … Ugg…

In other news, I’m doing the World Wise Schools program through the Peace Corps, which partners me with an American classroom to write letters back and forth. I really wanted to get the kids at my local school involved, especially because my correspondents are in a French class. Yesterday was truly one of the best days of my life. Why? Kids. Crazy, ridiculous, beautiful, silly kids. I spent four hours going from class to class to ask what questions they wanted to ask their new American friends. It always always started with “Is America cool?” Other questions were “Do you have to sweep your classrooms and clean the bathrooms?” “What are your names? Your mom’s names? Your dad’s names? Your brothers’ names? (you see the pattern here…)” “Do you try really hard in school?” My very favorite question was about our President “Does Barak Obama do good work for the people?” but that was kind of tied with “Do you have cows at your houses? Chickens? Sheep? Goats? Donkeys?” P.S. my correspondence class is in Chicago…

Why exactly was this experience so magical? I mean, beyond these beautiful glowing smiling faces (I know I’m crazy in love with the kids here) that just really wanted to participate in this conversation with me. Well, the youngest class conversation ended with a dance party. And, it is just NOT possible to explain the adorable-ness of these little 5 and 6 year olds getting their groove on. For one of the older classes, I was demanded to sing before I left. I have a really miserable cold right now, which I tried to play as a cop out, but they weren’t having it. So, I had a thought. “You guys sing me your national anthem, and then I’ll sing mine.” When it came my turn, I dove into “Ooooh say can you seeeeee” and then forgot the words!!!!! Oh, the SHAME! It kinda came back to me, and after I stumbled over the first verse (and later realized I left out a stanza), I ended with great patriotism and feeling! Oh man. I’m a little afraid of what the teachers think of me now. Every class I entered was sitting quietly doing their work, and was a raucous party scene by the time I left… It was Glorious! I’m grateful for THAT!