Christmas Festivities

My aunt had a great idea to post this email I sent her....

A bunch of my friends and I went down to the beach for the
24th-26th to a place called Touba Dialla which is just outside the
capital of Dakar. It was beyond gorgeous, one of the most beautiful
places I've ever been (anywhere in the world). The resort had an
almost hobbit like feel with wooden doors and stone buildings and
flowers everywhere....and we only payed the equivalent of 10 dollars a
night! Our room was directly overlooking the ocean, with a nice stone
balcony right over our little beach. There were 8 of us in a room
with a little kitchen and balcony area that slept three. During the
day we sat out on the beach or the various balconies and drank and ate
good food. And the first day, I was taking a nap (because I was
exhausted from taking the night bus-ill explain in a minute) and I
woke up to the sounds of a fiddle and violin playing outside my
window! There were two Swedish bands and singing groups staying at the
resort to perforn and they were amazing! The first night we went to a
show at the hotel and we saw the most beautiful african dancing and
drumming-it was incredible! I wish my camera hadn't been dead so I can
show you because its impossible to explain. I've been practicing
though so I can show you guys a much much less good version to give
you an idea of what its like.

To get to the beach we took the night bus from our regional site of
Linguere. The bus left out of a gas station and its basically a super
duper ghetto version of a coach bus where people are packed in like
sardines. We left at 1am and arrived in Thies at 4am and then we
crashed on couches at the training center for a few hours. From there
we took a car to the resort and as part of our bargaining, my friends
promised me in marriage to one of the drivers in exchange for a white
horse and some cows (upon my request).

We left yesterdaymorning for Dakar and right now I am sitting in the
main Peace Corps office waiting for my friends to finish with med.
Its hard to describe how shocking to our system it is to have real,
good food after eating rice with the tiniest amount of peanuts
everyday, all day (which I am not happy about because all the carbs
are making me gain weight and lose energy!)...need to get back to
running as soon as I get back to village! The first thing we did when
we got to Dakar yesterday was eat ice cream!! I had a scoop of
pistachio, triple chocolate and blackberry-it was amazing! Then last
night we went to Thai and I had an amazing dish complimented with wine
:) Today Im going to get a nice, big veggie salad and I want to buy
some fruit at the market and make a fruit salad :) I can't wait! I'm
going back to my regional office in Lingeure tomorrow and then from
there I will be heading home to village for new year's. A lot of my
friends are vacationing for new years but Ive already been out of
village for awhile now and I have a Gamou on New Years Eve. A Gamou
is basically an all day and all night religious event where people
from all over Senegal come to your village and there is lots of food,
your dress up in your Senegalese finest and you hear a constant call
to prayer over loud speakers....its going to be intense!