Christmas!

In the middle of a brief stay at site, I though I'd update everyone on Christmas. About 20 of us arrived in Saly (a small touristy town next to Mbour) on the 23rd, where we had 3 apartments. We spent the next 4 days enjoying the beach, mocking the sleazy french tourists (is that redundant?), and eating great food. Ironically, being Peace Corps volunteers, we are usually on a somewhat restricted budget. So while everyone else was eating at beautiful restaurants with oceanside views, we scurried around the back of these establishments to eat at "Ceeb shacks" (Ceeb meaning Rice in Wolof), where the average price of a large meal was about $1.25 when converted.
The highlight of the trip was when we ran into some french people at a Ceeb shack. Talking with the cook in Wolof (and even a little Pulaar), we simply blew these tourists away. They were, to say the least, utterly speechless that a bunch of white kids could converse in such strange and exotic languages. One man told us that he had been coming to Senegal for 18 years and still didn't know a word of Wolof. They were so enamored with us that they even started taking pictures of us ("Les Americains qui parlent le Wolof!" they proclaimed). All in all, it was a lot of fun, especially since the locals there are very appreciative of people speaking their language, since most tourists obviously don't bother to do so.
As for Christmas...well, it was different. At around 5AM Christmas morning, I realized I was very far from home as the call to prayer roused me from a deep sleep. It was nice, however, to be in good company. My friends were able to cook pancakes and make hot cocoa, which was definitely a welcome treat from my typical breakfast here (bread with butter). On Wednesday morning I'll be heading off to St. Louis to enjoy New Years with many of the same people. So Merry belated Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Years in advance! Ba suba ak jamm.