the cross dressing holiday is today!!

Hello from Thies this time!

I am here for two nights on a whirl wind trip. I left Sokone yesterday morning at 5AM on the horaire which is basically a Senegalese bus. It went directly from Sokone to Dakar and took a bit over 5 hours. Then I did a bunch of errands in Dakar and then in the evening traveled down here to Thies. I'm staying with one of the guys in my Stage named Christopher. Tomorrow morning I'll go to Kaolack for a regional meeting for PCVs in the area and then down to Sokone in the evening.

Today is also Tamharite which celebrates the end of the Muslim year. In Senegal, in the evenings the children will cross-dress.... the girls in boys clothes with painted mustaches and the boys in girls' dresses. They then go around banging pots and pans and what ever else they can find to make as much noise as possible. Its quite a racket outside right now!

I only have one week left in Sokone before I come back here to Thies for another three weeks of training and then about 5 days in Dakar for the West African Invitational Softball Tournament and a conference. No, I'm not playing softball but I am going to cheer. It is basically the social event of the year for PCVs because we come from all over the country to it. It is over President's Day Weekend every February.

The past two weeks have been good for the most part. I did get sick on this past Monday but it was nothing too bad and has only been the third time I've really been sick here (I don't count colds). I think I was sick because of something I ate, not sure what it was exactly because I had eaten a wide variety of foods that day. I have been enjoying getting to know the Japanese volunteers in my town. There are currently four located in Sokone. Three of them speak English so we get a long just fine in our mix of french, wolof and english. I hope that I'll be able to work with them on something because I think it would be a really good experience.

My kitten is doing well. I left him for the first time overnight lastnight and tonight. I'm sure he'll do just fine. He likes to complain though. He's getting a little spoilt. He is a rascal though and loves to play with anything that moves or looks fun to climb/swat at. Raja really is good company and makes me laugh with his antics which is always a good mood boster.

kittens and the mystery machine

The Mystery Machine drove by me today. Yes, the one from Scuby-Doo. An exact replica. And there were foreigners in it. It was a very surreal experience. I was walking toward the main road that goes through Sokone from Kaolack to Banjul, The Gambia, and then I saw it drive by. A bunch of other cars came after it, also painted but nothing I recognized. I got up close enough to the road to see the last car go by. It said “Plymouth to Banjul Challenge” on the side. I’ll have to look it up.

I also got a kitten today. My host brother came by this morning and asked me if I wanted a kitten because there was one right outside the gate. I went out and there was this tiny little thing meowing and looking very bedraggled. I picked him up and figured he is possibly a male. It’s been about 11 years since I had a cat so I think I checked correctly!!! I’ve named him Raja which is king in Hindi/Nepali. Cats that belong to PCVs tend to be in much better condition than most in Senegal so the name should suit him. He is able to lap up milk by himself and will go to the bathroom in the sandbox I made him so hopefully he is old enough to survive without his mother. He is grayish-white and black with grayish-green eyes. He keeps swatting at my fingers as I try to type. He definitely livened up after the milk and a good long nap. Ah, he finally settled down to clean himself instead of playing with my fingers which will make the writing of this post much easier!!

I also bought some plants yesterday to beautify the outside of my house. I bought two hibiscus plants and a frangipani tree. Well the frangipani is only about 10 inches tall so it has a very long way to grow but I was told there will be flowers on it within a year. I’m sure it will grow a lot during the rainy season. The hibiscuses are about 2-3 feet but they have a long way to maturity too. I carried them all about a kilometer yesterday. My arms were so incredibly tired by the end that I could barely do anything. I didn’t even want to cook so had bananas and pretzels for dinner. Yes, I can buy pretzels in Senegal! Not terribly cheap. They are from Germany.

New Years came and went, not terribly eventful. I was with two other PCVs when the year changed. We had this really good hot mint flavored milk. It was so good. Better than egg nogg in my opinion. Only three more weeks until I’m back in Thiès. Time had really gone fast. I left the US four months ago next Saturday, Jan. 12th.