Happy New Year Muslim people!

Well it was New Years day yesterday for all those Muslims out there. We were invited over to our friend Binta's house (woman to the left of Brook) on Monday night for the traditional millet cous-cous and a yummy meat sauce, not dissimiliar to what is pictured here. Actually Binta put sheep, chicken and fish in her sauce, plus vegetables. It was one-stop-shop for all our protein and vegetable needs. It was very tasty but rich. We all eat together around a communal plate. Afterwards we had some tamarind juice and Binta let two twin, baby sheep out of the pen and they were running around and doing lamb leaps. They were very cute, despite the fact that most sheep in Senegal are not very appealing. These baby sheep were 2 months old. The dog in the compound was making sure they didn't go back into their pen at first... he wasn't even a sheep dog but he seemed to know the pecking order. The baby sheep listened to him and ran the other direction when the dog blocked their way.

Binta is going to open up another restaurant in town. Something between an expensive toubab restaurant (like our famous "Best Burger" restaurant) ((great name, huh?) and a hole in the wall that most people eat at. She plans on having fonio as her speciality, get some good fish from Dakar and have omelettes, steak and some salads. Outside of the fonio, it's what Best Burger has to offer but she plans on being better than them and having cheaper prices. She does cook very well. She was even talking about having ice-cream. She took a couple lessons on how to make ice-cream over at my house and wants to get her own machine. I think that's cool.

Hopefully over the weekend, I can go over and see the restaurant in its unfinished form. She is working on getting it set up. I guess the sanitation department (who knew!?!) said she needed to put a toilet in the establishment. I can't believe there are any standards like that here at all, especially given the state of some of the 'hole-in-the-wall" establishments. Maybe those places are just let under the radar screen. I'll have to ask Binta. It'll be exciting for her new digs though. She is even talking about moving closer to us (the new restaurant is right around the corner from our house) to manage the restaurant. That would be neat.

Pizza Night last night

Pizza Night last night with 2 Peace Corps friends. Not too much commentary there. We drank a lot of beer, gobbled on pizza and then had some butterscotch pudding for dessert. It was a holiday here for the Muslim New Years. It's always so great to have a day off in the middle of week. Just breaks up the week. I'm still voting for 4 day work weeks.

Water

No, we haven't had water for a full 2 days. If we had a well, then it would be less inconvienent. But when you have a house infrastructure for running water and there is none, let me tell you, it's pretty annoying. (see traditional village well)

For over a year now, we'd had severe water cuts daily. The trend now is that we will not have any water upstairs in the morning through early afternoon. We'll have water for a few hours in the afternoon, but at 4:30pm it starts to dry up. Around 8pm we'll get water again upstairs. Downstairs we'll have limited water in the morning and in the afternoon. however, there are some days where we don't have any at all.

I've finally gotten used to the schedule you have when you have water only a few hours a day. But when it was off for 2 days and we had to send out for water from Danfaga's well, well it was pretty irritating. Brook says "It's Africa", which of course that's true but we're also not living in a village and we don't have a well. We're paying for a service that isn't coming.

Our freelance plumber guy says that one of the water pumps is broken so the water is depleted in the morning and afternoon and can't refill itself quickly. I suppose the question becomes where is the line where you "suck it up" and shrug your shoulders and say with a smile, "Ah, this is just Africa", and when do you say, "Come on, this is a ridiculous. Let's just all go back to having a well and forget about this attempt at infrastructure". For me that line is on the afternoon of Day 2 of having no water but am I being unreasonable? I don't know.

We got water briefly last night by the way, a running (rather dribbling) water shower, but guess what? It's off again today. Thank God for buckets filled with water, not the Senegalese water company.

Duck carcass and Hot season

You wouldn't believe what good luck I had carving this duck last night. I managed to get all the parts off so nicely, like it showed in my duck book! I was left with a very clean and neat looking carcass, which I brought upstairs to show to Brook. That was how proud I was of my duck carving. He laughed and shook his head, saying that I'm the only person he knows that would carry a duck carcass upstairs to show him. But you don't understand. In my piglet carving, some of my pieces and the carcass at the end my my carving expedition was pretty ugly looking. So I feel like I'm coming up in my carving capabilities. Or I just had a lucky streak. Actually that is probably more likely it. I was inspired to get a duck yesterday after I saw a recipe for a duck salad using matcha tea. Interesting, huh?

In other news, hot season is slowly coming upon us. The dust-filled air and baking heat. Mornings and evenings are still cool but I''m really starting to dread the baking heat from morning until night. Heat you can never escape from that permeates every part of your skin, clothes, hair and objects you touch... but be sure that I will talk more about it when it comes on full force. That's pretty much what everyone talks about when the hot season comes, the heat. In fact, it's a part of Tambacounda greetings here. How are you? How is your family? How is the heat? I'm not kidding. And the answer is "It's sure hot!" I'm not kidding about the answer either. There are about a few weeks where you can ask people how the cold weather is, but it doesn't have the same, suffering ring to it.

Just last night Danfaga (night guard) was all excited telling him how the hot season is coming. I looked at him with curiosity and horror. He said, "Yes... you see in the hot season you can walk around at night and just be at ease". So I say, "Yeah with cold season you can walk around too" And he's like "But it's so cold, you can't do anything!" (Mind you we're talking about 65-70 degree weather here). So I said, "Well you just put a sweater on and you're fine". He said, "Well if I put on a really huge winter coat on, I could walk around" but he said that as if who would want to do that. I guess on one level I'm glad there is someone who appreciates sauna-esque heat. I'm not one of them. I dread this season. I find that I talk about this dread a lot. Like now. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on every nuance of the impending heat and its burning effects on life in Tambacounda.

A trip to the post

So I take my moped over to the post today to pick up Brook's package from his head office in DC. Although the package office is open and I hand them the slip to pick up the package, the guy behind the counter says he can't give me anything today. He says I have to come back tomorrow. He tells me that the regular package guy is traveling and the customs person is away so they can't hand out any packages. ugh! So close and yet so far...

Knowing that I couldn't push the guy without having him take a strong position on the matter, I asked him if I could just look at the package and confirm its origin. He looks around a little bit in a cabinet for me for it, gets bored or loses patience looking for it and tells me to just come back tomorrow. Well then his colleague gets involved and asks the guy why he can't just give me the package I've come for, since I have the slip. They talk about it and Guy #1 convinces Guy #2 that he can't give any packages out today. Then Guy #2 starts looking through the paper register to find it. Unsuccessful finding it in his filing book, Guy #2 gets up to look for the package. It takes him awhile including getting different keys to look in different metal filing cabinets (of which there are about 4 cabinets total). Their filing methodology escapes me, and obviously them too, since the guys are forced to look all 4 cabinets for it). Finally, Guy #2 has found the package. All this time I have a calm, unassuming look on my face, as if I have all the time in the world and am unaware of their struggles behind the counter on my behalf.

I ask the Guy #2 if he could hand me the package so I could just confirm its origin, and he looks up surprised and said, "Don't you want to take it home?" Well, uh... yes! That's why I came in today. But I just answered, "Of course." not even addressing the previous 15 minute conversation about why I couldn't pick it up today. Then we go through the process of signing the book and giving the $2 processing fee and I leave with the package.

This is not an out-of-the ordinary experience in Senegal. There are seemingly huge obstacles and bureaucracy to getting something relatively simple accomplished, then we go around and around until you finally get what you had come for. "Everything in good time" I guess is a good theme here. You may not understand the reason for all the time you spend doing something, but I guess it all pans out exactly when it should. "All good things come to those who wait"

What's on the stove?

Back by popular demand, food.

Sunday brought tidings of a table full of Mexican food. Since Mexican food is too fiddley to make just for one or two people (sorry Brook), I wait until there are at least four of us to make the time in the kitchen worthwhile. I usually spread it out between two days. I usually have to poach a chicken for a couple hours and then toast and hydrate the dried mexican peppers, after that you cook those babies for a sauce, not including seperate sauces and toppings for each of your seperate dishes (which also may include rehydration of dried peppers). The reason Mexican is back on the menu is that I finally have my masa harina for my corn tortillas. I have to admit, that once you make your own, you never want to go back to using packaged stuff. I did once and yucko. So Sunday's menu was some salsa del norte to munch on while we and our friends drank margaritas and chatted; then we had some chipolte grilled shrimp, chorizo-stuffed peppers and pumpkin seed chicken enchiladas. I wanted to try a mojito (did I spell that right), so we went out, got some fuzzy water to make them and drank some of those. A right piggy meal.

Looks like we'll get 4 more people for dinner tonight. An American associated with the project who brought 3 members of his family over to Senegal for some site-seeing. I guess they are camping in the bush. And that's cool. Although as soon as you enter the country I think you're virtually camping anyway, whether you own a tent or not. You're always roughing it practically even when you didn't sign up to. But I guess they have tents to complete their camping experience. They're coming into town for some civilization, so we're going to feed them. One of my favorite things to do: feed people.

Tonights 6 hungry people calls for something relatively unrefined and something that can serve mass quantities. Plus Brook said if I went too fiddley that it would probably scare them. So I'll make my lasagne and put together a rocket salad with fennel on the side. For 6 people though, not including dessert, I need to have something else as well. I've got some zucchini, which could work. I don't want to bake anything else or fry it. Perhaps I can bring out some of my aubergines and grill those and do something with those. Hmm. We'll see. Then I'll just whip up another ice-cream for dessert. It's sort of embarrasing that I am being so lazy about this, but they are "Camping" so I figure it'll work. I wonder if I could make a tirimisu ice-cream. You know put some ladyfingers in the bottom of a bowl and put tirimisu ice-cream on top? Hmm, that could be cool. If you have ideas for new ice-creams, email or comment here. I don't want to get stuck in a rut with any of my flavors.

Well I need to be off and start my bolognese (little bugger takes at least 3 hours to simmer but it's oh-so-worth it) and think about a vegetable. You think about a vegetable too. I don't think we spend enough time contemplating vegetables. just kidding. It's market day here in Tamba though. The big market day I mean. This photo is from that, compliments to MamaCat who took a ton of pictures while she was here.

Dakar Rally

The famous Dakar rally is going through Tamba today. Or went. I swear there were a record number of toubabs (white people/foreigners) in Tamba yesterday associated with the race... watching or working for it. Even the Senegalese were lining the main street to catch a glimpse of the fast cars passing by. I have to confess that this race is almost about the least interesting thing for me. I have no interest in car races at all so my information is limited and it's not like I'm going out to get more for you. Sorry.

Our friend Doug + 2 niblets came up last year for the race. It meant waking up at 4:30 in the morning for them to be at a place where the cars would race past. You can imagine that it was not really a contest of whether I was going to get up for it or not. I gladly slept in and missed it.

The bad thing about this rally is that the cars go by so quickly, that every year there are niblets that get run over. Last year there were at least 4 small children that were run over. Kids are all over the place here and parents don't exercise the type of control that we do in the Occidental world. Secondly, the regulations and red tape to race in Africa is very loose, so the rally people like that and it's not too expensive for them to set up and run this race, even when a few kids die. It's one of Senegal's claim to fame and I would doubt that Senegal wants to give that up.

In other important news: HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOLFIE!!!

Voted: Best Birthday Limmerick

well I decided to make gnocchi instead of fetuccine for my birthday dinner. For my prezzies, I got some noise-canceling headphones (What?), a tango club CD, a David Sedaris book, an Ernest Hemingway book, two B&W movies with Boris Karloff and some extra cash from Mamacat.

Although I know you're just scrolling past that paragraph to read the award-winning limmerick. You can't fool me. Okay, here you go:

There once was a girl named Anne
Who went to her Birthday with Spam
She ate it and thought, "wait!"
I'd rather eat steak!
With Naya and wine near my plate.

Happy Birthday to me!

I know it's probably gauche to say Happy Birthday to me, but I'm in Tamba so this doesn't count. And I'm saying it in celebration overall, not to make you feel guilty for having forgotten (haha, just kidding). Even though I'm in Tamba, I love my birthday. Today I am going to make some pasta primavera today with the broccoli we bought in Dakar for lunch, then we'll have some chicken cordon bleu that I had made and frozen a couple months ago with some fettuccine and fennel salad for dinner. Something simple but tasty and comfort-food like--I just don't want to spend my entire day in the kitchen. Brook offered to take the day off and cook but come on, we're in Tamba. There is really nothing to do. I told him to save the day and we'll do something a bit later. The great thing is, is that I wasn't even being a martyr about it. It's true. I'm also going to make a coke float, and watch a Jimmy Stuart movie that I got for Christmas during the day (because Brook hates old movies). It's very exciting. I'll probably eat some more goodies too. I don't like cake so I am not making one of those (in case you were curious). So it should be a good day! Hope it is for you too.

****Newsflash. Some Senegalese dude tried to catch a free ride to the states on the Delta direct flight to Atlanta yesterday. He got up in the area where the wheel is stored. Somewhere along the Atlantic he died from hypothermia. Surprise!!!! What an idiot. This definitely needs to be submitted to Darwin's Top 10. http://www.topix.net/world/senegal

The difference between Now, Now-Now and Now-Now-Now

There is actually a difference. And the difference is about the same in Mali and Senegal. Now when someone says that they are going to do something 'now' it actually and usually does not mean now in the way Americans or Europeans mean now. One "now" can actually mean anything up to an hour... so usually when someone says 'now' you can count on a substantial wait.

This is why "now now" exists. Someone will tell you something starts now, or someone is coming back now (and to wait), you have to ask whether it's "now" or "now, now". Now now is sooner than now and the wait is usually between 15 and 30 minutes before now-now starts.

I've actually created and use (I'm not sure if I've heard locals use this) the words Now-Now-Now. This means what our now means--anything between this second and 5 minutes. In fact sometimes when asking a stranger something I will ask them if we are leaving now, now-now, or now-now-now. The great thing is that no one else looks at me strange when I distinguish between the nows. Everyone knows there are different nows.

I just had a call the other day from my brother in my village in Mali who was passing through Tamba on his way back to Mali. He called from public transport to say that he was passing through town and could meet with me for a few minutes before continuing his journey. So I said, when are you coming and he said Now-Now (he really said now-now). I said, Now-now??? Now-now?? and he said yes. So I got a little bag of goodies for him to bring back to the village and hopped on my moped and went up to the police station (where I told him we'd meet) to wait.

Well the usual 15 minutes passed, then 20-25 minutes. I waited 40 minutes and then went out to the entry post of town to see if they were stuck there. Finally I went home close to an hour later. Brook said Ousamane called back to say that they were in town but the chauffeur in the public transport refused to stop. (!!!) So most likely one of the public transports passing by me on the road while I was waiting (within the 15-30 minute mark) was him. Of course one would think that one would have gotten permission from the driver to stop for a few minutes before arranging to meet with someone... but whatever. Logic doesn't really come into the situation. Anyway, I didn't get to see him but came home covered in dust instead from people roaring past me on the road. I did see the sunset in the meantime... sort of.

There once was a guy named "Wurster"...

Actually that's the truth. There is a guy whose name is Wurster. At first I thought it was just Wurst, which of course conjured up images of my beautiful Knobblewurst in NY. But no, this guy's name is Wurster. And guess what? He's going to stay with us for a few days. Evidently Brook's boss has agreed to have this former PCV from (The) Gambia who is doing his thesis or PhD. or whatever, come up and work with Brook's project a bit. So he's coming today and he has no money practically because he's a student. And no place to stay. So we're going to take Wurster in until Sunday. I just laughed and laughed yesterday when I heard his name so I hope I got this out of my system before his arrival--poor guy.

You know he must have been teased as a child. Hell, he probably has been teased as an adult. That really is an unfortunate name. There are just so many directions you can go with that name... I am very thankful to have the name Dudte. And I got teased enough with Dudte, just think if I were a WURST! oh yes, it would have been worse, much wurst for me.

Let's see, I got the Dudtes of Hazzard (a personal favorite of mine), Dudtel, Anne Dudte go blow your flute (another favorite from an elementary school colleague) and countless others. Theyr'e really not that bad actually. When I think of how bad it could be with another name. And this poor guy has had me devote an entire post to his unfortunate name. Poor little bugger. I will treat him extra nice for being a Wurster. I will keep you posted as to where the name comes from (because you know I'm going to ask).

The Marriage Proposal

I'm not sure if I mentioned or not but our electrician here in Tambacounda offered to marry mother. It's a really sweet gesture really, although completely impractical. I mean outside of the whole cultural issues, they don't speak the same languages. I am used as intrepeter, which is cool but you know, not really sustainable.

He came over yesterday wanting to know the outcome of the marriage discussion was in the states over Christmas. Well obviously we really didn't talk about it since there was nothing to discuss. But I said that it was still a little too soon after father passing away and the whole language issue was not resolved. He agreed about the language and said that I can teach her Bambara. So you know, I said, Okay, we'll see.

At any rate he said he's going to have a gri-gri (magic potion) made for mom as a protection from danger and bad spirits in her home. That would be cool. We had one done + some prayers for our home here. Knock on wood, it's been 4 years and no problems here. So whatever the cause, I think it's money worth spending. You never know what could befall. Always good to have extra protection.

Brown mayonnaise

So I was making a chicken salad today and started to pour some mayonnaise into the chicken and guess what? It was BROWN. I have never seen brown mayonnaise before. Have you? Anyway, I scrapped it all off the chicken (luckily there wasn't much poured) and squeezed the rest of the mayonnaise out of the bottle to see if it was all brown. And guess what? It was! So I peered at the expiration date on the top of the lid and it said 2005. Whoops. That was a new bottle by the way. It's not like it was sitting open for so long. Anyway, I didn't take a picture of that but I figured that was sufficiently gross enough to share. I will check expiration dates more closer on the non-perishables I buy in Dakar from now on. Luckily I had another new back-up mayonnaise sitting on my shelf (that had not reached it's expiration date) so I was good to go.

Knobble wurst posted afterall

We had a lot of good food in the states. Here is me taking a bite out of my great knobble-wurst at Katz's Diner in New York. This is the diner that comes from the When Harry met Sally dinner where Meg Ryan fakes that orgasm in front of Billy Crystal. I came for the food though.

Back in the saddle

Well Brook and I made it back to Tambacounda alright yesterday afternoon. Dumped out all our supplies, books and Christmas presents. Brought back about 30 DVDs so that's good. It's good to be back. I think it must be because we have a limited amount of time left here so I want to make sure I appreciate it all. Dust, sun and people.

So somehow our guest bathroom was locked from the inside. Our maid practically scaled the wall outside, climbed onto a balcony and climbed in through the bathroom window. Impressive. Our guard, a small guy refused to do it, saying that if he fell that he had a small head and it would crack into pieces. He's pretty funny.

We actually had some mail waiting for us. That is our christmas miracle this year.