Sénégal Fast Food :: Amadou & Mariam

Tuesday = Mardi

January 4, 2011 = 04 Janvier 2011

A night with absolutely no moon - the stars are shining brightly by themselves - apparently the moon is on vacation (at least for a day or two).

Today has been pretty uneventful: woke up late due to the fact that my head was aching, my neck was stiff and I felt as if I had only slept for a few hours... so late would mean 9:00... people here wake up around 4:30 - 5:30 (at the latest!!). So, Got up & out of my tent (I'm sleeping outside again - under my brand new hanger :] ) and went inside and realized I'm very low on water and have way too many dishes to clean and very little motivation to wash them, myself or to get water at the pump in order to complete these tasks. So, I eat a Special K (vanilla, thanks Ma) cereal bar and sit on my floor. As I'm sitting and looking around I find my house to be the dirtiest it's ever been in these past four months of occupying it... The floors need sweeping, the dishes need washing, the books need organizing, the trash needs burning; you should get the point by now, it needed to be cleaned! So finally around 10:00 I gather dishes and wash them outside: 4 bowls, too many spoons and forks, cutting board, pan, marmite, casserole dish, 2 very sharp knives and empty tomato paste cans. What's next? SWEEPING! By the time I finish sweeping my "one-size-fits-all" room, I've got a mound of dirt, dust and debris by my screen door. Yuck! I then decide to "wash" my floor by pouring water on the cement and running a rag over it - seems to work, and it's what everyone else does in village to wash their floors or patios. Then I heat a little bit of water so I can then wash myself. Washed my hair and body (perks of having short hair = less water). Clipped my nails. Put sunscreen on. Examined this new rash on my chest that sprung up out of nowhere in the past two days & then get dressed. Yesterday I discovered that I am now able to braid the front part of my hair again... which is... U L T I M A T E L Y the most exciting thing that's happened to me since I cut my hair. Okay, exaggeration, but it's still really neat. By this time it's 11:30 and I head out to the CSPS to make a phone call the PCMO about my "rash" and to see what Beak wanted two days ago when he texted "call me!" The PCMO tells me to apply some cream on my chest and keep her informed. Beak didn't answer - so I assume everything is fine. Since Ma is in Kentucky I don't expect a phone call from her - so I causer (chat, hang around) with the Major (Congo) and the Pharmacist (Agathe) for a few minutes and head off to the marché to find Alisone. I need to finish 3 PACA tools in less than two weeks and it took four weeks to finish the first three. He can't be found. Damn. Oh well, I buy cabbage, tomatoes and baignets at the marché along with my 4th anklet.

I eat lunch. Read more of my new book and fall asleep midday. Wake up around 15:45 and decide I REALLY need to get some water. Go to the pump two times and on the third round I detour to the CSPS to causer a little more and check my phone. Adam says he just wanted me to tell him "Happy New Year" and that's all. I talked with Agathe some and was invited to have dinner with her. Went home. Sat around for 2 hours - had a snack: triscuts, easy cheese and sliced tomatoes (thanks Ma for the yummy treats). The easy cheese was substitute for real, sliced cheese: think swiss, provolone, sharp cheddar, or smoked gouda! Mmmmm. And I read my book while I was munching. Ate dinner and now I'm here in my tent. I was completely frightened by a dog on the way back from the CSPS. With no moon and a shitty headlamp and ridiculously bad night vision I am always spooked easily when walking around village at night. So I hear a growling noise up ahead of me while walking and I immediately tense up. I think about Cujo and freak out a little. I say - well at least I could throw my Nalgene at it - that might spook it and could make it run away? But out-loud I just yell "Hey!" and hope it runs away - it doesn't. It growls more and then starts barking. I stop walking. A group of men are to my left and finally pay attention. One yells. Another throws something. And another says my name "Lauriene!" He walks me a bit of the way, past the mean dog and goes on his way. That was about the only "exciting" thing that occurred today. Well, actually, come to think of it - I'm wrong: I got to talk with Adam today before dinner. I thought I'd try to give him a ring to check up and wish him a Happy New Year (finally). It was a good convo. I miss that man so much. Tomorrow I've got to go to Sapouy to buy some onions, send mail and see if my key is FINALLY ready. And, of course, I'm not expecting anything yet, but I'll check to see if my package(s) is(are) here.

New Years Dance Party & Visitors are FUN

Monday: January 03, 2011

Let me recap on what happened in the past few days... we'll start on the 31st of December. Oh yeah, get ready for a really long blog entry. (sorry it's so late)

Left for Taré at around 8:15 to catch a bus to Léo to celebrate the upcoming new year with a few fellow PCVs: Hugo, Rhoda, Katie and Rob. There was supposed to be three to four more people, but they all went their seperate ways - either to Yako, Gawa or Bobo. Anyway - get to the Hotel Sissili (a really really fancy NEW hotel that tricks it's guests into thinking their in Americaland) and it is gorgeous! We go the cheapest rooms available: 21.500 CFA (two rooms, split five ways). We were lucky enough to have a younger woman working there at the time of check-in who sympathized with our situation and said she was just like us when she was our age & promptly pulled some strings and allowed three of us to one room. We all then took hot showers (lovely) and then laid out by the pool. Yes, pool. Everyone had drinks except me - instead I enjoyed an extra large bottle of ice cold Laafi water with ICE! Next came the food. Salads for me and katie and then Rob and hugo ordered, according to them: "real food" which would be spaghetti and some Senegalise dish. Rhoda refrained from stuffing her face, unfortunately. The salad was delicious - beyond delicious. so so so good. And the spaghetti, get this, had real cheese on it! Real. Gratted. Cheese. What? Yes, you heard me. Cheese isn't readily available in this country - and it was there. We took tons of pictures at the pool.

After that we decided we needed to rest: so we took naps, lounged and used the internet a wee bit before the festivities of the night began. I went out for a run and it was, by far, the most terrible run I have ever had. The wind was blowing against me, my throat hurt and I was running uphill. 3 miles should be 30 minutes, but I'm not sure how long this took me... it seems to last forever. After getting back I jumped in the shower and was greeted by a large glass of champagne when I got out... apparently when I went running the boys went for a drink run and bought us 4 bottles of champagne and 2 boxes of wine. Wonderful. The shower was great by the way... mhmmm.

Now, let the festivities begin! Somehow or another the first step is to obtain a faux-hawk. I soberly allowed Katie to fix my hair for the night, and that was the result. Got to skype with my Beak for a wee bit - sadly, the signal was too weak for video on both ends so we switched back and forth. The gang enjoyed talking with him too - he seemed thoroughly confused. Mohawk = Done. Dressed = Done. Make-up = Check. We wanted to order food from the hotel, the same two dishes the boys had during lunch... but, of course, the hotel wanted to break our hearts and told us the two dishes were "finis" (done for the day). So we gathered our troops and went out on the town to the cheap, but delicious (not to compare it with the spaghetti at the hotel, or my Dad's for that point) spaghetti and liver that Rob and I shared. I carried a bottle of bottle of champagne with us to dinner - we (four of us, Rhoda parted ways) shared the bottle and then went back to the hotel. There we had our own little "dance party" before heading out to the club which was, conveniently located on the same grounds as the hotel. We probably spend about 3 to 4 hours in our room listening to music, being British, cannibalizing our hands (Rob and I) and taking way too many pictures and a 30 minute video that I need to edit one day.

Off to the club: we danced to ridiculous Burkinabé music and the four of us shared a bottle of whiskey, classy huh? I got to talk with Adam some more when midnight struck and also Devon and my mom. Dev called me out on "drunk dialing" her - nonsense! but okay, I guess she was right. All in all... it was a pretty good night. Went to sleep with my New Years kiss from Katie (on the cheek, mind you) and I then the world was spinning beneath me.

Woke up the next day around 8:30 but didn't get up until 9:00. Realized all my things were in the other room and had to wake up Rob and Katie from their slumber. Took a shower and decided to lay by the pool until we needed to check-out. Had breakfast and some detox tea I brought with me... delicious? My neck was killing me - and I'm pretty sure I was a wee bit hung over (for the first time, ever) but only a little. Had another large bottle of Lafi (water) and continued to be British with Rob. Went inside around 11:30 to pick up the hotel room - it was a complete MESS and then packed up my bags to check out.

Downloaded Adam's new song that he sent me - so so so good! I now have the intro and the outro of their new CD (in-progress) and he tells me I can't hear anything else until it's 100% complete. Damn. I hope they finish the EP quickly. *for new readers* His band is "A Formal Affair" which is based in Austin, TX but formed in Wichita Falls, TX! Check 'em out.

Then I get online for a wee bit more before we leave so I can post a very brief update of our New Years in picture form on Facebook. Then Rob, Rhoda and I go out for lunch (after we checked out) and I have a salad while they scarf down salad and atcheki. The salad was really good, but I was having weird - do I want two plates of salad or do I not even want to finish one - feelings. I wouldn't say I was naseaus, but I definitely was bipolar about my desire to eat or not eat. I did, however, drink a butt load of water. The rest of the day we (Rob and Katie decided to grace me with their presence at my site) traveled from Léo to Taré and then off to my village - having to stop once on the dirt path for a potty break... ahhh, the glory of peeing in the open air - while you fear a snake will bit you or tick pick you as it's next host. Then we finished our bike ride to my village. We get settled and take turns going to the pump to get water. For dinner we had fideo in memory of Rob's first visit to my village a while ago. We had the regular ingrediants: vermacelli noodles, tomato paste, cumino, garlic powder, caldo de pollo (chicken bouillon) and then we added onions, tomatoes, cabbage and a nice taste of Americaland: a bag of ready to heat black beans in a mexican style sauce. Oh gosh - it was delicous! I wish I had two bowls, but there was barely enough for all three of us... but of course Rob was a mega fatty and had a bowl and a half! We had more Americaland by popping some Jiffy Pop... Thanks Mel! mmm. So good. I had forgotten how good and delicious simple popcorn is. Then we went off to bed. They slept inside and I slept in my tent outside. Thought I was gonna die from the cold, but actually was good. My neck ached - my nose was all kinds of stuffed up and my throat hurt - but I slept okay.

We wake up around 8:00 and start our day by eating overcooked rice with sugar, butter, nido and cinnamen and a dash of granola (thanks Mel), craisons, raisons and brown sugar (thanks Ma)! Then we take bucket baths, light my trash on fire, be locked in my house because the nem finally begin finishing my hanger (YAY) and walk around town. We eat at a place that sells rice, maccaroni and chicken (a BIG surprise to me). After that we sit around at my house and they figure out when they'd like to leave. They end up going around 14:00 and I finish the day by napping. My neck has been killing me since New Years and I figure I could use some rest. I sleep until 17:30 and decide to fix dinner even though I'm not that hungry. I fix fideo-esque type food. Used the last of the cabbage, one onion and make the fideo minus the garlic && it actually turned out wonderfully! I didn't expect to get fideo without garlic, but I did. They things you learn! Went to bed after writting a letter to Adam and reading the new book my mom sent me: "The Elephant Vanishes" stories by Haruki Murakami. Good so far.

Today I woke up early because I was uncomfortable but went to bed because I felt horrid. I've felt pretty under the weather all day - so I've stayed home, thoroughly washed my feet because my toe nail finally gave and fell off/I cut off what was already not attached. I also cleansed my feet because I got a cut on my foot on the way back through the bush to my village and it looked a little inflamed.... damn cuts on toes - always actin' up! Aside from that I haven't done much. Just finished writing/finishing letters to Adam, Melanie, Elyse and am about to write Ashley and my parents.

Discovered I can braid the front part of my hair!

That's really exciting.

Cleaning up a bit

Will go out & about in the village tomorrow!

Gotta finish my PACA

1 & 1/2 weeks left.

Mail Demons vs. Fairies

Thursday, 30 December 2010

I feel like a kid in a candy shop!

Went to Sapouy today not expecting anything in the mail - maybe the key to the box would FINALLY be ready (fingers crossed, but being realistic) and then I would take money out of my account (yes, the post office is also my bank account here... weird, I know). So I ask the man behind the desk and BAM! there are not one, not two, but 3 packages in the mail for me. Two from my mama and one very unexpected surprise from Melanie Grizzel! I was expecting the third to be from Ashley or Adam, but to my pleasant surprise my old boss sent me some much needed love! This means I'll be expecting at least two more packages - within the next two or three weeks: Adam & Ashley's packages!! Damn that moleskin!! I still haven't received it and I'm pretty sure Ash sent it over a month ago! Where could it be? Singapore again? Maybe it's in Russia this time? Oh goodness, I just can't wait to get it.

Gotta get to bed soon - going to Leo tomorrow for New Years and I might have Skype capabilities! Wohoo.

Rabies. Running. Raw Nose.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Just finished reading "Cujo" by Stephen King in two days.

Damn Dog.

Damn Bat.

Damn Rabies.

I hope my Ligdi doesn't go crazy and bite me and infest me with that damn disease. That'd be terrible. Just terrible.

I really enjoy how King writes - only complain: no chapters - just breaks in the text and then here we go again!

My damn sinuses are all kinds of screwy due to this weather: hot, cold and dreadfully windy. These three ingredients make for a crusty, raw nose... not well done.

Finished a typical day of training: 3 miles, 30 minutes. Tomorrow is XTraining - maybe I'll bike to Sapouy or just head south for the hell of it. Change of pace, eh? Then I want to do push-ups and crunches, possibly lunges?

Christmas Day Photo Reel

Tis the Season for Egg Rolls

Christmas Eve: 24 December 2010

First and foremost, Happy GOLDEN 24^th Birthday Ashley.

This was the first Christmas, no, let’s say the FIRST HOLIDAY away from home and I will say it wasn’t nor hasn’t been too tragic. I miss my family and miss the comforts of home, the cold weather, busy streets, Christmas lights, comfort food – but mostly I miss just sitting at home on the sofa with my mom and watching pointless TV shows or Christmas films, having dad in the other room on his computer, and the animals all sprawled out over the house.

So today Ashley and I head out from Sapouy on the 7:00 bus to Ouaga. Once we get to the city we shop for groceries: her family has a tradition of making egg rolls for her on her birthday – and she wasn’t about to let being in West Africa stop it – and I was hungry for Zuppa Tuscana! I will just state we succeeded! She found (at the very last minute) egg roll paper and I substituted Italian sausage for regular, kale for spinach and bacon for weird dried ham stuff. After grocery shopping I gave myself a nice present: soft serve ice-cream in front of Marina, then Josh finally showed up and we all left for the bus stop to catch a bush taxi to Josh’s village. We waited for about an hour and a half to two hours just waiting on the bus to fill up and then left an hour later than anticipated (not at all out of the ordinary) and we were on our way to feast at Josh’s house. We arrived 4 & 1/2 hours later after traversing through the "bush" which means bumpy, scary roads and then we biked for about 45 minutes on sandy deathtrap roads. No big deal. Now! Let the festivities BEGIN!

Okay - we arrive after the sun has begun to set and Ashley's front tire decided it wanted to be completely and utterly and simply not rideable... so we had to stop and fix it (in the dark) and then be on our way across the sand-pit roads - *note to all readers: I dispise sand while I'm riding my bike. You slip and fall and skid all over the place, and it's definitely not permittable when you have large bags strapped onto the back of your bike* - so finally, we get to Josh's site and his house is wonderful! He has a closed in [private] courtyard and a roomy house. It is really nice in comparison to what I've been exposed to here in Burkina. Alright, we're all uber dirty from the bush taxi, exhausted from a long day of travel and would all love to just crash and cook tomorrow morning - but we are HUNGRY and we bought meat in Ouaga and we fear it's on the verge of spoiling already from the drive and bike ride. So what do we do? Get to cooking!

I start chopping potatoes (real potatoes, not sweet potatoes or yams), onions, garlic and heat up this ginormous marmite for the soup. I'm trying to conserve oil because Ashley needs quite a bit for the eggrolls. Gotta brown the sausage without italian seasoning - I realize it's just like regular sausage (low quality) and the original recipe asks for italian sausage...so, being resourceful, I add a butt load of basil and red pepper flakes. Check. Done. Remove and cook the onions, garlic and "bacon." Check. Done. Add 10 heaping cups of water (filtered of course) and 5 maggi cubes (chicken bouillion cubes). Allow to come to a boil, now I have chicken broth! Done. Add potatoes and cook until you can puncture it with a fork with no force; takes about 30 to 45 minutes. All the while, Ashley is slaving away cooking pork, celery and cabbage and then rolling those contents within eggroll-dough paper. We think the dough got a little too dry (they were breaking and ripping) so we add a damp paper towel over them - it helps. I tend to my soup: taste the potatoes and decide to add one more cube of maggi and lots more red pepper flakes to kick it up a bit. Check! Almost done. Add sausage and allow to head up and cook a wee bit more (just to be safe). Ashley is now in the process of frying her eggrolls - looks good so far. Add cream to soup. Check. Looks delicious!! and smells even better. mmmmm. Last step: add spinach as a substitute to kale. Finished with SOUP. Now we wait on Ashley: almost done with frying her eggrolls; the only thing left to do is to make a sauce. The sauce consisted of sugar, ketchup, water and (flour?). Okay - FINALLY - we are able to feast.

It's probably around 9pm by the time we get around to eating - but it was well worth the wait. My soup tasted exactly like when I make it back home - or maybe my tastebugs are a wee bit tainted and I was consumed with the memory of the soup. Ashley and Josh were quite pleased. Josh really liked it - so much so that he got a huge second bowl and proceeded to chow down. YAY. The eggrolls came out pretty good too. I actually don't really like eggrolls - but I had two or three to be polite. I almost feel bad for "stealing the show" with y soup tonight since Ashley's birthday tradition is making eggrolls... but at least we had something really delicious to eat.

I'll be sleeping outside under Josh's hanger, with a mosquito net, on a lipicot (that's essentially like a lounge chair for a pool)... pretty cold out here - but I'm sure I'll be fine when I wrap myself in my blue blanky!

Rat Soup and Beans

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Yuck.

Back at site and I will admit: seeing everyone in my family compound and people at the CSPS made me smile. They (the villagers who know me) seemed happy that I’m back – so that’s actually something that makes being here a little easier. I was greeted by smiles, surprise, questions and demands of gifts…okay – 3 out of 4 is a good start. I should reply with “I brought you back a smile! CHEESE!” That way, they might catch on that I’m not made out of money and I will rarely bring back gifts. && Speaking of money, I have realized that I spend way too much of it when I’m away from site. I need to start a daily budget for when I’m away.

• Breakfast: 500-550CFA
• Lunch: 550-800CFA
• Dinner: 1.000CFA

For a grand total of 2.050-2.350CFA and 16.450 per week I’m away. That seems a lot, and if I stay at it for a month, it’s 65.800CFA. That’s more than double what I spend while saving money. Point is I gotta watch what I spend when I’m not in ville. Write it down. So I can see how much money I’m spending, and on what!

On a side note (not so side after the title of the entry), rat is gross. I bike over to Agathe’s house and she’s preparing dinner for tonight as usual: onions, tomatoes, some kind of carb (rice, mac, tô or potatoes) and then I see what protein we’ll be consuming tonight. It looks a little funny at first; I can’t figure out if it’s part of a goat or if it’s chicken…Okay, fine – but then I look a little closer and I see this long tail. Wait… What? Then I examine it in a more detailed manner and identify it as a small mammal… better known as a rodent… oh no… that’s a rat. I promise you – it’s the biggest rat I have ever seen and then Agathe starts cutting up a second one. She leaves the feet, tail and skin attached… but, thoughtfully, she chunks the head and very tip of the tail – so gracious. I am trying to squirm my way out of being invited to dinner – but she beats me to the punch and tells me she’s preparing a soup tonight and I’m cordially invited. I’m obligated to RSVP on the spot…so I accept and she tells me ready at 19:30. Alright, I suppose I’ll be trying rat meat tonight. I did. I didn’t like it one bit. Maybe it was because I knew it was a rodent, but I could have sworn it tasted dirty. It was very soft, and the skin just didn’t sit well on my tongue. I will say the beans (black eyed peas…Burkinabe don’t realize there are other varieties of beans) she served were delicious, and the sauce that was the “soup” was tasty – just the meat… oh the meat.

Good news: I have mail at the post in Sapouy! This could be anything from Peace Corps “junk mail,” to a letter or a package from Americaland! YAY

Going to Sapouy tomorrow and then off to Ouaga and another village for Christmas… then home again.