Breakfast

I have been in Kombo (the capital) for far longer than I originally intended. I came back from Dakar about a week ago and wanted to register my village's nursery school with the Community Development Office and go straight back to my site. The office ended up having meetings for at least two days and then there was a public holiday, and then the weekend. This means that I have to stay here till Monday to register the school then head back to village on Tuesday, if all goes as planned.

On the bright side this has given me time to enjoy some of the finer things about Kombo life.

The beach has been amazing. Matt and I took a walk along the coast by some cliffs. The red sand doesn't make for the most stable cliff material but it seemed safe enough. There were little washed out parts that we sat in and were able to just look out at the ocean in the early evening. There wasn't really any people back there since its just a path behind people's back yards. (Sorry there are no pictures of any of these things but soon this blog will be laden with them.) Later Mark and I went swimming at the beach closest to the PC house. It has a name but, you know, I don't really know it yet. Then, the coupe de ta (my French is "not sweet") was a visit out to Tanje, which was so nice, it deserves it own little paragraph.

I trucked out to Ian's site so I could go to the beach with him and the new training group. The drive out there was quick and easy. I took a 5 Dalasi taxi twice and then a bush taxi out to his village for another 5. I think the apprentice of the geli (bush taxi) recognized me, but maybe I am just vain. Shortly after getting to his site he biked off to the training villages to pick up the group. While he was gone I had an improve football game with me and some of the neighboring girls. I'm getting old, they were fast, and like, 15 years younger than me. Everyone arrived, I rode Ian's bike, and he ran us to the beach. It was amazing. I know I'm from Nevada and all but I thought it was one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. We biked through a garden path that eventually led to a steep slope to a beach. Down there the water was nice, no rip tide, or any big waves, just calm. We went back up the cliff, through more gardens, and then to a lookout that had great views. There were some storm clouds in the sky and you could see the fishing boats far out in the water.

The real point of writing this specific journal entry is to talk about the brunch we had at our Medical Officers house. Once a month he has a get together for volunteers to come over, eat some great food, and socialize. The food was AMAZING! Mike's kids are the CUTEST kids ever! It was a blast. I drank 3 cups of coffee, pancakes, eggs, crepes, and ate a sausage (um....it fell on the floor, and, after pressure from Brian, I ate it, and he ate the other one I dropped. I'm a terrible health volunteer, but I just couldn't waste it. Can't wait to hear how my future medical apt with go when I explain to Mike that I'm sick because I ate a sausage off the floor of this kitchen. Try not to judge though, I never get sausage, or meat, so screw wasting. And, I'm not sick yet). I wish I could go to Mike's food get-together every month.

My goal was to make this a short post, but it didn't work out. Next time you eat breakfast, enjoy it, a lot.