Golden Anniversary

This is my 50th blog posting, so for both of you that read it: congrats! Things are going well here in Senegal. Trying to get back into work at site has been a little frustrating after I got back from vacation because nothing happened while I was gone since I wasnt there to nag people into doing things. Oh well. I have since started going to the youth library every morning again and will continue to do so until what feels like the end of time, or until all 5000 books are entered. Whichever comes first. Havent gone to the middle school yet as classes are cancelled in preparation for the big cultural festival this weekend. There will be a huge party tomorrow night and I get the feeling its going to be the Senegalese equivalent of the prom. I am planning on going, but God only knows.

As I have very little work to do today, I came into Thies to hang out with Daniel and Chris for a little neighborly bonding. We cooked chili for lunch which was sooo good. Chris's host family tried it and didnt like it even though the Senegalese have a dish thats really similar called ndembe. In the words of Chris's host sister "it tastes good but I dont like it because I dont know it". That is the perfect way to summarize the Senegalese feeling towards any food that isnt Senegalese. That means anything. They eat cebb u jenn every single day for lunch and that is perfectly ok with them. Its really the only way to go about it. Introduce something else and it throws off the whole balance of things. The Senegalese are very comfortable with the familiar and its just interesting to see their attitudes in comparison to my American desire to try any and every type of new food I can. I love ethnic food and have really enjoyed getting to know Senegalese food, but I now understand that they do not want to know or appreciate my food in the same way.

My host family has requested hamburgers for dinner tomorrow night and I am going to cook them with fries, but I am hesitant about them liking it. I may very well end up eating all of the hamburgers by myself, which I know I can do after eight months in country.