Joyeux Anniversaire

As my 23rd birthday comes up tomorrow (I know, Im young) the festivities have already begun. As I mentioned in my last post, my work has fallen into a nice comfortable routine (shaken up every once in a while by a student who doesn't show up and doesn't call to tell me, argh) and so I had nothing better to do but plan myself a birthday party. Friday night some friends came over and the next day we cooked mom's potatoe salad for lunch, which I had really been craving, and then we watched some new movies (new to me, at least) that Lisa had downloaded on her computer. We watched Whatever Happens in Vegas and Definately, Maybe. Then we cooked up some tortillas and some meat and vegetables and had fajitas for dinner while hanging out on my porch. I have no oven to bake a cake at my house in Pout, so we used some marshmallows and rice krispies from the foreign import store to make a rice krispy treat cake of sorts. Then we just hung out talking. It was a nice, relaxing evening with friends, which was exactly what I wanted so I am pleased.

I came to Dakar yesterday because I had a Drs appointment this morning, this came just in time and since I'm already here, I might as well stay until tomorrow so I can celebrate Scott and my 23rd anniversary in style. Since Dakar is the best place in West Africa and you can pretty much get anything, I plan on buying an ice cream cake and hanging out at the regional house with some other volunteers. That's really what I want for my birthday, just to have a good, relaxing time with my friends. And an ice cream cake. There are a lot of volunteers in Dakar at the moment working with an english camp which I am signed up to work with next week so more details on that soon. I am really looking forward to it. All of it. Turning 23, celebrating 11 months in country soon, working with high school students in Dakar to help their english skills and teach them about American culture.

I can only stay until Wednesday morning when I have to catch a car to Thies where I have computer classes all day (every Monday and Wednesday still), but this weekend has been, and will hopefully continue to be, a much needed break from what has become my mundane, Senegalese life. Ok, its not as mundane as it could be, I know, but it's difficult after the honeymoon is over and nothing is new and exciting anymore and you get to the 'well now what?' phase of your peace corps service, which is where I am now. The positive side is that with the dullness comes understanding and I now understand what these people are saying to me and why they do (some) of the things they do, and can react accordingly. I can succesfully fend of marriage proposals (politely and offensively) in Wolof, I can have conversations with my friends, I can handle public transportation here (which is a complete mess), quite frankly I think I can handle anything.