The Christmas weekend began on Friday when my friends from Dakar arrived. I made some chocolate no-bake cookies while the girls got settled. It was Friday so that meant "pizza night" at the F's house. I took my cookies and some drinks as our contribution to the meal. After eating the delicious pizza we played Five Crowns while watching "Elf." Saturday morning we made a trip to the market so I could get a few items I needed for our Christmas Eve dinner. I went to see my friends in the market since I hadn't seen them in a few days. While conversing with a man about our names, I mentioned that I didn't have a Senegalese family name. My friend, Tening, gave me her name. So now I'm Saly Sarr. Now I know I truly have a friendship with Tening since she gave me her name. After resting a bit in the afternoon and eating Lindy's monkey bread, we began our food preparations for the dinner. I fixed a salad and brownies while Becky fixed her bowl of gluten-free lasagna. The Fs arrived around 6:30 and we enjoyed a delicious meal of lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and desserts. After the meal we gathered around the computer and watched the movie "The Perfect Gift." It reminded us what the true meaning of Christmas is all about. I would like to say that we all got a good night's rest but that would not be the truth. It seems that the local mosque chanted over the loudspeaker until around 4:00 AM which made sleeping a little difficult. This tends to be the practice on the eve of every Christian holiday so I guess I have that to look forward to at Easter. The lack of sleep didn't dampen our Christmas spirit, though. We fixed a breakfast of pancakes and then we all began our preparations for the dishes we were preparing for Christmas dinner. The kitchen was a hub of much activity and juggling cooking times since we only had two eyes on the stove that work and my oven is rather small. We managed to get everything cooked and over to the F's house for Christmas dinner at 1:30 PM. After the meal we exchanged our presents and spent a little time relaxing. I took some of my chocolate no-bake cookies to my neighbor's family. Later, we all visited with my language teacher's family. I gave Martine her Christmas gift and some brownies to the family. Since all of us girls wanted to Skype with our families back home, we came back to my house for a while. I talked with my kids while they opened the presents that I had sent to them. Around 7:30 PM we went back to the F's house for leftovers and to watched "The Santa Claus" movie. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. My friends had to leave this morning (Monday) to return to Dakar. My first Christmas in Fatick has really been a special time thanks to all my special friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment