Parties

   

Birthday girl

     It looks like May is going to be a party month.  We actually started the partying on April 30th by going to one of our friend's home to help her celebrate her birthday.  She and her sister are good friends of ours and have been to visit us in our home many times.  Celebrating birthdays is not very common in the Senegalese culture.  Jourdan helped to make it special by baking a birthday cake.  Since many friends were busy with school activities, it was just Jourdan and I along with some of her family who helped to make her birthday special.  We were served something to drink as well as fish fatayas before we had the cake.  One of the sisters played some music on her phone and did a little dancing.

Even the youngest sister joined the dancing

     After the dancing it was time to take some pictures and eat some cake.

          The two oldest girls are very busy right now studying for the test that they have to take in July.  They must pass this test in order to be able to go to the university to continue studies.  This doesn't leave them with much time to visit them either at our house or their house.  I may not get another chance to visit with them so we had to do group photos.

Me (adopted grandmother) with all the family

     On May 2, Kim hosted a pizza party for her advanced English class.  Jourdan and I were able to attend and help out with the fun.  A game of Jinga was begun as the students started arriving.  There was some heavy competition going on between some of the guys.

     The homemade American pizza was a big hit with everyone.  Kim prepared dough for three pizzas.  We brought everything into the dining area so the students could see how to assemble the pizzas.  They each got two pieces to start off but many went back for seconds.

     Since I only have a few weeks left here in Senegal, this might be my last time to be with this group of students.  I wanted to make sure that I remember them (especially since they all call me "Grandmother") so we took a little time out to make group photos.

     Our next party was at our house on May 6 to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  Yes, I know Cinco de Mayo is May 5.  However, we were in Dakar for the weekend so we had to delay the celebration for a day.  Jourdan invited four of our friends over for a Mexican meal.  She prepared a Mexican casserole and some Mexican chocolate cookies.  After enjoying our meal, the girls then did a little dancing.  They started out trying to do the salsa but ended up doing some Senegalese dancing.  I just watched since I missed out on the dancing gene.

     Because Rose Nicole works at the hospital as a nurse, she doesn't have a lot of free time.  I may not have the opportunity to see her again before I leave so I had to have a picture of the two of us.

     I'm sure there will be a few more gatherings during the next few weeks where I will be having to say my good-byes to my friends here in Fatick.  One thing a person quickly discovers when they arrive in Fatick is how friendly and hospitable the Senegalese people are.  I will miss these friends a lot even though I'm excited about going home to my family.