Happy Holidays

I can't believe it's already December and the Solstice / Christmas is just around the corner. Thanksgiving was great. We spent the holiday with our Peace Corps family. And it really does feel like a giant, dysfunctional, amazing family. We spent Thanksgiving Day making desserts. I made what I lovingly refer to as banana lump, which was supposed to be banana cream pie but was very lumpy. It tasted great though. We actually celebrated Thanksgiving on the Friday after. We had so much good food! Everyone pitched in and made it a great day.

The month of November was spent trying to work (details below) and cat-sitting an adorable kitten named Simba for another volunteer. When she finally came back to pick him up it made me realize how much I still miss Snowball and Beavis. I can't wait to see them again. The holiday season is making me a little homesick so don't be surprised if you get a phone call from me. I have skype now and highly recommend it to everyone!

We just got a meat grinder the other day and it has made our lives so much better! So far we've had hamburgers, spaghetti with meat sauce and sloppy joes, tacos and soon to come will be meatball subs. I didn't realize how much I missed ground beef. Now, if only we could get cheese here.

So...work...I've finally started working the last couple of months. So far, I've been observing classes at one of the schools that I'm affectated to. The other school will have to wait until January when the guy gets back who's going to translate for me (the director speaks very little french so that's been a problem). I have some project ideas and I should be able to find out how realistic they are at our in-service training in January. I'm hoping to get the school's well and latrine repaired, fence off an area for a garden, work on school murals, and start an eco-club. The eco-club should be a go in January. The teachers have students in mind, the club just has to be formed and we have to pick the days to meet. It's kind of daunting some days because the time is going so fast and it almost feels like 2 years won't be enough.

I've finally posted some pictures to the right and here's a link to my public albums. I'll try to keep that more updated. That reminds me of a funny story. So, obviously English is not the first or even the fifth language spoken here. Well, they misspell some things sometimes and one of the funniest to me had been signs saying they have a "pubic" phone available. I love it!!! Anyway, I went through a little bit of a funk so that's why I haven't posted here for a while. We'll be going to Nouakchott soon for Christmas and I may be attending my first mass ever. We've heard that the mass is really beautiful here. It's in French and it's full of ex-pats and I just want to experience something else new. After Christmas we're coming back to Kaedi for a couple days then going to Saint-Louis for New Years. That should be fun. It will be our first trip to Senegal since we arrived here in Africa. And we're going to be traveling through Senegal, which should be interesting. After Saint-Loius, we have to back to Nouakchott for Early Term Reconnect, where we get more vaccines (yay) and training. Then, after Nouakchott, my sector and ag-fo go back to Rosso for more training. I won't be back in Kaedi until the middle of January. Hopefully my projects will get off the ground then.

I'll try to keep this more updated. I miss you all!!! And thank you to everyone who's sent us anything. Anytime we receive anything in the mail we're so excited! Just knowing that we're thought about means a lot to us. I know I'm horrible about keeping in touch but I've been trying. I hope you all have a beautiful holiday season!