03.12.05 - 13:55

Again, I just feel too tired to update. It's not that I have anything better to do, particularly. It's Saturday and I'm alone at the Peace Corps Bureau, catching up on some email and work. I got back yesterday from my Thanksgiving trip to Kiffa, Kankossa, and a brief stop in Maal. (Factoid #4653: "Maal" written in Arabic looks like "J Lo")

Taxi brousse down to Kiffa was a barrel of chuckles, as usual. This time, the Mercedes was graced with the presence of an old Moor guy with an affinity for opening his legs as wide as they would go, thus taking up way more than his allotted space. Of course, no one could say anything because he was old. Great system.

However, I was greeted in Kiffa by an amazing Pakistani dinner (courtesy of Andrew, he of the green/red shiny splendor) and about twenty of my closest friends.

Thanksgiving boasted 30 or 40 celebrants and a menu that would, yes, even rival that of Joy and Doug. Rather than writing an informative narrative, I'll just list what we had. Ready? Carrot-cabbage salad, green salad, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, cheezy creamed corn, glazed carrots, green bean casserole, tomato salad, asian noodle salad, egg noodles, Stovetop chicken stuffing, homemade stuffing, canned cranberry sauce, Waldorf salad, gravy, shish kebabs, chicken and dumplings, devilled eggs, stuffed chicken, solar cooked pot roast, and a tiny bite each of Turkey Jerky. To drink, there was bissop brousse wine and egg nog.

Then came dessert. With the type of ingenuity one comes to expect from PCVs, we eschewed plates and instead stood around the dessert table, eating right off of the pans and plates as we moved in a slow clockwise circle. Brilliant. The dessert list goes as follows: pecan pie (made by yours truly), apple pie, key lime pie, carrot cake, banana cake, angel food volcano, brownies, fudge, berry cobbler, no-bake cheesecake, "Vache Qui Rit" cake, chocolate pudding, pineapple upside-down cake, and oatmeal raisin cookies.

Ah. The gift of bounty. Especially poignant when surrounded by malnourished children. However, Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so it is apt to celebrate it by being typically American, and ignoring the great global suffering which we have managed to avoid only by the luck of birth. Some more banana cake, Caleb! I'm full, but I haven't yet reached the point of explosion!

(I just learned two new vocabulary words to descibe my attitude: pharisaical and Pecksniffian .)

Anyway, after Thanksgiving, I went "home" to Kankossa for a couple of days, which was wonderful. I miss my family and friends there so much. Nothing had really changed, except that my house was really no longer mine. I'll be going back soon (inshallah) when my mom visits at the end of the month, and then again for Tabasky.

I managed to get a free Peace Corps ride back to Nouakchott with our PCMO (medical officer), Cynthia. The car was clean and comfortable, and I got to visit a small Moor village called Maal. (Cynthia's great joke: "Maal is pas mal!")

Sorry, kids. That's all you get for an update this time.

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