Deep Fried 24th Birthday

Tabaski is the biggest holiday here in Senegal. All the families slaughter at least one of their sheep and for 3 days everyone eats well. This is great for them, and even me, I had a lot of fun, but the mystery meat in the bowl leads to some GI distress over the following days…

My brother Yousuphu and I (and his friend to the left)

A couple weeks ago we made a trip to the Ingeli waterfalls (see my previous post). It’s rumored that they’ll dry up soon, but judging by what we saw when we finally got there I’d find it hard to believe they’ll completely dry up. We might make another trip in a month or so when there’s even less water there; there was a bit too much to swim in the upper pool, not to mention my friend Lili spotted a crocodile. This time we also made it up to the top of the waterfall which had some great views.

Ingeli Waterfall from the top

I decided to travel up to Kaolack for Thanksgiving and my 24^th birthday (the same day this year) to see my friends Jessica and Mikael. Jessica got 4 turkeys slaughtered in her town and brought them to the regional house for the feast. We set aside one of the turkeys just for us to deep fry. With all the stories of people burning down their houses in the US trying to deep fry turkeys, we definitely took our time to plan out how to do it the best way. It was a huge success and so was the rest of the meal that was prepared by the volunteers of the Kaolack house. I probably ate more than I eat in a week at site…but it was delicious and worth it. Great birthday, great thanksgiving! I hope all my friends, family, and readers had a great Thanksgiving at home.

testing the set up

birthday turkey!!!!

Jessica and I

Deep frying the turkey

We went to Jessica’s site, Keur Madiabel, and painted a mural at the Post de Sante. Now I’m still relaxing at the Kaolack house waiting to go to Thies in two days for our West African All Volunteers Conference.