Christmas in Popenguine

December = Fail… for blog posting anyways, for everything else it’s been pretty good.  I believe I left off last time telling y’alls about IST and trying to get in the holiday spirit.  Well that was ok I suppose.  On both accounts I didn’t quite get what I wanted.  IST was a bit lacking in useful information and my holiday endeavors were a bit lacking in… well a country that gets excited with me about Christmas.  Even so, Christmas was still pretty awesome thanks to the five wonderful people I got to spend it with, the three amazing meals we ate, and the single best beach house I have ever stayed in…  for the sake of full disclosure I haven’t stayed in all that many beach houses, but regardless it was still awesome! Take a journey with me through images and poetry.

T’was the night before Christmas (in Popenguine) when all through the (beach) house 

not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (except for Daisy preparing a Mexican feast of epic proportions and deliciousness.  I mean serious deliciousness). 

The stockings were hung by the chimney (wooden giraffe) with care 

in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there (We weren’t taking any chances, hence the biskrem, powdered milk, carrot and letter). 

The children were nestled all snug in their beds (watching love actually), while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads (possibly induced by the fine locally produced liquors we picked up in Warrang earlier that day: Bissap liquor and chocolate, coffee, banana liquor.) And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap (…yeah I got nothin) When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter (the movie ended and we realized we had only 10min to get to midnight mass!). Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash (Go go go get to mass!). The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below (Actually there was a good amount of moonlight) When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny reindeer (or in our case a church with two firmly locked doors and a previously unnoticed calendar stating that midnight mass starts at 10…) 

With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St Nick (What the heck, we may have missed mass but its three minutes past 12 which means its CHRISTMAS!) "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!" 

Okay I may have stretched the limits of our Christmas’s relation to this poem, but I thought it might be fun :-).  Christmas morning rolled around and we woke up to a truly magnificent sight.  No not the beach, not the house, not the presents, or the stockings, something much more magical and amazing.  The biskrem was gone, the glass of milk was empty and the carrot was considerably nibbled.  I asked around and none of us did it, so take that you non-believers Santa visited Senegal!  After thoroughly enjoying our nostalgic Santa excitement we got down to eating our second magnificent meal.  This was a delicious strata courtesy of Kelsey.   

We enjoyed this meal with a lovely woman from Saint Louis whose mother had actually been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Popenguine in the 80’s.  It’s a small world and we really are one big interconnected family.  Full and happy we next proceeded to mass, take two.  This time the doors were not locked and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  There’s nothing quite like mass with a 40 or so person Senegalese choir with traditional drums.  Pretty amazing.  Some of our group got their religion fix that day; I got my choral music fix.  Now what would be next on a PCV’s agenda after church? Well food of course!  That seems to actually be the answer to what’s next whenever PCV’s are together.  Cooking good food really is the main event for every gathering here and for our brunch Kelsey provided some amazing homemade cinnamon rolls.  We enjoyed these while opening our secret Santa presents.  My midday consisted of reading, sleeping, and Home Alone II.  Oh yeah it was that good.  I couldn’t rest forever though because I had to prepare our third amazing meal.   

Two roasted chickens in a lemon butter cream sauce, with julienned carrots, and pesto pasta.  I told you, we really like eating. 

After dinner we made a nice bonfire on the beach and made smores and attempted to light off some fireworks.  I say attempted because we ran into a little problem… the beach in Popenguine erodes away quite a bit every winter and makes the waves rather, big.  I guess we didn’t realize that the tide was coming in so it was quite a surprise when in the midst of lighting two fireworks a wave washed up and put out our fire and knocked over the fireworks.  Don’t worry the fuses had already been lit so they still went off… on the ground… pointed at us… It was a massively good time.  The rest of the fireworks were ruined however, but we had a good time anyways trying to light them and occasionally getting one to launch a few feet.  We finished out the night with a classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  We weren’t able to finish it because we were falling asleep, but it was still nice.  Right before I went to bed I skyped with my family and Hannah.  I must say this was really strange.  It was Christmas as usual at Grandma and Grandpa’s and with everyone on the phone I could picture it so clearly.  I felt pretty lonely hanging up the phone and being back in Senegal.  Apart from that very reasonable moment of homesickness though, it was a wonderful weekend, and I can’t imagine having spent it with any other group of people.  Thanks to Amy, April, Daisy, Kelsey, and Clint!  Merry Christmas everyone!