Back in Dakar

I've now been away from site for over a week, keeping quite happily busy. After Tabaski, my friend Alyssa left on a tournee of Senegal. So, off I headed to Pout to visit my friend Jackie. (Take a second to giggle at the silly name. You know you want to.) Pout's on the road to Dakar and is known for its fruit (mango capital of Senegal, specifically). Aside from making fruit smoothies, we didn't really go crazy on the fruit, but we did cook a bit: banana pancakes and makeshift mac-and-cheese. Not at the same time. Delicious.

Now I'm back in Dakar for an eco-tourism conference that Peace Corps is participating in. Today, we sat in on ("crashed") a separate one-day eco-T conference at a very fancy hotel, and we were rewarded with the most amazing buffet lunch ever. We shamelessly charged the food tables for first, second, third servings, beating the actual attendees to the punch. It was a bit embarrassing, but we're hungry PC volunteers, right? Plus, I haven't had real salads (There were beets. BEETS.) or a decent chocolate baked good since I got here. We went to town. And then sneakily rolled our stuffed selves out of there before most people had got to the main course. Conference crashers.

Right now we're back at the PC office doing some last minute prep for the week's conference (which we're actually supposed/allowed to be attending). In a little bit, we'll be heading out to clams and beer (or shellfish and alcohol, more generally) at some shack on the Western most point of the continent. Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday.

Ahti - you won't believe this: we went to Thai last night and I actually ordered a shrimp dish. Shrimp, as in shellfish. I hope you're proud!