Mangos - for 300 cfa, which translates into just over 1/2 a dollar - are the first things I thought of as a thing I'll miss/crave... I just had one for lunch today and it was incredible, and messy, and would not come out of my teeth.
Yesterday, because I should have been doing some transcribing of interviews, I instead followed Alisa to a cultural festival at her homestay sister's school (middle school and younger).
She wanted to film the opening ceremonies for her project. After explaining who we were to the guards at the school, one student led us right through the middle of the hundreds of students to the chairs in the front and center - reserved for the special guests and teachers. Slightly uncomfortable - as you can imagine we didn't quite fit in, and we were the first ones to be seated in that central section...
Somehow this festival made me miss Laurelhurst assemblies - like the rose festival. I honestly don't know why because I never won anything, and this one was much larger, more exciting and interesting...but it still made me wish I was 10 again. I could go for another round of "I am but a small voice..."A choir sang the national anthem, a song from the Ivory Coast, and We are the World. Then the big finale - the crowd exploded, seriously they were loud, I don't know how many 100s of students were there - a group of little girls in the most amazing pink outfits came out and danced, accompanied by drums.
Just one small section of the students - singing along to Rihanna and Iyaz before the opening ceremonies started.
My view, right in the middle of rows and rows of students, before the other teachers and visitors arrived.
The best dinner we've made so far...courtesy of Devin and Abby. I think I stirred a few times, but Abby was just humoring me to let me feel like I contributed. She's a self-proclaimed master stir-fryer, so we let her do her thing.
Devin made the french fries. When you don't have sharp knives, the slices of potatoes come out in chunks, which makes it even easier to layer on the piment (hot sauce).
Oh, I took a bus! And was very proud of myself. Even though it wasn't going in the right direction and I ended up getting off and paying for a taxi like a true toubab...but still. I got on, and off a real city bus.
View from the bus. I took one of yellow car-rapides today. Another proud moment. On the way to an interview I took a taxi, which took about 20 minutes. On the way back I took the car rapide, which is about $2 cheaper, and three times as long. But worth it because again I could be overly proud of myself. And I got to ride next to a bucket of fish.
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