"There are some things money can't buy"

Tabaski sheep: 210,000 cfa

Thanksgiving turkey: 16,000 cfa

Witnessing the engagement of your sister: priceless

Master Card had a good idea when they used this memorable slogan for how best to spend your money. Unfortunately they haven't made it to the inner reaches of the Sahel desert so in the meantime I dole out very colorful West African Francs (cfa) for many of my adventures.

The last month of regaling experiences starts with Tabaski, the largest Senegalese and Islamic holiday of the year. It is to celebrate Abraham's sparing of his eldest son and killing a sheep instead. Each head of household is required to slaughter an animal, preferably a sheep but a goat is acceptable and a chicken will do in a pinch. Since my house has 3 families living here, they each bought and killed a sheep, as well as my grandmother (though the only part she played was to give money for the sheep to be bought). So basically we ate a LOT of meat for a few days. However, since we are one of the more fortunate families in our neighborhood, we gave away about 2/3 of the meat. (We did however receive some meat from other families in the spirit of giving, so maybe we really did eat that much meat...) It was quite a festive 3 days where I ate lunch with a different family each day. It's so fun to see how different people choose to celebrate the holiday.

After the festivities were over and people slowly began to go back to work, I left for a pre-vacation to St. Louis, one of the best locales for a tourist in Senegal. It is located in the very northwest of the country, right on the coast. Now my reasoning for this little trip comes down to a couple of things. My good friend Robert was bitten by a venomous snake a few days beforehand in the jungles of Kedougou and was flown to Dakar for treatment. After he was released from the hospital he needed a break from life to really absorb what had just happened to him and that is very difficult to do in the hubbub of the capitol. Since I needed to leave site in a couple of days to pick up Beth and Chris from the airport, and my friend Jessica was flying home for Thanksgiving right before then, we decided this would be an opportune time to relax together in a city known for its chill atmosphere. That one top of the fact that by day 4 of Tabaski, if you still have meat left over, it has begun to go rancid and I didn't want any part of that. So off I went, and after 8 hours of travel, I arrived in the city and spent the next 3 days in total relaxation with some of my dearest friends. We did some site-seeing of the old French colonial quarters, ate delicious food, live music, and hung out with the volunteers there, including spending some time in the demonstration garden of my friend Mike Lieberman. That last part was really great because I've been looking for some inspirations for my own garden and I was able to give some creative sections. Also, the live music was quite wonderful. We met a harmonica musician who has been traveling the world in search of the best ways to express himself with music. His music had a bluegrass feel while also giving me the feel of dancing on a riverboat in the Bayou. He was a delightful character and I hope I run into him again someday.

When we finally left it was with a reluctant heart, but I certainly intend to go back there before I leave. Plus St. Louis hold Jazz Fest in May or June so I can't miss that. We left and headed straight for Dakar since Jessica had to fly out that night and I needed to be back at the airport the next morning. It remained the overly-crowded city that I remembered, so I was eager to leave as quickly as possible. I was up with the morning call to prayer and in a cab to pick them up when I received a call from an airport official informing me that my family had arrived early and were anxiously waiting. I felt so bad that I wasn't there to meet them directly and hoped they were ok. As soon as my cab pulled up and I saw them standing at the arrival exit, I started running and didn't stop until my momentum was stopped by Beth running and leaping into my arms. As soon as I put her down I received an overjoyed and relieved hug from Chris and it sealed the excitement that had been bubbling over. I had been waiting over a year for those embraces and they were perfect.

After that, I knew the next two weeks were going to be great, if only because I at last had my family here to share the world I have come to love and treasure. Once we arrived at the regional house they showed me some wonderful gifts that had brought, including an entire backpack full of food and other supplies that were a communal gift of many family members. As always, I'm amazed my mother's packing job and kept finding treasures days after I had unpacked the bag. One of the most notable gifts though was a burrito from Chipotle. It isn't that I'm a diehard fan or anything, but I have been craving an overstuffed burrito more than any other thing in this country. Of course my dreams tend to be of a veggie burrito from Cedar City's Roberto's, but I knew that was a near impossibility and the Dulles Airport in DC could offer me some semblance of the deliciousness that my mind remembered. And I didn't care that it had been sitting on an airplane for 8 hours. In fact, I busted that baby out for breakfast that morning and then because Chris had left a second one he hadn't finished, I also ate that one on the 4 hour bus ride to Kaolack that I forced them on that same morning.

I didn't give them much time to recuperate from their long travels because I wanted to leave Dakar and get us down to my friends' village on the border of Gambia as quickly as possible. So by the time we arrived at dusk, they had been traveling for over 24 hours. And this was the moment we realized that Chris bag had been broken into sometime between the DC airport and his arrival and baggage collection in Dakar and they took his camera! We were all so angry and upset because that had been his graduation present and he had been looking forward to the photographic opportunities here. Also, it was his carry-on luggage and the airline told him it was too big so they were going to put it under the plane. And that was the point when the thief had access to it! Needless to say, we were upset and Chris was still quite panicked. I sent Beth to splash her face and clean up because we were supposed to meet our friends at the local bar for a birthday party. When she left the room Chris quickly rummaged through the rest of his bag until he found the box that was the real reason for his panic. As soon as I saw it my heart skipped a beat and I held my breath as he opened it and found his grandmother's wedding rings still securely inside it. We both visibly relaxed and he handed me the box for safe keeping on the rest of our journey. When Beth returned, we headed out to the bar and then spent the next 2 days with great company, trying to deal with the issues of the stolen camera while still being secretly relieved that the most valuable items hadn't been taken.

We were back on the road pretty quickly, stopping for a day to go kayaking in the delta and to dine with a baby monkey before finally arriving at my home in Kaffrine. There we hung out with some of my favorite people, visited my garden, biked to my friend Christi's village, and had an election party into the wee hours of the morning. While this was our longest period of time sleeping in the same place, we were still so busy it flew by so quickly that I couldn't fit everything in. One thing I did make sure to do was give Chris his birthday present, a traditional Senegalese boubou. Beth also got a matching complet as well. From the moment he arrived, he asked about the possibility of getting one made, I ended up having to spill the beans early that I had already done that and that the tailor had it ready and waiting.  Good thing my eyeball measurements fit!

The next leg of our journey started very early. We woke up, biked across town, and were on a makeshift van-bus before 6am. It took us 5 hours to get to Tamba, and after a lunch break, another 4 to get to Kedougou. But we arrived safely and ready to enjoy the crazy adventure that Kedougou always holds. Since the bike situation looked a bit haggard and we were all tired from travel, I arranged for a car to pick us up and the next morning we were on our way to the mountain village of Segou, which is on the road to Guinea and home to a beautiful waterfall. This had been prearranged as the ideal site for Chris to pop the question so I wanted to make sure thing went smoothly. My friends Robert and Cameron joined us for the hike and as we meandered on the long path in and out of the mountain stream I was constantly reminded of how great and yet surreal it felt to have my Peace Corps Senegal life merging with my America world for this period of time. I noticed a lot on this trip how much I have changed and continue to change, hopefully for the better.

But on to the part everyone is waiting for... When we arrived at the waterfall we took a little lunch break of peanut butter and apple sandwiches before Beth decided it was time to go splashing in the water. She and I stripped to our bikinis and ventured into the water a bit. After a bit of this Chris handed me the camera (I had put him in charge of mine ever since his was stolen because I wanted him to continue to capture the memories he had hoped to on this trip), and I went up to my bag to grab the ring box I had been stowing away this whole time. While he and Beth spent time holding each other and being cutesy, I slipped the box into his hand without her noticing. I'm a ninja like that. Then in a pretense of taking more photos of the waterfall and them, I started recording them and it took Beth a bit to notice that I was so close, though she didn't catch on that the video was on. After she tried to get him to go under the waterfall with her and he explained they should wait a little bit, he began to explain why he loved her so much and that he wanted to spend his life with her. Then he got down on his knee and asked her to marry him. She responded, “Of course!” He then told her the story of the ring being his grandmother's. It was such a touching moment and I felt honored to be a part of it. They've already chosen a date too: June 13, 2014. Eight years to the day after they started dating. And they are specifically waiting that long so I can be home for it. I have the best siblings!

We basically rode that high all the way back to Kedougou the next day and through the longest haul of the trip, all the way back across the country in less than 24 hours. We arrived in Dakar at 5 am on Chris's birthday and spent the day on a very relaxed meander around parts of the city. We hit the beach, enjoyed chilling on an island, ate ice cream, jumped on trampolines and finally ate Ethiopian food to polish off the day. Their last day we did very little, which was very ok since we were all pretty exhausted from such a packed trip. It was hard to see them go though. My family is very important to me and if it weren't for the distance from them and some of my dear friends, I think I could make Senegal my home for far longer than the allotted 27 months. As it is, I very much look forward to seeing everyone in a year (give or take a few months).

Well that pretty much covers the biggest highlights of the last month. Though I will give a shout-out to some other memorable moments: Christi's birthday picnic in a baobab grove, convincing my friend who hasn't really ridden a bicycle since high school to bike 20km with me to visit on of my work partners, and finally sharing Thanksgiving with some awesome volunteers and introducing it to my dearest Senegalese friends. Also, we just enjoyed Tamkharit here, the celebration of the Islamic New Year. It also happens to be the month I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer and moved to Kaffrine. I look forward to what awaits for my second year here. It's already shaping up to be quite an experience!