Thanksgiving in Dakar!

Robin Diallo, the Public Affairs Officer at the US Embassy, hosts an annual Thanksgiving party at her villa in Fenetre Mermoz, a nice neighborhood on the other side of the highway and a little further north from where I live.  Apparently she's famous for her Thanksgiving parties, and now I can understand why!  First of all, it's no small feat to pull off a traditional American Thanksgiving feast over here, but besides that, she goes all out and features a little play, holds a hand-turkey contest, streams American football projected onto her wall, and has games to play. 

Having been here now for 3 1/2 weeks, words cannot describe how wonderful it felt to spend a whole afternoon and evening speaking nothing but English, eating things like cranberry sauce and stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, turkey (from Gambia!) with gravy, SALAD, and PIE!!  I had cherry pie and pecan pie.  AND, REAL coffee, not Nestcafe!!!  Whoopee!!


Run was pretty psyched about Thanksgiving, too.


Before dinner there were all sorts of yummy appetizers, and I was surprised to learn that I actually liked eating shrimp.  I NEVER like shrimp, because they always seem too squeaky to me.  But these were tiny and super soft, not a squeak to be heard.  I found myself eating half the plate of shrimp.  Decorum, Melissa! 

While noshing on appetizers, everyone was asked to make a hand-turkey like we all made when we were in elementary school.  Here's mine (a hippie turkey, hanging out with his new friend Run):

Here I am with the super-cool Karima:

And here Run is with his new mates:

Laura, a Fulbrighter studying dance here

Aboon (sp?), daughter of Marie, a Fulbright scholar and professor at CUNY

Paula, the recently hired new head librarian for the Embassy.

Marie and Aboon.

Laura and Carrie, another Fulbrighter who is studying something relating to public health.

Karima and Run go way back.

All of the Fulbrighters.  I still haven't mastered everyone's name / field of study yet but will try to add more of this in later.

After the crafting, Robin recruited some guests to be actors in her Thanksgiving play.  The play made fun of fears about dying from stuffing the inside of a turkey, and recast the traditional holiday narrative with some good old Zinn-style revisionism. 

Here's Robin, narrating.

Some of her recruits.

After dinner, Robin's husband Khalil projected NFL football from his computer onto the wall - the picture was almost as clear as an HD big screen TV.  We saw the New England / Detroit game.  The last time I looked at the score it looked like New England was winning.  The halftime show seemed even more grandiose than I recall them being - eagles and statues of liberties on big screens, pyrotechnics, and American flags everywhere.  This all took on a somewhat surreal feel, watching this from Dakar.

After the non-sports fanatics among us tired of watching the game, some of us started playing a game called "Apples to Apples."  Everyone takes 7 red cards, and the cards all have a random item on them - a famous actor, a random noun, etc.  The green cards are all adjectives.  Whoever is the "judge" for the round picks a green card and reads it out loud to everyone and then puts it on the table.  Everyone then looks through his or her hand and decides which red card most aptly fits the green adjective on the table.  Of course, the idea is that it's all a matter of opinion, and you can "lobby" the judge if you disagree with his/her decision.  Accuracy is not always the best approach - it depends on the judge.  Irony always wins big, as do random, quirky and funny associations.  For "chewy," I didn't have anything particularly accurate, so I chose "morticians."  Got some laughs. 

So, that was my Thanksgiving in a nutshell!  I felt thankful to get to speak some English, to eat American-style food, to have new friends, and in general not to feel quite as far away from home for a little bit... 

Here's hoping all of you had a great holiday too!