Photo Update!

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on!  So, to start out, here are some photos I've been meaning to put up:

This first batch is from my second Thanksgiving party - the one hosted by Fulbright-alumn-archaeologist Cameron at his apartment. 



This is Kate, the other Fulbright-Hays person.  She got up at 8am to start cooking!  She made little mini-chickens or quails or something, plus brownies and a pie, plus mashed potatoes and gravy!

Here's my $22 artichoke dip.  It ain't pretty, but it sure was good...

Kate's brownie and pie!

Thanksgiving meal #2.  Yay mashed potatoes!!  (Cameron made the winter squash and the carrots).

Next, my room updated with some holiday cheer:

From Geoff and Kia - a hand-decorated Christmas stocking and a homemade Yid Vicious Christmas tree garland - in between the snowflakes are drawings of each of bando!

More from Kia and Geoff:  an instant-o-tree, some plastic sushi, some Jesus bandaids, a crow candle (for all the power outages), and some origami paper which I fiddled with.

A random photo - I was walking back from where one of the conferences:

Damien's farewell party, thrown by Bambi and Milim:

Yves, the owner of l'Endroit (the internet cafe and Milim's regular club) and Jeneer (a new club which will also feature Milim)

Damien, Milim's saxophonist - he flew back to San Francisco later that night.  It's unsure when he'll be back - he's lived in Dakar a year and feels it's time to move back home.  We're all going to miss him a lot here!

Damien unwrapping a present from the band.

Me with Modou, one of Damien's saxophone students and a friend of mine.

Abdou, Milim's amazing bassist.

Chef Bambi!

Abdou with Joel, Milim's drummer.  Joel's from Martinique but has lived in Dakar for 12 years.

Damien and Jeannot, the band's super-star guitarist (along with Abdou, he plays w/ Youssou N'Dour's sister and is on tour with her right now in Europe)

Damien and a friend of his, Tanya.  She's American and has been living here for about a year with her family.  She works for some company / organization that has to do with public works projects - building roads, etc.

Bago, Joel's cousin and fellow drummer.  He lives in Paris so is only a part-time member of Milim.