Thanksgiving

Hope Thanksgiving was good! It really didn’t seem like T-giving because it’s not gray and cold here! We went to the Ambassador’s house and had a great time. He lives behind this incredibly thick cement wall with an incredibly thick metal gate and incredibly thick Chadian guards with guns. When we walked around the corner of the house to get to the door - holy cow - a huge GREEN LAWN with big green trees, flowers, a swimming pool, a volleyball net and a healthy, happy dog named Cinnamon. It was so surreal! It was like, “Where AM I?” It could have so easily been a backyard in St. Louis.

So we trundled into the kitchen to start cooking our contribution to the T-giving potluck feast. The Ambassador is really cool and had offered to let us use his kitchen. Of course it was a severe case of too many cooks in the kitchen and there was a whole lot of holiday bossiness and passive aggressiveness flying around, so I made a swift exit. I spent the morning with the other kitchen refugees draped over a lounge chair next to the pool with a cold coke in my hand. Eventually the other embassy people started to show up. They were nice enough, but, hmm, how to say it…they’re coming from a very different perspective that we are. For instance, the security officer warned us to, “Never trust the locals.” Ha! Uhhhh…huh. The food was GREAT! It was such a spread - turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc. etc. However, I must note the pecan pie’s extreme mediocrity. I took one bite and gave it to Josh. Guess my pie standards are too high. So anyway, I spent the whole day in that same lounge chair revelling in the fact that I was wearing a tank top and jeans (Wow!), completely full, and sitting by a pool. It was a good day.

Josh, Mai and I were bored yesterday and so decided to go explore the Grand Marche (grand market). It was so much fun! It didn’t even seem like the same market we went to during those first days in Chad. It was so incredibly overwhelming that day, but yesterday, we were chatting and bargaining like locals. Okay, not really, we’re still learning how to really haggle, but it was fun. It’s hard for me to keep a straight face and bargain because I want to be friendly and I believe the guy when he tells me that this cheap-o headscarf should cost 5,000 CFA. Gotta work on that. Josh is SO good at it! He fingers all the goods, insults the quality of the good, demands a lower price and then acts like he’s going to walk away. he always gets his price. But rest assured that you are getting the coooooolest christmas presents N’Djamena has to offer.

Speaking of X-Mas presents…hmmmm…what to ask of Santa? I would like more pictures from home. I would like nail polish and things to make me look/smell pretty. It makes such a difference!! It makes me feel put together and western again after a stretch of stinky/greasiness. It’s like taking a hot shower after coming home from camping.