I realized that if I don’t put some content between my “Cooking with Mbosse” recipe posts, then I run the risk of becoming a weird African Food Blog. Which isn’t bad, but I don’t think that’s what you all are interested in.

If you’re even there. Hello?

Anyways, I realized that I haven’t blogged much at all about what I’m up to these days… and it’s hard to come up with ideas. Now that I don’t live in a village there is less crazy random, “OMG MONKEYS!” kind of stuff and more, “went to work. then I came home and watched parks and rec for 3 hours.”

So, I had an idea. I often put snippets of my life up on facebook. Small anecdotes I think others will find amusing, but without any real context (facebook is not for context). I’ve decided to take some of those snippets and give them context. Hopefully it wont bore you!

Facebook Status: “Surprisingly, being told, ‘here’s a course. Teach whatever you want’ isn’t as awesome as it sounds.”

I’m teaching at the University again this semester, and a day before classes were scheduled to start; I still had no idea what to teach for two of my three courses (the third, I only knew what to teach because I created the course outline last semester). At 6 pm that Sunday, I finally received a textbook to use for one, and ideas for the other, but still no class times schedule. I should up at a healthy time that Monday, found out there were no classes, but there was at least, a schedule. Awesome.

Things have been going fine since, but it’s difficult to know what the students will know. I’ll plan a lecture as conservatively as I can imagine, and then even then I’ll find out something I assumed they knew, is unheard of. My entire lesson plan comes off the rails, and mid-lecture, I find myself just “winging it” :/

Facebook Status: Also, in response to all those, “SNOW!” comments, I’d like to let you know that here, in our ‘cold season’, the weather dropped down to a dangerously cold 95F today. Woooh. Time to break out the sweaters!

It’s “cold season” here, which means no sweating! I used a thin, airport blanket for two nights, but then it warmed back up again. To be fair, 95F was that day’s high temperature, 67 was the low. This is the “Cold Season” folks. Not looking forward to the “Hot Season.”

Facebook Status: Since I’ve lived in Brikama, I’ve killed 5 mice and a rat, which today I found squashed under my fridge with maggots coming out of his stomach. I’ve done all of this without a scream, a squeal, jumping or retching. When I’m back in the states, I never want to cope again, if I see a mouse I’m going to scream and jump on a chair, and someone else gets to deal with it. I’ve earned it.

They love living in my kitchen. I don’t think this one needs much more context, but the tally is up to 7 mice.

Facebook Status: NYE: A white-trash murder mystery, followed by fireworks on the beach!

This is what we did for New Years Eve, and it was a lot of fun! However, while people were lighting off fireworks willy-nilly, we watched as a hotel’s roof burned. It was scary!

Facebook Comment, (to my friend, Lucy): You’d be proud of me! After a belt loop from a pair of jeans broke, I repaired it with: a piece of a pillowcase, wood glue, needle, thread and a hammer. Also, with duct-tape on my fingers as thimbles.

Understatement of the century: the sun is killer on clothes. I have a hole in, or have darned a hole in, every piece of clothing I have. My jeans from America are barely holding together (now darned twice), and almost everything else I own will be left here. Leaving my clothes and possessions here in Africa has always been the plan, I’d prefer not to have to replace ALL of my jeans. Things are expensive!

 

Little Cute Story:

I’ve talked about “Fukajai” or the second-hand clothing piles they have here, right? So back in Sept ‘10, I hadn’t brought any jeans to country and desperately wanted a pair. So off to the biggest Fukajai piles we could find, and I went to the jeans section. I found a pair of long looking jeans, and asked the man to find me a place to try them on. I was stuffed into a dirty closet of some sort, with a window for the top half of the door, but it didn’t matter and I tried on the jeans. They were OK, but not great. A quiet little knock, and a pair of jeans are shoved over the door. I try these jeans on, and they are incredible. They fit like they were sewn for me, my own pair of magical jeans (you know, like “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants**”). Anyway, I’ve finally googled the brand, and the brand is a German company, and they come normally in my size. And it’s not like a freak/tall person site, but a normal person site. Inspires me to embrace/accept my German roots and travel to Germany to buy up all their jeans. If they weren’t 60 Euro! Anyways, to that little Gambian man, who took one look and me and found me the best pair of jeans ever, thank you.

P.S. The jeans cost $9 in fukajai, but they are so old, already sewn together in a few places, that every time I wear them I worry I’m going to have a “wardrobe malfunction.” I don’t think they’ll come back to ‘merica.

**If you think of “pants” in the British meaning of the word, this book has a whole different, less PG meaning. Hehehehe.

A photo present, for reading all of these words. We were celebrating Kim’s (on my left) 28th Birthday at the nicest restaurant in The Gambia. It was so expensive, most of us refused to pay $4 for a bowl of rice to go with our Indian sauces, so we just did without. I think the owner hated us!