Fatoto

So I've begun settling into my life in Fatoto. School has not started yet... they told me it would start on the 11th at first, but I went to the school to meet the vice principal the other day, and he seems to think it has been pushed back a week... He's not sure though. He's also not sure when I need to show up to work, or when any of the other teachers are going to be there. So I guess I'll just have to check back again soon. I have a feeling this isn't the first time, I'll have to be patient with the Gambian school system.
In the meantime, I've been spending most of my time with my family. They are very kind. I've been learning how to cook Gambian-style... it has been fun. I was right before I came when I told everyone that I would be eating a lot of rice and peanuts. It's true... and lucky for me, I love both things. Some of my family and their friends have started calling me Maimuna Dege, because Dege is the word for peanut butter... and I put peanut butter on everything. You know the kind of peanut butter you pay more for in the states because it's organic? Well, it's really, really cheap here. I also cooked dinner for my family a few nights ago... an American dinner of spagetti and garlic bread. It took some creativity on my part because of lack of resources. But I had bought spagetti noodles and canned tomatoes in Kombo, as well as spices and olive oil, so I was able to use these. Bread and fresh onions are usually easy to find. I even found a few cloves of fresh garlic for the garlic bread! I have a double gas burner that is pretty much like the camp stoves I used to cook on in America, but it worked just fine for cooking my American dinner. My family loved it! They kept saying "Maimuna, Herande na weli!" Which means dinner is good! I was wondering if they really did enjoy it, or if they were just being nice, but everytime a visitor comes to our compound now, someone in the family brags about the American dinner they ate the other night. Now half of the village wants me to call for them the next time I cook.

I have made a short trip to Basse, and stopped into this internet cafe to send my update... unfortunately, the internet is so slow, it's taken me 40 minutes to get this far, and I've only paid for 45 minutes... So I don't think I'll be able to upload any pictures now. I took some of my family and my hut... so eventually, I'll figure out how to get them online. So that's all for now...