Ushering in 2007

Well i really didn't want to write this email. sometimes the thought of it is overbearing and i feel like i have nothing to talk about. well i haven't really done much of anything lately. which is true, but since i last wrote an email i have done many things... it is just that time has passed and I've moved on. so lets try something, a blitz of the many things i have done since Christmas.
I spent Christmas on the beach in a beautiful hotel located on some cliffs with about 15 or so other volunteers. We ate yassa poulet for Christmas eve dinner, a delicious traditional Senegalese treat, and sang Christmas caroles around a campfire on the beach with some curious Senegalese onlookers trying to join in on our fun not really understanding but following the tunes and chiming in when they felt it appropriate. i was much amused. they too enjoyed themselves.
a few days later was the biggest holiday of the year, tabaski, which commemorates when Abraham took Issac to the mountain and was going to sacrifice him at Gods command but than didn't, slaughtered a goat instead. remember that story from the bible? well it is huge in Senegal. but like all Senegalese holidays it was a bit anticlimactic. in the morning we put on our best new clothes, the men and i went out into a field, faced east, and began an hour long prayer session. i was asked, and i did, participate in the prayer session with the men which included the traditional prayer routine that they do 5 times a day. After that, the men all came to our compound where my father, the spiritual leader and chief of the village, slaughtered the first goat. each man than went back to his own house and slaughtered a goat. I spent the next 6 hours shuffling from compound to compound eating fried potatoes and ribs first, and than later the main course; a concoction of macaroni noodles, fried potatoes, goat, peas, and enough grease to stop the heart of a 2ton elephant, and bread for dipping. it was amazing. i stuffed myself until i nearly passed out. that day happened to be new years eve so my NYE festivities concluded with me taking two pebto bismol tablets and in bed and asleep by 10:30. and in came 2007.
The next three days were filled with me sitting around trying to talk with all the family that came to the village for the holidays who live primarily in the big cities of Senegal. we played soccer, drank tea, and slept. at night our village put on a huge wrestling tournament that brought in villagers from many miles away to watch big beautiful men wrestle in essentially what is tighty-whiteys, briefs. underwear. it was festive. there was a generator to supply lights and a sound system, a drum troupe came in to supply the beats of the night, and two women sang a repeated monotonous and very tiring chorus for three straight nights, 8 hours a night. the highlight is most definitely the wrestlers dancing around prepping themselves for the upcoming battle. generally they prep for 45minutes, dancing around strutting their bodies across the middle of the complex, going through premeditated pre-game rituals... all for a a match that takes anywhere from 20seconds to 10minutes. for the most part there were three to four matches going on simultaneously.
well i don't want to be too long winded. some other highlights of2007 as of now: i woke up in the night to a cockroach crawling around the inside of my mosquito net freaking me out. i also almost killed a chicken. so this is humorous. i was walking into my garden where i noticed a chicken chillin out underneath the shade of my fence. if i had been in a better mood it wouldn't have bothered me, but because the chickens have previously eaten many of my seeds, i decided to shoo him away. so i picked up a chunk of dirt and hurled it at the chicken hoping to frighten him and send him off on his way. miraculously... from 20yards away... i hit the chicken square on the side of the head, shattering the clump of dirt into millions of pieces. the chicken promptly made some noises and than closed his eyes and fell lifelessly to the ground. i thought i killed him. i walked over with a terrible feeling of regret and remorse wondering what i do now. my thoughts raced from who do i tell, who's chicken did i just kill, will they be mad at me, do we now get to eat the chicken (a rare, rare delicacy i would have enjoyed immensely). i decided i would walk away, not say anything, and come back in 5minutes pretending to find a dead chicken in my garden and offer to cook it. sounded brilliant. well i returned 5minutes later, poked him with a stake, and much to my surprise, and slight disappointment because now i had been savoring the thought of chicken, he awoke, stumbled around drunkenly, and wandered off out of my garden. the lost chicken. so close.
anyways that's all. I'm just going to end like that because well, i can.
brad