Celebration!

Monday was my birthday. I couldn’t help but wonder what my birthday would have been like if I was home. I’m pretty sure that the way I celebrated here was a little different.
The big plan was to have a party at Binta’s house on Monday night, but I got a call from her that morning that she was sick in bed all day, so the party would have to be postponed. So instead, one of my co-workers, Babanding, took me out to eat fou fou. It is basically a big bowl of white mush. It is made from crushed rice and water and you eat it with some spicy sauce. Fou fou is a dish that is eaten all over West Africa. I have actually eaten before while tutoring the Liberian family I work with in Providence. I was very excited at the prospect of having fou fou in its natural habitat. After work, Babanding and I loaded ourselves and our computer bags onto his motorbike and set out to find the restaurant. The rainy season is in full force here, so riding on the dirt roads through Serrekunda, the biggest city in Gambia, was an adventure. The roads were more like shallow rivers with small islands that we hopped between to get to the restaurant. Dinner was delicious, as was the Gambian beer that we got at a place called “The Hideout,” when he dropped me off.
When I got home Kathryn was waiting for me with a huge cup of strawberry ice cream stuffed with a Chinese banana. (Chinese banana is kind of a misnomer- they are just Gambian bananas but the small ones are called Chinese. These are my favorite because they taste more like bananas than regular bananas.) Kathryn sang happy birthday and lit a candle. I made a wish and felt officially 21.