Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo. We’re having a party at the Peace Corps house later to celebrate. I made a batch of regular and mango salsa yesterday, and we have the rump left over from our sheep slaughter that we’ll grill/make fajitas with. But about the sheep slaughter.

Steve decided that he didn’t want to pay for his ram’s upkeep anymore while he was gone, so we should just slaughter it. The butcher came over in the morning, but I didn’t particularly want to start my day with blood and gore, so I just stayed in bed. After the carcass was taken away, I came out and Oumar was grilling the liver over some coals. He offered me some, but I declined. While I was making my salsa, the severed head was lying in the hanger looking at me. Creepy. But then Oumar took that away and grilled THAT over a fire. They all assure me that it’s delicious for breakfast. I have my reservations.

Susan and Rabayah got into town on Sunday evening, so they came over with Ashley in the afternoon yesterday and hung out while I made salsa. We invited them over for our feast later and went about our days.

The sheep arrived, along with all of our friends (Susan, Rabayah, Ashley, Dan, Dave, Phil, and Maia) that evening, and we feasted. It was delicious, as expected, especially the crispy outside parts. They stayed over drinking beers and listening to music until probably 10:30. The funniest part of the night was when this hell creature came tearing through our courtyard from inside of the house. It turned out to be Sami, who’d gotten a black plastic bag stuck on her like a cape, which she was trying desperately to run away from. She ran two or three extremely fast laps before diving into a room and hiding behind a bowl. I had to drag her out and get her unstuck, but she had given herself quite a scare (and us quite a laugh).

I found out for sure that I can get Peace Corps transport down to Bamako. Now I’ll be leaving Douentza on Saturday afternoon to go to Sevare, then we’ll leave Sevare early Sunday morning. I’m totally relieved. Not only do I not have to get on a terrible Malian bus, but I also get to travel with my friends. I got really lucky.

T – 4 days, about.