Thanksgiving

 I didn't exactly have a traditional Thanksgiving.

My school had a staff wellness day on Wednesday, but the food didn't come on time, so we had the food on Thanksgiving.

So I got a Thanksgiving feast of Setswana food.

My teachers thought it was funny that I wanted my picture taken with my plate of food.

Seswa (pounded beef), coleslaw, beet, potato salad, and rice.

I also got to talk to my dad's entire side of the family on Thursday night, because they had dinner at my mom's house. That made my day/week/month.

After the AIDS walk on Saturday, I went to my friend Luis' village for a more traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of other PCVs. We had a ton of food, including turkey, Jambalaya, veggies, mac'n'cheese, and 2 pies. It was amazing. 

There was also a baby cow on Luis' compound. 

Apparently it's mom died so the family is trying to bottle feed it until it's big enough to stay with the herd. Currently it's about the size of a dog. We named it Mooster. Mooster liked to follow us everywhere, including in the house, which is a problem since he's not house-broken. (I mean, he is a cow.) So we keep hearing/yelling "Cow!! Cow out of the house!!"  Mooster also has a habit of sneaking up behind you and sticking his face between your legs trying to nurse. This makes sense, as that is where vows keep their milk. But for humans it's a little disconcerning and hilarious to watch. 

Mooster

Sunday morning we took a tour of Luis' village, starting with the 1000 year old Baobab tree. 

We also saw some one-two thousand year old rock paintings.

Giraffes!

His village is really pretty.  After the rock paintings most of us headed to Gabs for medical stuff before our training later in the week.

"Wild" life in my yard.

 A few things that wander in and out of my yard.

I've named this donkey and her baby Kanga and Roo.

Roo:  Stop taking my picture!!  Do not want!

Let me tell you, cows on your porch at 3am can scare the @^#$@!! out of you.

Roo.

I'm in your yard eating your grass. 

Sometimes even the donkeys just lay down when its hot.

Oh hai.

I'd categorize some small children as wildlife.  

These kids saw me taking a picture of a goat and HAD to have their picture taken.  

They were trying to look gangster :)

Goat in yard: What can you see?!

Goat on porch: I think I see food!

Goats apparently like watermelon.  

(I gave them some sketchy watermelon I wasn't going to eat.)

Not sure what these guys are, but they are EVERYWHERE.

 Harmless, and they don't move much, but pretty big at 2 inches long.

Mangos and roaches and cows, oh my!

I saw my very first HUGE roach a few minutes ago.  Diana said that when they fumigate the house, it clouds everywhere and roaches will come out to die.  Hopefully most of them will do that out of my eyesight :P

I'm still trying to get my body on Ghana time, but it really wants to wake up at noon and go to bed at 4am (there's a 4 hour time difference here).  This is sort of problematic as people go to bed around 11pm-12am and get up around 7am.  And the roosters get up way earlier.  At least I have these few days of downtime to sort out what time it is :)

Diana and her family live in a large single level house that is walled in, and there are lots of fruit trees in the compound.  I had fresh mango yesterday, and there are also coconut, cinnamon, and orange trees.  The neighbors have bananas, plantains, and tangerines.  It's like living in an orchard :)

Today after Diana's parents came back from Mass, we went to the PramPram beach about an hour from here. We picnicked and played in the sand and let 4-year old Kate splash in the water.  I learned a new card game that seems to be a combination of hearts and something else, playing with Diana's father and her brother Andy.  Also Diana, Andy and I played the spelling game on the way home where you start with a letter and the next person adds a letter, except we could only spell countries.  This might be a new way to get my uncles arguing over geography at Thanksgiving :)

And my first TIA- This is Africa- moment: Driving back from the beach today with the whole family (Diana, Andy, sister Nat, her mom and Dad, neice Kate, and me).  We stopped at a toll at dusk, went under a bridge on a major highway, and Diana goes, COW!  cow cow cow!!! and we swerve to miss several large cows meandering across the road, and then look behind us hoping no one else hit them either.  And everyone in the car starts going, they should NOT be crossing the road there...