Living for the Weekend

So far the weekend has been far better than I could have expected. On Fridays the entire country gets off early for Friday prayers. While Muslims pray 5 times a day, Friday is their holy day like Sunday is Christian's day to go to a service. At the UN we get off at 1:00 or 1:30, I'm not exactly positive. You can hear loud horns and chanting through a speaker to call people to prayers. Everyone, even some Westerners dress in the most gorgeous African clothes. The rest of the week most people dress in Western clothes, so it was neat to see everyone so dressed up!

A colleague asked if I wanted to stick around after works for drinks. Most people here don't drink due to religious reasons. However, my colleague is European so I assumed he meant beer. Nope! He meant a Coke and some ice cream! How much fun! There is a "bar" which is a restraunt across the street from work, on the beach. They have a tree house where you can watch the crocodiles in the pond~luckily they only eat fish! When we finished our treats Darko, my colleague, took me home on his motorbike because I was running late for a Skype date with Alex.

Later I was going back to the beach that is only a block away and ran into some children playing outside. Instead of bringing practical things like business clothes, I brought bubbles and soccer balls. Luckily I just happened to have a bottle of bubbles with me, so we played with them until the whole bottle was gone! I talked to the children's father who sells cars from the United States. He had a Lincoln Navigator with a Washington state tag! He only gets one car at a time so its important that he sells it. Hes hoping to get one million dalisi (the local currency, $1=27D) which isn't too shabby!

Later I met some American students from Pennsylvania on the beach and they invidted me to go to a club that evening. It was a challenge to stay awake until 10:00 but I made it! (I'm starting to act SO old!!!) The club was an interesting experience. It had a pool table, couches, small tables and a large dance floor. There is a large group here from Pennsylavania and they were out in force. The club blared music so it was difficult to talk, but the power never stays on too long so we got to mingle quite a bit. The only problem is that you would be in the middle of a conversation and suddenly the music would be blaring again. I left, exhausted, at 12:30 and supposedly the Gambians didn't start coming in until about 1:30!

Today I went with my neighbor on a walk for about 3 miles down the beach to a national park called Monkey Park. There were the cutest monkeys everywhere! They are used to humans so they would come right up to us and just stare at us, presumably wanting food. We met up with some girls that I met last night and had lunch with them. I meant to go home and give my apartment a good cleaning, but to my suprise I have a maid! She came to clean up so I got to come work on my blog! In a little bit I'm going to a national soccer game and then to a game night that all the workers from other countries (expats) go to.

My one regreat that I've had so far is not bringing a friend with me. I think I would have so much more fun, be far less homesick, and be much more adventurous if I had a buddy to do things with. I'm so happy to have people to hang out with this weekend and hope that I continue to meet wonderful people!