The Beach and Fritz

First, to answer Dan's questions: I rode my Peace Corps-issued mountain bike. Not all of the gears really work, but it does the job fine. And to be fair, it was 25 miles each way, so 50 total, not 44.

Also, a lot of people seem to want pics. I just found this internet cafe that has comps with usb ports (no Tom Friedman, the world is not flat) so hopefully I'll be able to get some up soon.

Ok, so this weekendall of the people I'm training with went to the beach. For 15 dollars each, I rented a huge 5-bedroom house directly on the beach, had round trip transportation from the training center, and bought enough food to make a spagetti dinner, and to have coffee, tea and bread in the morning, plus snacks. Not a bad deal.

So we took off Sturday right after our morning classes and piled into an "alhum" which is a minibus type of thing that they cram 35 people into and a sept place, which is a station wagon that they put 7 people plus driver into. All luggage obviously goes on the roof. And often the assistant of the alhum driver hangs off the back.

We had a great day of swimming in the atlantic, which is a perfect temp here, and thena fun dinner and a night full of dancing and more swimming. People crammed into beds, slept on couches, and one group even through a couple mattresses on the beach and slept out there.

Sunday was followed by more swimming and small groups making their way to local restaurants for lunch. The local vendors heard we were there and so stoppe by the house with fresh fruit and fatayas, which are little pastrythings stuffed with a little fish and stopped with some sauteed onions. Delicious.

At 5:00 we all had to pack up and go home, although I'm sure i'll make it back there at some point. It was a nice little slice of heaven.

My best friend of the trip was Fritz. Sitting on the beach on saturday a stray dog approached the group I was with. He was light brown and had scars all over his body from countless fights. I obviously started to pet him and he became the trip mascott (although some people refused to touch him). I named him Fritz and he sat down behind me. A couple minutes later I started singing whatever song was in my head and Fritz started singing along with a great howl. I was in love.

He followed us back up to the house and hungout onthe balcony all night, and then he slept ne"xt to the group on the beach and growled and barked at any stranger that walked by. Then on Sunday he followed us all the way to the restaurant and sat under the table while we ate, thenfollowed us back to the house to hang out until we left. He came running every time i whistled. I sadly had to leave him behind, but he will be missed. Good ol' Fritz.


Joxonke lesson of the day: The word for "bike" - nege suwo - directly translated, is "metal horse."

Love you all, and love your comments, don't be shy,

Love Bouba