Thanksgiving!

I had written down in my notebook that I would write a post about Thanksgiving, but I can't remember what I was going to write about. I didn't eat a lot of tasty delicious food, but I did talk to lots of relatives, who all told me how awful I sounded (my sore throat is better now, by the way).


Also, in the evening I had the following amusing conversation with my host family, in a combination of English and Pulaar:

Amadou: Neene is happy because you always eat the food she gives you. Even if it is not sweet, you will eat it.
Me: It's true, even in America I will always eat all foods.
Neene: But you won't eat a cat.
Me: Ah! No, I won't eat a cat.
Neene: Also, you won't eat a dog.
Me: No, I won't eat a dog!
Neene: Me too, I will not eat a cat, I will not eat a dog.
Me: Good...But when I went to China, I ate a frog.
Neene, Amadou, and Bubacarr: A FROG?!
Me: Yes.
Neene: But you did not know it was a frog?
Me: No, I knew.
Amadou: You knew?
Me: Yes, and it was sweet.
Bubacarr: Sweet?
Me: The frog was with a sauce and the sauce was sweet. I did not eat the frog only.
[Sellu, my host dad, joins us. He sits down on the hammock]
Neene: Did you hear? When Binta went to China, she ate a frog!

This post will become even more amusing in the context of another story you will read about later...

What I find most interesting about this converesation is that all the other "bizarre" foods I was so proud of eating in Hong Kong would not have elicited this sort of excitement. If I had mentioned fish head casserole, they would wonder wonder why I mentioned it; obviously the head will be eaten along with the rest of the fish. Ditto for pig brain omelet. Most Gambians wouldn't eat a pig brain omelet, but the pig, not the brains, would be the problem. For Tobaski Julia's family cooked sheep's brain soup...