Party Planning

After over a month of telling Cam I wasn't going to have a party, I've decided to have not one, but two. The first one will be with Cam and Cheryl June 14th at my house for my Terminale students. Originally it was going to be a “Congratulations, you finished the Bac!” party but now the Bac is the week after so it's going to be a good luck party instead. I've already got the menu planned – spaghetti with alfredo sauce, garlic bread, popcorn and fudge. And the ubiquitous bottled Coke products, of course. I have no idea how we are going to manage to make all that food for 50 people given my lack of cooking materials and 2 burner range, but I'm determined to make it happen!! The kids have been really cute about it and everyone says they are coming.

It makes me a little sad that there are so few opportunities to celebrate children and young adults here. Many of my childhood memories involve birthday parties, certificates, report cards (I got $3 for an A and $2 for an A-) and general celebrations – school concerts, dance recitals, etc. Here none of that stuff happens and I especially feel for my girls who are continuing their studies even though most of them have family pressure to abandon them and get married or just help out around the house. I know it's changing, but my Terminale girls really are trailblazers. The percentage of kids who finish high school is something like 10 or 20% and the percentage of girls within that block is only about 15. Anyway, I decided that I really want to have this party to show them that there are people who care about their futures and grades and career aspirations. Plus, I really want to see if they like spaghetti alfredo as much as my host family during training did!

The second party is still in the very early planning stages, but I'm hoping to have it sometime during the last two weeks in July, when Cam's dad is gone and Cam and I are back in Timbi for the last time. I'll just invite my 2 host families, guard, 12th graders, the officials and some random other people. It will be a definite mixing of social classes – from Maimouna, my neighbor from my old house who has barely enough money to survive with her 2 kids to El Hadj Bamakoure, my host father who has been to the US and loves Ohio. I think it will be 50% awkward and 50% fun. I'm going to hire someone to make rice and sauce for that one, I don't think I could handle all that cooking too!