Surprise(s)!

This has been a week of surprises, and all good ones.


Mandee's visit itself was planned, but it was full of little adventures. I'll let her tell you about them in her upcoming special guest blog post, but I'm so amazed at one of them that I've got to just preview it.


I made plans with my friends Elise, Maman Jumeaux and Raphael to hang out the day before Mandee left. They're some of my favorite people here, and since they moved out of town I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. Mandee needed to meet them, particularly since our last few hangout sessions have involved delicious food and plenty of sodabi. Maman Jumeaux suggested that I wear this one tissu we have in common, and that sounded fun, so we agreed to arrive together.


We got there right before lunch and saw the buvette decorated, with a fancy tablecloth and real china (where did they get china??). My three friends walked in, all in the tissu I was wearing, which was a surprise and adorable.


Then Elise's mom walks in in the same tissu. And her dad...and sisters...and cousins...and Maman Jumeaux's my-age daughter... There were like 12 people, and M and I suddenly realized that they were throwing us a surprise party. They'd even bought tissu and gotten it sewn for Mandee. My people here...I'm so blown away by their thoughtfulness and generosity.


That was Surprise 1. Surprise 2 was littler: I made a deal with several of the neighborhood kids that if they could raise their overall grades by 1.5 points (a significant amount), I'd buy them a book. I finished grades and thought none of them must have made it since no one came to see me, but a few nights ago, Martial showed up. Martial lives a house over and is so sweet, hardworking and respectful... I'm taking him to boys' camp, so more on him later. Anyway, he showed up and shyly told me that he'd raised his grades by almost two whole points. I'm so proud of him, I'm grinning as I write this. He asked for an English-French dictionary, which I'll buy next week.


Surprise 3 (so many!): We had our year-end school meeting on Thursday, and after 2.5 hours of presenting and discussing grades, they mentioned my name and the fact that I was leaving. Then they started talking really fast in Gun (I caught a few words -- 1000 francs, party, gift, and eat) and everyone was smiling and giggling at my slightly lost expression. Whatever it is is happening August 18th at the school, and everyone's excited. I'm excited and still lost.


Right after that, my homologue Epiphane ran up, grabbed my hand and dragged me outside to where all of the other English professors were standing. They made little speeches about how they didn't want me to go home, but that if I was going to leave, they wanted to make sure I didn't forget them. We took a bajillion photos with the wrapped packages (they'd hired a photographer), then Epiphane brought me home. I just opened them, and I'm kind of blown over by the things they bought -- they're really nice. A traditional carved wooden statue of an African woman with a baby on her back, and this gorgeous outfit: the fancy embroidered white cloth as a top, and a hand-woven white, purple and silver skirt. Beautiful. How do I know such sweet, giving people? How did I get this life?


In conclusion, I am the luckiest person you know. The end.