On Saturday, November 28th, I went to Obama Beach. This beach was obviously not always named after Obama but they changed the name after he became president. There is a huge poster of Obama's face and an American flag when you enter the beach.
Christina and I went to the beach to meet up with the hospital translators as a goodbye party. The translators had coordinated it.
Once everyone arrived, they went around and said what was their greatest experience on the ship. They didn't talk about the negative stuff at all which is not like the western way. Then they brought food and shared it with everyone. One of the women had brought African food that she had cooked. It was casava and fish. It was good but spicy.
After a while they started to play football and then a crowd came and others joined in. Spontaneously dancing happened. There was music playing from another party and somehow a dance party occured. The men did most of the dancing!! They love to dance here and they are good. It was a lot of fun.
AFter being all sweaty about half of the translators jumped into the ocean. Christina wanted to jump in so we both jumped in fully clothed and got soaked. It was fun.
We went back to the beach and all the translators sung me happy birthday. It was one of the most memorable moments here. I was standing on a beach and all these Africans who I know and worked with sung me happy birthday - it meant a lot to me. Afterwards they all went around and said what they wished for me for this next year. Most of them were very nice but one of them was funny and said he wished for me an African husband. All of them roared in laughter.
We hung out there for while, danced some more and then went home. It was a great day!
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