Holidays

So I just looked at my last couple of posts and i feel like I have come a long way since then.  For starters- the last language lesson: "until later" is actually Fo nyatto.  I am a lot better at the language now.  Not to say that I am good, but I can respond to some questions and overall feel pretty good about how I am doing in Mandinka so far.  I am starting on my second language now.  As soon as I get back to my site I am going to start learning Jolla.
The last few weeks have been good. I figure I'll do an update on the holidays.  On Christmas Eve, our group of trainees went on a hike.  It was called the Death March up until this year when it was decided to call it a nicer name like Marathon March. It was supposed to be a 26 kilometer walk to the river and back to our hotel.  Our guide got a bit lost and it ended up being an 11 hour trek through the bush.  We didn't ever get to the river, but we did eventually get back to our hotel.  The hike ended up much closer to being a marathon than planned. No one knows how far we walked but it can only be assumed that in 10.5 hours of solid walking we probably did walk 20-something miles.  It was a long day but it was a great team-building activity and a lot of excersise.
On Christmas, we got the day off.  I went on a boat ride on the river in the morning.  We got to see the sun rise on the river.  Afterwards, I went to a mission church for their Christmas service.  It was in part Mandinka and part English.  It was cool doing church in a different language.
Betweeen Christmas and New Years I went to visit my permanent site, which I'll post about in anothger post on another day.
For New Years eve, we traveled in to the city (Kombo) on our own as practice for using public transportation.  I had to take a 2-3 hour gelly (modified old van with benches in it that fit as many people as possible in) ride.  Then I transferred to another gelly for a maybe 30 minute ride where I transferred to a car for a few minute ride to the house where we're staying in.  It was really not all that difficult and I met a few Gambians along the way that helped me out getting where I needed to go.  Without their help I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to get here, but I'm sure I would have been a lot more stressed when I got here.  After getting to Kombo, I walked to the house, sat my stuff down and headed out for lunch.  I had a hamburger and french fries.  It was DELICIOUS!  It is amazing how much my pickiness with food has cleared up in the last couple of months.  I have eaten so many things with katsup on them in the last few days no one would believe it and I eat onions now.  Not raw ones but I hardly even pick around cooked ones anymore!  Like that delicious hamburger I mentioned earlier came with onions and katsup on it.  You don't really special order things here so you take what you get and I must say I was more than happy with what came to me. 
For New Years night we trainees were not allowed to leave our house, so we had a party here complete with a ball drop.  Some of our group wrapped a soccer ball in tinsel and carryout containers and lowered it from the balcony for our countdown.  It was really festive!
We had New Years day off to do whatever we wanted.  I lazed around the house for a while and went to the beach in the afternoon. 
Since then we've been having training classes.  I had my last Mandinka language evaluation today.  My score will determine whether I can become a volunteer or whether I have to take a few more classes before I get sworn in.  I think I did ok.  We'll see in a few days after they review our test tapes, but I'm thinking I'll be a volunteer by the end of next week!