My New Friend?

This is the kind of lifestyle where you think twice about making a new friend. First of all, people are so transitory that you never really know who will be sticking around for how long, so that leads you to either be very superficial with your acquaintances or to have just a few.

Last year I had several "friends" many of whom ended up leaving Dakar to go to points beyond. A few friends remain, but for a variety of reasons we don't see eachother much. One has started working, another now has both of her kids in school and is out and about quite a bit, and a third has only one son Gusi's age so she thinks that I can still keep to the older boys' schedule but she forgets that I have to deal with the baby's. Sigh. So, I don't feel like I'm connecting with my friends much. Until (hopefully) now.

I had heard through the grapevine that A had to meet me because we have so much in common. She speaks Spanish (she's from Central America), she has a little boy a few months younger than Gusi who shares the same name (yeah! Gusi 2) and she just had twin girls two weeks before my baby was born. Lots in common. She came here with her job, met a wonderful man, got married and had kids, all in 4 years. Yeah, she's been here longer than most.

So, we're on the same page when it comes to dealing with two year-olds and infants. We're going to try to get together at least once a week and will certainly do a lot of chatting on the phone and text messaging each other. And to impress her I've ducked into my secret stash of frozen cranberries to make a delicious cranberry pecan bread to have with tea tomorrow. The baby will have his first date--with twins! Boy this kids moves fast! I hope to have fun and start a new friendship as it does seem we have lots in common, plus she's not moving in the next year or two so I feel that I can actually invest in getting to know this person. We'll find out.