what we do on the weekend

Saturday night, Dina and I got VIP tickets from Jennifer (our neighbor) to a sit down dinner and live African musical performance. We got dressed up and went with Jennifer, James, and another friend from the embassy. The event was outside and we were seated by a french couple that we have often seen dropping our kids off at La Fontaine. There was a lot of different dishes to try including smoked Capitan fish, cold cuts and salads, fish in tomato sauce, chicken in onions, and beef in a cream sauce, plus many deserts. The musician was from the Cameroon. He had a good voice and played guitar beautifully in African style but his music didn’t move me. It didn’t make you want to get up out of your seat and dance. He had a female vocalist backup singer, a percussionist, and a keyboard player which gave the band an electronic flute sound I found rather distracting. Another musician joined him for one song and they did a raggae number together which was by far the best one of the evening. But we were in good company and the wine was quite palatable!

This is a long weekend due to President’s Day. Last night, our regional security officer and his family invited us out to a Japanese restaurant. I didn’t even know one existed here. Some other friends joined us as well. It has an inner courtyard and tables around a large pagoda, a waterwheel and fountain which currently have no water flowing. The food was surprisingly good but the service was terrible. A courteous and attentive African dressed waitress served us but the dishes came out one at a time (as ordered) as though the chef was cooking them one by one from scratch, including the double orders. We arrived at 7PM and by 9, we still hadn’t gotten our complete meal. The kids were tired and they have school today. It was a rough morning getting them up early. We had a nice evening out in good company but maybe lunch there would be better.