Hello from the beach!

I am currently in Sally. We have been at the beach for three nights now and we are leaving tomorrow. I have had a wonderful time here but Christmas was a little lame. It felt weird not being at home with the fam but the day managed to scoot along. We went to the beach for most of the day. This area is somewhat touristy so the beach is kind of annoying because there are so many Senegalese people trying to sell us things. We finally snuck down to a part of the beach where the vendors cant come. It is a private area that is filled with vacationers staying in the resorts here. We managed to sneak into one of the resorts today and swim in the fancy swimming pool. We were surrounded by all white people...it felt weird but good.
For Christmas dinner, we all got dressed up and went out to dinner. We ate at a small restaurant right on the water. The food was good and the people were actually nice. It is VERY hard to find good service in restaurants because the servers dont work for tips. This was the first Christmas that i didnt get one single gift, but it was ok because no one did. A few of the girls got packages that thy saved until Christmas morning to open. I havent received any Christmas packages yet but i know a few are en route...hopefully they will be waiting for me in Sokone when i get back after the holidays!