And the Tacos Parilla are even better!

Friday will be his last day here, so a few of us (me, Spencer, Elisabeth, Jen, Connie, Holly, Victoria, Leslie, Geneve, Kamal, Cliff...and I'm probably forgetting a couple of others) took Dr. E and his wife out to the Banana Cafe (with bright yellow walls and fun, traditional masks) for dinner. Rather a fantastic night. There were pitchers of margarita, but Spencer and I had mojitos, à la Hemingway in Cuba, and I had Chilies Relleno, stuffed with spinach and mushroom. Tasty! Dr. E's wife was there, and Geneve's wife, and there were many amusing foreign service stories flying between the two of them, plus Connie, who was also in, back in the day. "I think I lost my cool" and all that. So it turned out to be a really lovely evening, reminiscing of Nigeria and of all of the fun we've had together, and talking of future trips to climb various mountains in various countries; Kamal (Dr. B) took loads of photos.

On Friday, we're having an all-hands, so we'll have some cakes and so on for the March birthdays and to say good-bye to Dr. E and Mike Jelen, who has done some really brilliant things with our buildings and is currently working with me on the bathroom project. And we'll be getting our Taste of NDU Best-Appetizer and Best-Side-Dish certificates and prizes. And speaking of cakes, and bringing a very short blog entry full-circle back to Dr. Emerson, it was thanks to these cakes that we'll be nibbling on Friday that Dr. E had matches in his office on Monday, which he let me use at 9:00 am to light Pamela's birthday candles. Handy! Since I stopped by the grocery store on the way in to work on Mon to buy candles (which, as it turned out, we already had an overly ample supply of), but we had nothing to light them with, and anyone who smokes:

a. no longer works here,
b. wasn't at work by 9:00 on Mon/took the day off, or
c. decided, the previous night, to quit smoking, and removed all smoking gear (including lighter) from her purse to remove temptation.

So Dr. E saved the day! And we all wish him well, raking and researching.