America is awesome. They put bacon in the lima beans and school colors on the Confederate flag.
But no really, it’s awesome. Yesterday I went to Albertson’s and bought every processed cheese, cocoa butter, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil product that I had been craving in Senegal—Mac N Cheese, Oreos, chocolate frosting—and today I packed everything up and sent it off to Tamba. (Hopefully you’ll get it by Christmas, guys.) The all-American junk food cravings have fizzled since I’ve been back, but I haven’t forgotten the joy of arriving in Tamba from the village, dumping a packet of neon-orange powder on top of pasta, mixing it into a glorious gooey mess, and eating it straight out of the pot.