So here’s wishing you all a very belated Tabaski, the biggest holiday of the year here, which took place last Monday! Apart from the mandatory sheep slaughter (in commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, who in Muslim tradition was Ishmael), the holiday is observed with house visits to friends and family to ask pardon for any sins you might have unknowingly committed against them. CIEE gave us class off Monday and Tuesday, partly so that we could participate fully in the festivities and partly because they knew there was no way teachers would show up otherwise, as the whole week of Tabaski is usually filled with extraordinary amounts of cooking, eating, and visiting!
And so it was that I found myself up at 1 A.M. the night before chopping garlic with Mama Fat Kane in preparation for the big day. The whole household woke up bright and early on Tuesday, and, just as on Korité, the women cleaned and cooked while the men prayed at the mosque. One of my older brothers and his family had travelled from St. Louis to celebrate with us, and so for much of the day I was on baby duty, a job I most thoroughly enjoyed, especially compared to the alternative of sheep duty. As soon as the men return, we all gathered for the big show: to see my brothers kill all three of our moutons! By the third go-around, I decided Baby Aida (and I) had seen about enough, so I walked her around our terrace—only to see 6 additional sheep being slaughtered by our surrounding neighbors! Funnily enough, it was then that the thought hit me as I looked out over the city (past all the slain sheep, of course) just how much I love this place and how much it feels like home to me now. Once my brothers finished up, I really got into the Tabaski spirit as Mama Fat Kane had me help rip the fat off the very fresh meat before grilling it out in our courtyard. Though it was a little off-putting to find dried sheep blood on my hands and skirt later, our huge Tabaski lunch was nevertheless delicious! Following one giant communal nap, my brothers, nieces, and I drove all over the city that night to ask pardon from our distant relatives. As much as I enjoyed getting to see so many different neighborhoods of Dakar, perhaps my favorite part of the night was hearing Max introduce me to everyone as his “rakk bu jigeen,” that is, his little sister!
Post-Tabaski, everything has been pretty calm…especially with exponentially fewer sheep lining the streets! As a follow-up to the holiday, this past Saturday my family and I took a quick day trip up to Thies, a city just north of Dakar, to visit a relative who did not get a chance to stop by on Monday. There, we got a full two and a half hour tour of the family’s beautiful house—entirely furnished with things acquired from frequent trips to China, go figure! By the end of the day, after much eating, talking, and eating again, Papy Jo jokingly confided, “This is where I want to come to recover after you leave me!” Whether he meant recover from the sadness of me leaving or from his Amy Diallo-induced exhaustion, I’m not sure, though there might be a bit of truth in each! Either way, by the time we made it back to Dakar just before midnight, we were all pretty happy to be home!
In denial of the fact that this week we would actually have as many days of class as we had off, yesterday my friends and I took a mini-vacation to Ile de Madeleine (an uninhabited island located a half-hour’s pirogue ride from Dakar), where we passed a peaceful Sunday hiking, swimming, and climbing dwarf baobabs. After a day in a pristine, remote little ile, we reluctantly dragged ourselves back to the hubbub and homework of the real world…not for long, however, as this weekend the whole program is off to the desert and St. Louis!
Until next time,
Janelle
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