Tabaski

Hey you guys,

I want to warn you that these are going to be semi-gory pictures. So watch out, Tabaski images are not for the faint of heart! The rest of the pictures are great though, so skip quickly and look at the rest!

Two weeks ago was Tabaski (celebrated as Eid in most of the Muslim world). This is a holiday (I'm not quite sure for what) that people get together to kill and eat sheep. When us Americans got together to discuss it we decided it would probably be the best of Thanksgiving (the incredible amount of food that must be eaten) and Christmas (the sheep are the Christmas trees). It seemed to fit those two pretty well and there was a lot of family and friends over so it really got the holiday spirit going. Of course, the Christmas carols were replaced with recordings of people singing the Koran (which is not the same at all and just makes me miss the Christmas carols more - thanks mom for making me think that Christmas carols should have started up well over a month ago!)

A few days before Tabaski, we got one huge sheep (big sheep go for about 300 dollars). The sheep lived on the patio right outside my window so I heard the sheep burp (yes, burp) all night for just under a week. The Monday before Tabaski we got one more sheep. I then asked how many sheep we were getting and I was told we were getting seven sheep. I know you are all thinking, 'seven sheep?! What do you do with seven sheep?' don't worry, I still don't know what we did with seven sheep! Anyways, Tuesday at around midnight the other five sheep showed up and everyone told me which sheep was there sheep (and reminded me that I was not Muslim so I could not have a sheep).

The morning of Tabaski, the rest of the family went to the Mosque and did their morning prayers, after their second round of prayers ended (at about 10am) it was time to start the celebrations! The sheep came out one by one to the front patio where my host dad (the Imam) got a new set of knives (they have been more knife vendors in the past couple weeks than I have ever seen in my life!) and sliced the necks of the sheep. Baba was in charge of bringing the next sheep through the house and into the patio area. The first few sheep didn't seem to know what was going on but, sadly, the last few sheep were freaked out and knew what was coming. Most people said that at their family's houses the sheep died very quickly, at my house that wasn't the case and they were kicking and trying to breath for about 15 minutes each. I guess that is the problem with trying to rush through killing seven in a row. It got pretty messy.

After that, the dead sheep were moved back into the back patio (which luckily the maids were in charge of cleaning the floor so that there was no more goat poop every where!). We then had two men that we hired and cut up the sheep. The blew air into the legs, pulled of the skin, and then with great order cut the meat. My host mom and her mom were deciding how big each piece should be and if it should be given out to the poor and extended family or if it was for us to keep. We then barbecued the heart and liver and at those with some mustard (not my favorite part of the day).

I then met up with some of the other students in the program that I've in my neighborhood and took some pictures in our new outfits. On that the back story to my outfit is that my host mom (who I don't quite get along with) gave me the outfit the night before to wear. I still have not figured out yet if she made it or just got it made. The material is silky and the colors of Thanksgiving. Just throwing it out there but I thought that it was over the top (and I think nothing is over the top). The pan (skirt) went down to my ankles if it was above my chest and the dress had medieval sleeves which just made me look too cool for school. 

The rest of the day can be summed up with eating a lot of meat. I made a fruit salad and I had a big glass of unpasteurized, just out of the cow milk. Let's just say that much sheep and milk my stomach (two weeks later) has not come back to normal.

Thanksgiving (this part will be short) was great. I played with Serigne's kids - who I had not seen for a long time - and ate lots of good food. They had imported turkey, corn bread (that tasted more like cake), mashed potatoes and gravy, and plantains (just to remind us that we were still in Tanzania). The funniest part of the night though was the music that was being played. We got into the compound and we could already hear the pounding amps. We listened to so much American rap music that none of us knew what to do. When I am eating turkey and listening to the song 'Birthday Sex' there is a problem with Thanksgiving! All in all, a great time, though, missed all the family and the Segelhorsts.

This past weekend the whole class went on a huge trip up north. We left Friday and arrived late Friday to a desert! It was gorgeous and the first time I've seen one. We played around in the sand for hours and had a great time. A delicious dinner of fried chicken, cous-cous and veggies followed. The night ended with a huge bonfire and dancing around it. We slept in tents and continued our trip to the next spot at 6am.

Just over six hours later we ended up at a bird park. We put all 50 of us on a motor boat and went out birding. We saw some wonderful pelicans but other than that there was not a lot to see, since it was 1pm and nothing wants to be out then! It was a beautiful area and had a great time.

Another four hours later we arrive into the most beautiful town I've seen here. Saint Louis. It is gorgeous, the people are nice, the food was great! We walked around and discovered all the colorful pirogues, all the parties to celebrate some women that are going and coming back from Mecca. It was a great time. We had a good night out on the town (in short, a few of my friends went swimming in this not quite clean river). We then learned about the history of the area which is very colonial and makes any Caucasian feel very guilty about that.

After a long long drive home, I got home. School is starting to wind up with school work. There are now a lot of tests, papers, and exams coming up! Means I'm going to be back with you guys in less than three weeks!

All the best and miss you all,

Katie

Rural Visits and a Side of Pictures

Hey you guys!

So here are a bunch of update pictures of family!

Bebe Cher and Baba (my favorite two family members)

Baba and Me

 

My public health trip to Niakhar was a lot of fun. Though, it started off poorly with five hours of traffic on the way down, but once we got there I had my first meal without bones in my meat! Thank goodness for that! While we were having dinner we learned about a special kind of bug found in the region that when it pees on a human cause’s acid burn and, if swallowed, will burn your insides and cause kidney failure. So, in short, not the bug you want hanging around you for long periods of time. Shockingly, this bug is everywhere, flies crazily, and scared the hell out of me and all the other kids in the group! I have never loved having a mosquito net more than I did those two nights!

The next day, we were put into groups of four (I was with Elisabeth, Brit, and Jessica) and we went off to do our interviews in the local village. The interviews were to get information about the rate of malaria and the knowledge about the issue with children under the age of ten. It ended up being very interesting. The families were very nice and the kids were hilarious. At the second house we sat around, chatted, and had just roasted peanuts. The crazy part was while we were at this house her son comes back with a seven foot boa that he is hanging from his arm. He dropped it to the floor and it was only then that we realized that it had been killed. As he told us, it was taking a good look at the sheep (and seeing that it is so close to Tabaski) that is unacceptable and needed to be killed. 

The Big, Dead, Boa

At the fourth house, the kids were very dynamic and the girls taught us some dances and then the boys creamed us in soccer! We then thought it would be a good idea to teach them how to do thumb wars but all that happened was that our hands were covered in scratches and arms bruised because they didn't want to lose. That happens though. Luckily, it was all in all a wonderful time and we really bonded as a class. We also got to learn how funny our professor is, all he wanted to do was diss the physical irregularities of his friends and coworkers (this one is too skinny, this one is very fat) and learned a lot more about his bumb leg. 

Learning a Cool New Dance

As soon as I got back to Dakar I showered and sprinted off to, in my humble opinion, the best hotel in Senegal to meet up with Denyse! I had two of the best dinners of my life, had wonderful conversations about life here and got caught up with the world. We also went off to do a city tour, a little bit of shopping and went to Goree Island (all of which was much better with Denyse and with just a smaller group!). I ended up taking a shower in her hotel room and it was only then that I realized that I was taking my first hot shower and having water run from a place above my head since I have gotten here! It was tough leaving Denyse and the life of happiness but will be back in a month and a half. 

 

My time in Sandiara was incredible! I took a septplace down to Mbour (a pretty large city down south) and then had to wait for a few hours for the Canadian, Joell, to pick me up for a ride down to the village. When we got there he pulled a bed off the roof of the car and that was my bed for the trip - pretty nice! I was given his GPS and I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out the GPS. I wish that he would trust the Senegalese enough to teach Gabby (who is just over 20 and is the local in charge) how to use it.

The Reservoir at the Beersheba Project

Before I continue with these stories, I'm going to try to explain the living situation. I was staying in a house that was being constructed - therefore the floors were covered in bits of cement and rocks and the bathroom had no door! I was the only person in the semi constructed house but in the same complex there is the semi constructed office building which was where Gabby, Nicholas (about 20 and is in charge of some bible study groups in the area), and Khadija (about 15, is Nicholas' wife, and though they kept telling me she is still a student she spent every waking moment keeping the compound clean and cooking for the herds of people that show up for lunch and dinner).

My Room

My days consisted of me going, by horse wagon, 7 km every morning to the project I was working at. On this ride both ways Gabby would beat the starved horse so much the horse would start tripping but he seemed to think it was alright as long as he accompanied it with very evangelical songs. The songs had to involve the words 'blood of Christ', 'for my sins', and other very strong phrasing that made me miss the singing that everyone from Bebe Cher to most peoples' host parents of 'Rude Boy' (if you don't know this song, look up the lyrics and you will be traumatized).

My part of the work was to survey the area and attempt to make a map that documented where all the trees in the project are and the other parts of the project. Once we were there we would go through the high grasses for a few hours where I would get about an average of 15 ticks a day - luckily most of them would just stay on my clothes but once there was one on my eyelashes, so I did the craziest dance anyone has ever seen, trying to get thing away from my eyes! Gabby usually forgot I was behind him and so Acacia branches would come flying right into my face (only once did he notice that he did that so he apologized and went back to doing it!). It was a beautiful and wonderful ways of spending the mornings. After that, we would go back to the village and eat usually two lunches and two dinners. When I was eating I was reading the humorous book 'French Lessons in Africa' (Dad, you should read this, you could beat a lot of these stories!).

The Map I Made of the Project

So due to the nature of the bathroom, I have a few funny stories about it. As I said before, the bathroom did not have a door to it. The only running water in the bathroom was to the toilet (that was pretty exciting). The last thing is that my bathroom was the bathroom for the other three members of the compound, so there were always people coming in and out of there (I think other people liked using it to which is also why it felt so busy all the time). The first story is mainly to show that I am a little bit slow to catching onto problems. After my first day bush hopping I decided I was in dire need for a shower, so I got in the bathroom and decided to use the huge barrel of water that is in there. So I put some in a smaller bucket. The water was dark yellow and putting the smaller bucket in there disturbed about twenty mosquitoes. It wasn't until the third day that I realized everyone else in the compound filled the small bucket outside and didn't touch the nasty water.

The second story is that one night I was taking a shower (aka, pouring buckets of water on me) and I heard the door to the house open. I knew the only reason people ever come into the house is to use the bathroom so I put on my towel and stand prepared. Nicholas comes in, when he sees me he says 'Oh mon dieu' and covers his eyes incredibly fast. After a few seconds of apologizing he realized that I was in a towel and asked why I was showering with a towel on. I said I heard him and he seemed to think that was one of the more brilliant things a woman could do.

The best part of my visit though, was meeting Astou, a '16 year old' (I think she was at least 20), Muslim girl who lived in the village. She taught me how to dance some of their local and national dances. She attempted to teach me how to make millet couscous and some delicious vegetable sauces. Friday night she told me that she had always wanted to braid 'Toubab' (white people) hair. So she had a good time doing that. It turned out kinda crazy but it looks alright. One night, I showed her some pictures of me (and many of you guys) and her two biggest comments were 'your mom is much prettier than you' and 'you look much better fat'. Astou also took me to the big market Saturday morning which was an intense and lively experience, it was interesting to see such a sleepy village wake up so much for Saturday! I would love to be able to visit her and her huge family again before I leave!

My new hair doo!

So this has been another long post, I will try to get one out later this week or early next week about everything else that is going on. Tomorrow is Tabaski. Tabaski is the holiday of killing male sheep over a year old. Supposedly it is good for the sheep because it is the only day that they can go to heaven, so my family is being generous and going to have seven killed! Yikes. The next week is supposed to be pretty bloody and the next two weeks are supposed to be pretty smelly! Alhamdulillah!

Lots of love to all of you!

The Week Ahead and a side of Cults

Hey you guys,

I am about to take part the biggest adventure of my trip! I am leaving tonight to spend three days in the field doing research. This will be with my 'Sante Publique' (Public Health) class! I will be doing research on children with malaria and what they know about malaria. I was in charge of making the questionnaire for the class, so hopefully all will go smoothly! I will be in Niakhar, in the Fatik region, from tonight until Saturday. 

Saturday I have lunch at home and then go out with Denyse Morin for dinner! I'm pretty pumped about having someone visit *note that no one else has visited me*. So hopefully I will be able to see her as well on Sunday.

Then earlier Monday morning I jump on local transportation and go south for a couple hours to Sandiara. There I will be mapping and doing some work on project that works on agriculture and reforestation. I think I will end up doing more in the reforestation but it should be quite exciting and a very new experience for me! I will be living alone but there are a bunch of expats that I will be working with and they will be checking up on me from time to time, so don't worry :-) Their website is beershebaproject.org and is pretty cool.

So a funny story from this week. It was Mohammed (the ten year olds) birthday on Friday. Everyone all week had been reminding me that I needed to get him a present and so each time they asked I would ask them if they were getting something for him and the response always was 'maybe'. So I thought this was the new joke and decided my response should be maybe too. Well I get back home from school on Friday and each member of the family tells me to give him his present, I kept saying that I wanted to wait until everyone else gave him their stuff. Finally, after seeing them set up for a birthday party I decided I better just give him the stuff I realized I got tricked into being the ONLY person to give him a birthday present - was pretty ticked at the family for that move.

Anyways, so setting up for the birthday party was putting amps on the roof (huge amps, Undefined, you guys would be jealous of these guys!), all kinds of mats, at least three goats, and all kinds of other goodies. So I was thinking, well maybe no birthday present because they are going to have the craziest, most expensive birthday party ever. There were ten friends of Mohammed and Bebe Cherkh that helped set up. I also helped, I cleaned the mats, moved things around, and all kinds of other small tasks (was good bonding time with Fanta). Then, when everything was set up, she told everyone to come back at 10pm for the party - kinda late but that is how most things work here. We went downstairs and I was told dinner was going to be 'a little late' - we usually eat at 8pm.

So at 10 all the boys reappeared and we played with the new nerf football that I got Mohammed (went into the neighbor's fortress twice, that is a story in itself). I had decided to get dressed up and wear a cute dress that was a bit strappy but I thought it would be appropriate for a snazzy birthday party. Then all of a sudden there were a lot more adults then kids and women sitting on the side and men in the middle and towards the other side of the roof. The music (which I should have described before) had been blaring someone singing the Koran since about 2pm. A group of men began to take seats around the microphones and brought up their Korans and began singing the Koran themselves. All the men wore prayer robes but a few were 'bayefall' which means they were colorful clothing (yes, more colorful than me!) that are strips of a variety of material (if you want to know more about them, let me know, they have a very interesting perspective on religion). As soon as that happened everyone got very quiet and got out their Korans and began following along. The boys started playing games next to me and they got in a lot of trouble, a couple slaps, a couple 'Allah is not pleased with your actions'. So this continued until 1h30 when the singing ended. This whole time everyone was snapping their fingers when they heard something they found touching and were moving themselves back and forth, hypnotized to the music. A man started doing something that I am going to call a 'sermon' because I have no idea what it was. He talked mainly in Arabic but every once and a while I heard some Wolof thrown in. This continued until 2h30 (just to note, I usually go to bed here at 9pm so I am hungry and tired). The food comes out, people fight for seats around the bowl and the food is gone within ten minutes!

I thought of this whole thing as a semi-cultish practice but quickly realized that it is most likely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that my family is a part of. Though I still cannot figure out how often it takes place (the Imam was not involved at all in the proceedings, he never left his room), the reason it took place, and why they had this event on Mohammed's birthday (I've been told it has no relation). Anyways, I left the whole thing pretty bitter because they tricked me into being the only one to get him a present but they did have a great ice cream cake!

A lot of other stories I would love to tell but I have class soon and want to be able to send this off before I leave for a week and a half!

Love to all of you,

Katie