Hono Wai de Senegal! So Tabaski, probably the biggest Muslim holiday was a week ago on Nov. 17th. It's basically a two day holiday, and my host family in Kounkane was so excited! I spent the day before Tabaski preparing. My host sister Ndiole apparently is the best person in Kounkane to do your hair, so I had her braid mine. Something that you see often for holidays here is Senegal is Henna tatoos, or what we call Fudon in pulaar. I bought some at my host mom's boutique and my sister put it on for me. It takes seriously 5 hours to get the henna the perfect tint. I sat in a chair the whole day waiting for it to dry. My sister put it on the bottom of my feet and on my left hand, but not on the right because we use our right hand to eat. So I literally sat in a chair under the mango tree with plastic bags around my feet and my left hand. It was a long day....but I think the braids and henna came out beautifully :) Check out my pics on fb. I will probably never do henna in Senegal again, takes too long.
So Tabaski finally arrived. I woke up early with my family. We ate a pre-breakfast, which was mooney! I love mooney. It's like a millet pouridge. My family added a little sugar, sour-milk, and lime juice. I love love love it. After the pre-breakfast, the boys got all dressed up in their new clothes and went to the mosque to pray. I hung out with the women and peeled potatos and onions. When the men came back it was time to slaughter the two sheep my family had bought the day before--both sheep were tied outside of my hut still alive :( poor sheep. My brothers dug two holes to drain the blood, and they all participated in holding down the sheep while my uncle cut their throats. They let the blood drain into the holes until the sheeps' lifeless bodies were still. It was terrifying to watch, but I took pictures for you all to see.
After the sheep were killed the men hung the carcass from the tree and began to skin and disect it for cooking and eating. For breakfast we ate bbqed sheep parts with french fries and a delicious onion-y sauce. For lunch we ate more sheep with the same delicious sauce and potatos. We ate everything with our hands and slices of bread. For dinner, we had left over lunch. There was so much food (meat really), it was like a Senegalese Thanksgiving day. I spent most of the day watching my family pull apart the sheep carcasses. It was a rough day for a vegetarian....I did actually have to eat some sheep. :(
After lunch, we cleaned up and got dressed up in our new clothes that we had made at a local tailor. I went around with my brothers and sisters greeting the neighbors and showing off our new clothes. I looked very Senegalese! :) The children in the neighborhood went around asking for Salybo, which is technically suppossed to be money. I opted for handing out candy. The kids seemed to enjoy that. :) We took lots of pics so check them out on fb :)
The second day of Tabaski was kinda like the first. The kids got dressed up in the early afternoon again and went throughout the neighborhood asking for Salybo. At this time I was out of candy though and had to turn them away. We ate more sheep, but this time it was the left over body parts. Lunch was white rice and a leaf sauce served with the heart. liver, and other vital organs. Dinner was the worst. Couscous (yum), but the sauce was a bloody red color and contained the intestines, stomach, and the head which still had the brains in it. I couldn't eat it. It's been like 7 years since I had meat and going straight for brains and intestines was just something I couldn't handle. I ate straight couscous and sauce. Maybe next year I will be brave enough to tackle the different parts of the sheep, but this year I couldn't do it. Overall, my first Tabaski was pretty awesome! My henna will last about a month and the braids, well, I'll probably take 'em out today! :)
'Til the next post! :) xxx
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