TABASKI

I apologize for not posting for a few days – Tabaski is the most important holiday in the Muslim calendar, and while officially it only lasts a day, it really takes up pretty much the whole week.  So, access to a place with internet was impossible, as I was visiting with Tabou’s family for two full days.  

Like Thanksgiving, people like to stretch out Tabaski as long as they can.  And, like Thanksgiving, it’s pretty much about eating, and eating, and more eating.  And then more eating.  Oh, and then some more eating.  And in between, napping or watching TV while your stomach tries to recover.  The difference, of course, is that this is a very spiritual occasion.  The men go to the mosque to pray and then return to kill the sheep, but before they do so, they pray for God to bless it and for it not to suffer.  They treat the animal respectfully (I’m not sure if this is the case the rest of the year, but at least on Tabaski it is).  It’s a very happy holiday that brings family together from all across the country, and people dress up in their finest finery.  Every year, people spend a great deal of money to get new boubous (traditional attire) custom-made for the occasion.  Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to get anything made for myself – I was only invited somewhere a few days beforehand, and there would have been NO WAY that I could have found somebody to custom tailor something on such short notice without paying a small fortune.  I asked Tabou if I could just wear my own dressy clothes instead, and she said of course.  But once we got ready to go to her mom’s, she offered me several of her old boubous to try on to see if one would fit me – she thought it would make her mom happy to see me dressed up in one.  Naturally, the first one didn’t fit – Tabou is a sprightly and twiggy 22 year old…  The second, fortunately, was the wrap-around kind and therefore one-size-fits-all. 

Here are a few things I learned over the Tabaski holiday:

1)      The pill technique:  how to politely swallow what is difficult to swallow (actually, I learned this in China – but I think I perfected it here)

2)      Fruit and coffee both aid digestion

3)      How to use a toilet (a regular porcelain kind) that doesn’t have a working flusher and make everything magically disappear!

4)      To watch where you step when you are in peoples’ homes, so that you DON’T accidentally step on the grandmother’s prayer rug (with shoes on, no less! – we were on our way out and I REALLY didn’t see it b/c it was folded up and on top of another carpet…). 

5)      NOT to wear high-heeled shoes when you have to walk more than 2 feet in Dakar, especially when in unpaved, sandy areas.

So, all in all it was a great holiday – I got to spend a lot of time with Tabou’s family, who are the most generous, welcoming, friendly, and funny people you’ll ever meet.  And on Thursday I got to go to the beach!  Tabou wanted me to take some photos of her to use for music promotion, and she thought the beach would be a good place.  It was quite beautiful there – just a short walk from her house.  There, the beach is perfectly clean and sandy and the water looks like normal ocean-water color.  The beach that is closest to where I live, on the other hand, is rocky and horribly polluted and stinky and the water is murky and brown (at least near the shore).  It felt strange to look out at the ocean and imagine that you all are on the other side of it… so far away…