October Fetes

Ramadan ended for us on Sunday with a big party. To attempt to redeem myself from my last blog, Ramadan (which goes by the lunar calendar), signifies the month that the Prophet Mohammed was told of the Koran from the voice of Allah (God). I fasted about half of the month total, which was a good experience. Everyone, of course, was happy to break the fast. We sacrificed a cow a few days before the end of Ramadan and then asked all of our neighbors to forgive us if we have done them any harm. On Korite, the fete for the end of Ramadan, we feasted all day. Everyone who can afford it gets new lavish outfits made. In the evening, the women with new “complets” showed them off by basically parading around the village. Sort of like new Easter dresses, I guess.

To talk a bit about Islam in Senegal, there are a few different “brotherhoods” that have some different traditions. The family that I lived with during my training was more conservative than most in Senegal and the women never missed a prayer and always had their hair and necks covered by a veil when they went into public or when a man came into the house. In my village there are two mosques (to be convenient for the separate neighborhoods). Everyone prays five times daily, with the men going to the mosque and the women praying in their rooms. Their prayers are always the same and they also use beads to pray, sort of like the Catholic rosary. They asked what I say when I pray, and I replied that there are some prayers that Catholics recite, like they do, but that Christians have more of a conversation with God. They thought that was pretty odd. I should also add Senegal is a polygamist country; each man is allowed to have up to four wives, as long as he can provide for each of them. This practice comes from the Koran.

Although Senegal is almost an entirely Islamic country, there is a small Catholic population and an even smaller Animist population. However, aspects of Animism are still prevalent throughout the country. (Let me preface this by saying that it is impossible to talk about religion without talking about culture; in this case I think I am actually talking more about culture, albeit influenced by religion.) For example, my host brother Mamadou told me that our village was known for its Animist practices. If a person was really mad at you, they could take a “truc” like a needle, say a few words, throw it in the air, and it would fly to wherever you were, stab you in the stomach and kill you. Intense, I know. A few generations ago, the village elders had to come together and take all of these Animist objects and bury them in the woods so that the village would be more strictly Islamic. Still, throughout the country, people wear gris-gris, small little leather pendants in their hair, around their upper arm or around their torso to protect them from things like snakes, give them good health, etc. There are some Islamic ties to this practice though since usually a holy person writes parts of the Koran to put into the leather pendant, and they have to be blessed. Another way that traditional beliefs are still practiced is through circumcision ceremonies (for both boys and girls). Female genital cutting is now illegal in Senegal, but it still happens. (Again, I think this is more cultural and less religious.)

Anyway, right now the weeding of the fields is done and we are basically just waiting for the crops to be ready for harvest. The gardens are producing vegetables. When I first arrived in the village we never ate any vegetables; now we have okra, eggplant, sweet potato, squash (!), a bitter eggplant, some tomatoes, and some cabbage. Living in the States, it is easy to forget that certain plants have certain seasons and are not always available! We no longer have mangos, but there are some bananas left (to buy). Watermelons are also starting to be ripe. The other night I also had a bite of sugar cane, which I didn’t know we were growing. We also have fresh milk almost daily (which amazingly I had never had before). It still kind of grosses me out, but we usually have it mixed in with the breakfast monoo, so it is not so sour.

Now that we are waiting for harvest, things are slower again in the village. (The rainy season is also ending, so it is getting hotter again, although it means that malaria will also start to disappear again, too. Apparently it will start to cool off in the next few weeks for “winter,” which will last until February. I don’t think it will drop below 60 degrees.) The women still pound corn into corn powder in the morning to have for both dinner and breakfast, and also do all the laundry in the morning. The five wives in my compound take turns making meals, so someone is preparing lunch, which is still usually rice with a thick peanut sauce or rice with an okra sauce and vegetables. Sometimes we have fish that someone brings to our village via bike from Tamba, 30 km away. (The fish originated from the ocean, even further away.) Life revolves around meals. The men now will sometimes do a few things in the fields in the mornings or in the evenings, but not too much. Through the last couple weeks of Ramadan they were playing a lot of cards.

The primary school was supposed to start last week but will start this week now that Ramadan is over. It will be nice to see the teachers again and hopefully start doing some projects with the school.

Life is going… I can’t believe it is the middle of October. Days really do seem a lot like the last, except when I look back at pictures or read back in my journal and realize that it has been seven months since I arrived in country!