Thanksgiving

November 25, 2010

I believe it has been roughly two weeks since the last time I wrote a blog entry. I am now back in Kedougou for Thanksgiving, which is looking to be quite the feast, and to research some potential projects.The past two weeks have been fairly slow but filled with some fairly important celebrations. The largest of which is Tebaski, (have explanation of Tabaski).

Tabaski for me started with a morning prayer withall of the men, women and children from Bombaya, the village next to Togue, and Togue. There were probably close to three hundred people praying together under two large Baobab trees. It was a beautiful sight to see so many people on the same page and together accomplishing one task, to give grace to their Allah. I didn't understand at all what they were praying for but it was nice again to be together with so many people. This moment was abruptly interrupted when every one finished praying and an older lady quickly approached me as I got up from my mat to demand I offer her money. Now, I shouldn't of been shocked because I know that this holiday, along with many other holidays, it is customary to offer children and the elderly monetary gifts. However, some how I was still unprepared with no money and shocked that this lady whom I showed respect would so blatantly demand I offer her money. The moment passed and soon I was off with my counterpart Malal to Pate Swares's house to kill a goat.

No, I didn't actually get to kill the goat, but I did get to watch the whole process. Pretty interesting and strange how I felt sort of bad for the goat. I tried to directly compare this feeling to that of the numerous fish I have witnessed and slaughtered myself. However, the goat death made me feel almost sad but the meat was delicious. Speaking of this feeling of killing things lets talk about our massive thanksgiving. I got to kill a duck.

THANKSGIVING!!!!! Lets state the facts and get right into the food/essences of thanksgiving. We had 10 chickens (35,000 cfa total or roughly $18 us), 5 ducks (15,000 cfa roughly $8 us), stuffing (bread, apples, carrots, onions, raisins), apple pie, pumpkin pie, weird pudding pie, squash pie, mased potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, two types of gravy, biscuits, cornbread, carrot and corn salsa thing, and banana bread. Thanksgiving here didn't lack anything and the best part was we split the chickens into groups and each got to season/marinade a chicken the way we wanted it. I went with a honey, orange, hot pepper glaze which turned out way to spicy but delicious. Actually maybe the best part was when we destuffed all the birds and had a stuffing which contained all the flavors of every bird. Needless to say I was supposed to go back to village this morning but who can realistically miss thanksgiving leftovers. So, what really happened was I woke up at 630am ate some more food and went back to sleep until now (10am) in which the sun is too hot and my belly is in no mood for a the 1.5 hour bike ride. I'll be back later on today just not right now. Thanksgiving was a huge success and I hope your thanksgiving was a good as mine.

Current Update
As of now I am running back to village to find someone to water my plants, lock up my hut, say good bye to the family, convince them I will be returning in a few weeks, and to pack for my 3 week stay in Thies for mid service training, All volunteer conference, and sustainable agriculture conference. I'm a little afraid what this mass amount of time away from village will do to my language skills but I'm bring my books and hopefully someone will want to practice with me. As for now, its back to the village for a day (12 hours) and then work (i.e. presenting my village, possible projects, safety things and finishing other documents PC requires us to finish before all these conferences).