Tabaski sheep: 210,000 cfa
Thanksgiving turkey: 16,000 cfa
Witnessing the engagement of your
sister: priceless
Master Card had a good idea when they
used this memorable slogan for how best to spend your money.
Unfortunately they haven't made it to the inner reaches of the Sahel
desert so in the meantime I dole out very colorful West African
Francs (cfa) for many of my adventures.
The last month of regaling experiences
starts with Tabaski, the largest Senegalese and Islamic holiday of
the year. It is to celebrate Abraham's sparing of his eldest son and
killing a sheep instead. Each head of household is required to
slaughter an animal, preferably a sheep but a goat is acceptable and
a chicken will do in a pinch. Since my house has 3 families living
here, they each bought and killed a sheep, as well as my grandmother
(though the only part she played was to give money for the sheep to
be bought). So basically we ate a LOT of meat for a few days.
However, since we are one of the more fortunate families in our
neighborhood, we gave away about 2/3 of the meat. (We did however
receive some meat from other families in the spirit of giving, so
maybe we really did eat that much meat...) It was quite a festive 3
days where I ate lunch with a different family each day. It's so fun
to see how different people choose to celebrate the holiday.
After the festivities were over and
people slowly began to go back to work, I left for a pre-vacation to
St. Louis, one of the best locales for a tourist in Senegal. It is
located in the very northwest of the country, right on the coast.
Now my reasoning for this little trip comes down to a couple of
things. My good friend Robert was bitten by a venomous snake a few
days beforehand in the jungles of Kedougou and was flown to Dakar for
treatment. After he was released from the hospital he needed a break
from life to really absorb what had just happened to him and that is
very difficult to do in the hubbub of the capitol. Since I needed to
leave site in a couple of days to pick up Beth and Chris from the
airport, and my friend Jessica was flying home for Thanksgiving right
before then, we decided this would be an opportune time to relax
together in a city known for its chill atmosphere. That one top of
the fact that by day 4 of Tabaski, if you still have meat left over,
it has begun to go rancid and I didn't want any part of that. So off
I went, and after 8 hours of travel, I arrived in the city and spent
the next 3 days in total relaxation with some of my dearest friends.
We did some site-seeing of the old French colonial quarters, ate
delicious food, live music, and hung out with the volunteers there,
including spending some time in the demonstration garden of my friend
Mike Lieberman. That last part was really great because I've been
looking for some inspirations for my own garden and I was able to
give some creative sections. Also, the live music was quite
wonderful. We met a harmonica musician who has been traveling the
world in search of the best ways to express himself with music. His
music had a bluegrass feel while also giving me the feel of dancing
on a riverboat in the Bayou. He was a delightful character and I
hope I run into him again someday.
When we finally left it was with a
reluctant heart, but I certainly intend to go back there before I
leave. Plus St. Louis hold Jazz Fest in May or June so I can't miss
that. We left and headed straight for Dakar since Jessica had to fly
out that night and I needed to be back at the airport the next
morning. It remained the overly-crowded city that I remembered, so I
was eager to leave as quickly as possible. I was up with the morning
call to prayer and in a cab to pick them up when I received a call
from an airport official informing me that my family had arrived
early and were anxiously waiting. I felt so bad that I wasn't there
to meet them directly and hoped they were ok. As soon as my cab
pulled up and I saw them standing at the arrival exit, I started
running and didn't stop until my momentum was stopped by Beth running
and leaping into my arms. As soon as I put her down I received an
overjoyed and relieved hug from Chris and it sealed the excitement
that had been bubbling over. I had been waiting over a year for those
embraces and they were perfect.
After that, I knew the next two weeks
were going to be great, if only because I at last had my family here
to share the world I have come to love and treasure. Once we arrived
at the regional house they showed me some wonderful gifts that had
brought, including an entire backpack full of food and other supplies
that were a communal gift of many family members. As always, I'm
amazed my mother's packing job and kept finding treasures days after
I had unpacked the bag. One of the most notable gifts though was a
burrito from Chipotle. It isn't that I'm a diehard fan or anything,
but I have been craving an overstuffed burrito more than any other
thing in this country. Of course my dreams tend to be of a veggie
burrito from Cedar City's Roberto's, but I knew that was a near
impossibility and the Dulles Airport in DC could offer me some
semblance of the deliciousness that my mind remembered. And I didn't
care that it had been sitting on an airplane for 8 hours. In fact, I
busted that baby out for breakfast that morning and then because
Chris had left a second one he hadn't finished, I also ate that one
on the 4 hour bus ride to Kaolack that I forced them on that same
morning.
I didn't give them much time to
recuperate from their long travels because I wanted to leave Dakar
and get us down to my friends' village on the border of Gambia as
quickly as possible. So by the time we arrived at dusk, they had
been traveling for over 24 hours. And this was the moment we
realized that Chris bag had been broken into sometime between the DC
airport and his arrival and baggage collection in Dakar and they took
his camera! We were all so angry and upset because that had been his
graduation present and he had been looking forward to the
photographic opportunities here. Also, it was his carry-on luggage
and the airline told him it was too big so they were going to put it
under the plane. And that was the point when the thief had access to
it! Needless to say, we were upset and Chris was still quite
panicked. I sent Beth to splash her face and clean up because we
were supposed to meet our friends at the local bar for a birthday
party. When she left the room Chris quickly rummaged through the
rest of his bag until he found the box that was the real reason for
his panic. As soon as I saw it my heart skipped a beat and I held my
breath as he opened it and found his grandmother's wedding rings
still securely inside it. We both visibly relaxed and he handed me
the box for safe keeping on the rest of our journey. When Beth
returned, we headed out to the bar and then spent the next 2 days
with great company, trying to deal with the issues of the stolen
camera while still being secretly relieved that the most valuable
items hadn't been taken.
We were back on the road pretty
quickly, stopping for a day to go kayaking in the delta and to dine
with a baby monkey before finally arriving at my home in Kaffrine.
There we hung out with some of my favorite people, visited my garden,
biked to my friend Christi's village, and had an election party into
the wee hours of the morning. While this was our longest period of
time sleeping in the same place, we were still so busy it flew by so
quickly that I couldn't fit everything in. One thing I did make sure
to do was give Chris his birthday present, a traditional Senegalese
boubou. Beth also got a matching complet as well. From the moment
he arrived, he asked about the possibility of getting one made, I
ended up having to spill the beans early that I had already done that
and that the tailor had it ready and waiting. Good thing my eyeball measurements fit!
The next leg of our journey started
very early. We woke up, biked across town, and were on a makeshift
van-bus before 6am. It took us 5 hours to get to Tamba, and after a
lunch break, another 4 to get to Kedougou. But we arrived safely and
ready to enjoy the crazy adventure that Kedougou always holds. Since
the bike situation looked a bit haggard and we were all tired from
travel, I arranged for a car to pick us up and the next morning we
were on our way to the mountain village of Segou, which is on the
road to Guinea and home to a beautiful waterfall. This had been
prearranged as the ideal site for Chris to pop the question so I
wanted to make sure thing went smoothly. My friends Robert and
Cameron joined us for the hike and as we meandered on the long path
in and out of the mountain stream I was constantly reminded of how
great and yet surreal it felt to have my Peace Corps Senegal life
merging with my America world for this period of time. I noticed a
lot on this trip how much I have changed and continue to change,
hopefully for the better.
But on to the part everyone is waiting
for... When we arrived at the waterfall we took a little lunch break
of peanut butter and apple sandwiches before Beth decided it was time
to go splashing in the water. She and I stripped to our bikinis and
ventured into the water a bit. After a bit of this Chris handed me
the camera (I had put him in charge of mine ever since his was stolen
because I wanted him to continue to capture the memories he had hoped
to on this trip), and I went up to my bag to grab the ring box I had
been stowing away this whole time. While he and Beth spent time
holding each other and being cutesy, I slipped the box into his hand
without her noticing. I'm a ninja like that. Then in a pretense of
taking more photos of the waterfall and them, I started recording
them and it took Beth a bit to notice that I was so close, though she
didn't catch on that the video was on. After she tried to get him to
go under the waterfall with her and he explained they should wait a
little bit, he began to explain why he loved her so much and that he
wanted to spend his life with her. Then he got down on his knee and
asked her to marry him. She responded, “Of course!” He then told
her the story of the ring being his grandmother's. It was such a
touching moment and I felt honored to be a part of it. They've
already chosen a date too: June 13, 2014. Eight years to the day
after they started dating. And they are specifically waiting that
long so I can be home for it. I have the best siblings!
We basically rode that high all the
way back to Kedougou the next day and through the longest haul of the
trip, all the way back across the country in less than 24 hours. We
arrived in Dakar at 5 am on Chris's birthday and spent the day on a
very relaxed meander around parts of the city. We hit the beach,
enjoyed chilling on an island, ate ice cream, jumped on trampolines
and finally ate Ethiopian food to polish off the day. Their last day
we did very little, which was very ok since we were all pretty
exhausted from such a packed trip. It was hard to see them go
though. My family is very important to me and if it weren't for the
distance from them and some of my dear friends, I think I could make
Senegal my home for far longer than the allotted 27 months. As it
is, I very much look forward to seeing everyone in a year (give or
take a few months).
Well that pretty much covers the biggest
highlights of the last month. Though I will give a shout-out to some
other memorable moments: Christi's birthday picnic in a baobab grove,
convincing my friend who hasn't really ridden a bicycle since high
school to bike 20km with me to visit on of my work partners, and
finally sharing Thanksgiving with some awesome volunteers and
introducing it to my dearest Senegalese friends. Also, we just
enjoyed Tamkharit here, the celebration of the Islamic New Year. It
also happens to be the month I officially became a Peace Corps
Volunteer and moved to Kaffrine. I look forward to what awaits for
my second year here. It's already shaping up to be quite an
experience!
