The day started around 8am when the mosque started calling. Eventually at 9am men from allover town had gathered in the open space at the end of my block. I later found out that on Tabaski, the religious leaders pick a few large open spaces instead of having everyone to crowded mosques. The men prayed and, as uncomfortable as I felt for watching them (which I barely did anyway), it was amazing to see all of the men and boys in their brightly colored boubous. While the men were praying the women were at home waiting. Around 9:30 Miss brought out a giant bucket filled with onions and another bucket to put the chopped onions in. Everyone started cutting. Senegalese women cut onions in their hands but, as an American who was raised with a healthy concern of knives, I requested a plate to act as a cutting board. Everyone said what I was going made sense and we all chuckled remember last year when I cut myself trying it their way. By the time the onions were done the men were back and it was sheep killin' time. We had 3 sheep (one for Mor, his older brother, and his younger brother - Miss' husband). Youssou led the sheep into the street and around the corner from the house while the women waited inside. After killing the sheep and letting them bleed out, they were returned into the "drive-way" area under my window and set on pieces of scrap metal. About this time Mor's brothers showed up and brought a ton of soda, bissap juice, bread, tomatoes, and peppers.
After sheep killin' time, it's sheep butcherin' time. We actually hired a butcher to come and help with all of that. Taco (Miss' husband) cut a slit in the leg of the sheep and then used a piece of tubing to inflate the sheep separating the skin from the organs. Then the sheep were skinned one at a time. After a sheep was skinned it was hung on the garage door and the butcher basically played pinata with a machete. He was hacking away parts and throwing them into buckets while Khady (the three year old) stared at the gruesome scene and squealed in delight.
While the sheep were being butchered the women (myself included) skinned potatoes and prepped the rest of the vegetables.
As soon as the animals were butchered the cooking began! First comes the liver (which sounds a lot better when you call it fois). Liver is grilled then eaten with onions and mustard. While Miriam grilled the liver and then the ribs, my host mom was working on the onion sauce for later in the day, Miss was cleaning EVERYTHING, I was peeling potatoes then helping Miriam cut meat, Aisha was cutting the larger pieces of meat into cookable pieces, Youssou was cleaning up the blood, and the men sat outside playing scrabble drinking sprite. At one point in this cooking madness everyone heard what sounded like my host dad calling my host mom from outside the house all of the women looked at her and she said, "I didn't hear anything... did you?" and everyone obviously agreed with her.
After the liver comes ribs and kababs (which Miriam and I put together). Once the first batch of kababs was finished the women and Youssou sat down/crouched around a platter to eat. Overcooked mutton isn't the best but mixed with grilled onions and mustard it isn't bad. I finished eating first and they let me take over for cooking the kababs - which isn't that impressive because they overcook everything so I just sat and watched them cook to far overdone.
Khady had been watching me all day and finally decided that if the women let me cook, or at least help, I must not be all that bad so she took to hanging on me when everyone else was annoying her/actually cooking. She led me around the house and then she pretended to hit me, eventually she was sent to do something else and I went upstairs to digest.
At some point after 4pm the main meal was ready (meat, onion sauce, fries, and bread) but luckily I wasn't called to eat... I don't think I could have at that point. Eventually it became time to put on my nice new dress. I had gone to the market and in a moment of confusion bought a polka dotted fabric. ugh. Then I asked Matar to turn it into a dress that looked like it had no shape... basically a recipe for attractiveness BUT WAS I EVER WRONG! The "shapeless" dress was TIGHT like Senegalese women like their clothes - I was worried it was going to burst every time I sat down or moved too quickly. A girls' camp/group girl had called me yesterday and asked if I could visit her so I was prepping to visit her. While I was putting in my contacts (hey it's the biggest day of the year!) the power cut. I had a Laura Ingles Wilde moment while putting on make-up (even though I don't think she wore eyeliner) and made my way downstairs. My host mom was really concerned with me going in the dark to visit someone so she sent Youssou along. He scared away some kids that were making fun of me...and then realized I was lost. We called the girl and she talked to Youssou and found us (I wasn't that lost - just one block past her house). By this time the power had come back on.
Youssou, who's normally the bottom of the ladder, was my guest/a guest of the house and it was nice to see him get a chair and be offered water (usually he's the one getting things for other people). I got to talk to the girl's older brother (who had convinced her parents that they should let her come to the camp). I'm glad I got to talk to him while his sister was around because he was thanking me for the work I did and I was able to say (loudly so she heard me) that I wasn't doing anything and that it was all his intelligent, hard working sister. It was even better to hear him acknowledge all of that (usually people just ignore when I compliment their kids/siblings). After a while there, Youssou and I returned to our house talking about the rebels in the southern part of the country (fyi - I'm sneaking him a pudding cup for coming along).
Because my household is mostly women who spent the entire day working everyone was tired and there wasn't much going on. After chatting with my host family for a little bit I came upstairs and here we are!
Everything smells like meat and we'll be eating these 3 sheep for the next 3 months BUT I had a really good holiday. Happy Tabaski everyone!
KO
No comments:
Post a Comment