Today was the biggest holiday in Senegal, Tabaski in Wolof (Eid-al Adha in Arabic). Overall it was a good day and I feel like I'm going to burst from eating so much. It's a religious holiday that marks Abraham's offer to sacrifice his son when God said he could kill a sheep instead. Muslims honor the sacrifice in a semi-literal way and each husband has to kill a sheep for each wife as well as unmarried people over 30 with the ability to buy a ram to slaughter. There have been sheep ALL OVER THE PLACE for the past few weeks. Every open space in Dakar had been transformed into a makeshift sheep market and one of the cities on my way to Dakar had at least hundreds of sheep ready to be sold. Not only are people buying sheep, but they're also transporting them all over the country because everyone goes home for the holiday. On my way into Dakar there was a ram shoved into the underneath luggage compartment of the bus and we passed many vehicles with sheep tied on top (all live sheep, you can't kill it until Tabaski). I even saw someone put a sheep in a taxi trunk.
As for my household, we had 4 sheep (like I said, people come home). While they weren't some of the donkey-sized sheep I saw in Dakar, they were pretty big, especially for a family who had 4 total (check the photos).
Tabaski itself started, for me, around 8:45am when I went downstairs to help the women cut onions. All I really knew about the day was that 4 sheep were being killed then eaten and at some point I was supposed to put on new clothes (I cheated and wore my swearing in outfit) and ask for forgiveness from people... I was pretty much clueless as to the timeline of these events however. So the morning started with cutting onions for the sauce and boy did we cut onions (check the photos). I was even allowed to cut with them and I'm getting better! After the onions were finished I was told the slaughter would begin and promptly went upstairs (my host family knew that I didn't want to watch). Oddly enough my solution was to listen to Christmas music in headphones and surf the internet a little. I kept peaking down from my windows where I could see the stages progressing from killed, to skinned, to cut up which was when I finally went back downstairs. Overall the mess had been contained and the sheep were already split into buckets with the livers being grilled for appetizers.
Around 3pm we ate grilled ribs with mustard, tomatoes, pickled onions, olives, and pickles. When I got up to leave the bowl I was flat out told "no" and that I had to keep eating. Finally allowed to leave, I went upstairs to take a brief nap and try to digest. The sheep apparently took more out of me than I though because I was OUT for quite some time. Still full, I went downstairs around 5pm and found it was time to eat more. This was actually the full Tabaski meal of cooked meat with onion sauce, fried potatoes, and bread. I was still stuffed so I mostly ate bread and onion sauce along with some potatoes and a little meat, it was still a really good meal. Afterwards we sat around some more until I was told it was finally time to put on my nice clothes. I went upstairs and got ready.
Coming downstairs I was a little nervous: it was the first time my host family would see me in a full Senegalese outfit. It was received well and the asking for forgiveness part commenced. Given I don't have many friends outside my family, I decided to stop by Awa the peanut lady's house, Matar the tailor, and my tutor. Each family was really nice to me and I think they appreciated that I visited. Also the image of me dressed in formal Senegalese clothes is funny and each family found it amusing. I came home to find everyone else out and decided to call it a night. I'm still full and just turned down dinner for the second time. Today's food was amazing but I can't imagine eating anymore.
Since I started typing this the power cut (surprising because of the holiday) so hopefully it'll come back and I'll be able to post this before bed. I hope everyone had an excellent Tabaski whether you celebrated or not!
KO
