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Tabaski is a Muslim festival, which was held on the 7th of November this year. It is to celebrate the prophet Abraham and involves the sacrifice of a ram. The ram is eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days… In the morning all the men and boys put on their boubous and headed off to the mosque. When they came back the slaughter began. The men and some of the older boys helped with the slaughter while the rest of the family pulled up chairs and sat around like they were watching a tv show. It wasn't particularly pleasant (have a look at my photos if you can face it) but over here that is a part of the celebration. After the rams where killed we started preparing the meat for the meals. I wasn't feeling particularly well (I had an abscess on the side of my leg) so instead of cooking I decided to keep the children happy. After a day of eating meat I was sourna trop (very full in Wolof). I couldn't face eating more meat for breakfast the next day so I just ate my baguette with butter. The Senegalese sure love their festivals. It is an excuse to eat lots of food and spend time sitting around, dancing and relaxing with friends, family and neighbours, without having to worry about work. It is traditional for everyone to have a new boubou* made for the Tabaski. My boubou arrived the day before we set off for Dakar and I was very excited to wear it
On the 10th of November after Tabaski, we went to the British embassy to meet the British ambassador. On arrival we were let in the first gate and then we had to say our names for the guest list. Only Ciara was on the guest list. The security guys asked me and the boys from Kaolack to write our names on a bit of paper. At this moment I got a little worried because as such I'm not a British national. They went off with our names and said they needed to make a couple of phone calls. After about 5 minutes they came back and asked us "Are you Biritsh?" We replied that we were and they said we could go in. They didn't even check our ID's. If someone wanted to get in to the embassy that was the day to do it. The funny thing is that only two of the four of us was actually British. The meeting went really well and we met lots of other British people, some of whom have been working in Senegal for over 10 years. The meeting was basically about security issues to do with the elections in 2012. They pretty much said that they don't know what is going to happen until the court decides whether Aboulay Wade can run for presidency again. That decision is going to be made on the 29th of January. They did reassure that in a worse case scenario an evacuation would be possible (with the help of the French).
On Thursday we finally went to Fadiouth. As we walked across the bridge we met a local man called Pierre who REALLY wanted us to go for a boat ride with him around the island. I said multiple times that we weren't interested and finally I resorted to saying that I'm scared of water… He still didn't understand that we didn't want to go today. Finally when we arrived in Fadiouth he left us to go back to his house. Ciara and I walked through Fadiouth past all the stalls that are clearly for the large amounts of other tourists we saw on the island and at the cemetery. All the house in Fadiouth are very closely packed together. We walked around the island taking photos for a bit thinking that we were heading towards the bridge to the cemetery. We ended up at the other side of the island and had to weave our way back the way we came to find the actual bridge to the cemetery. I had an amazing time shocking the locals with the amount of Wolof we spoke! They thought we were just the normal kind of tourists but as we talked to them in Wolof they really open up to us and didn't try and hassle us, much. They did say that we should come back and go for a boat ride though.
The cemetery is really interesting. There are white gravestones as far as you can see on the island and then when you walk forward a little you come to a bit that is the Muslim part of the cemetery. They just have little metal placards on sticks to mark who is buried there. All the graves are covered in shells which makes the entire island look very beach like.
Met some French medical professionals who work for a charity called SAMBEN. They come to Senegal for one week and work here in the local Centres de Sante. We met a doctor who was born in Dakar and therefore speaks a little Wolof as well. Yesterday I got to go and watch how they worked. It was really interesting and it is a shame that they are leaving today but the next lot of volunteers are arriving on Monday so hopefully I can go and watch the kind of work they are doing as well. I met a Senegalise doctor who works with the French volunteers so on Monday I'm going to go and see the kind of work that he does. Really looking forward to getting involved in other projects that aren't teaching. I enjoy teaching but Im looking forward to being involved in other projects.
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Cathy Bonnard Bonjour Julia, je vois que tu profites de tout ce qui se passe et de toutes les personnes que tu rencontres. C'est superbe! Tu vas avoir tellement de souvenirs a raconter et a cherir pour le reste de ta vie! Heureusement que tu n'es pas vegetarienne! J'attends avec impatience de lire la suite de ton periple. Toutes mes amities,