Bébé!!

Je suis Senegalaise!

Last weekend I went to Kaolack for a baptism! It was for Katie's mom who had a baby three weeks ago and they graciously invited Erica and I to come along. Although I was sick and I'm sure my mom wasn't happy with me going, I couldn't miss this opportunity!

Mom and Dad!

Friday: We had to skip our classes on Friday, which we felt guilty about, but in all honesty, after having 3 days of 8 hour classes, we were pretty happy for a break. So we met at 11am for a bus that was supposed to leave at 12:30pm, but ya know.... le temps senegalais! The bus didn't actually leave until 3ish. We actually had issues getting on the bus because apparently people took our seats, so there were a lot of angry Senegalese screaming and yelling in Wolof. We eventually got on and we didn't have actual seats because we were so late purchasing our tickets. They were seats that move up and down in the aisles, so we didn't have headrests and our knees were rubbing against the seats in front of us. I've never been so thankful to be short. From start to finish, the woman to the right kept hitting me with her fan and every so often she would take out her breast and massage it for awhile. We took a break at about half way and we got some fruit. I decided to take the risk and listen to my iPod.. very discretely of course. It definitely was the right thing to do, because it put me in an awesome mood where nothing could make me upset. I was loving the ride! Even when the bus looked like it was going to tip over from all the massive pot holes... I was content and taking in the atmosphere. 

Mouton!!

Okay, so the bus ride was supposed to take 3 hours.. but it was actually 5 1/2 hours. We arrived in Kaolack at about 7ish and it was just about dark. So we met a bazzillion people in the dark and I didn't remember one of them the next morning. It's really embarrassing because they always remember your name. We ended up resting upstairs and soon Ousmane brought us our "lunch." Yeah, they saved lunch for us, so not only did we have to eat that, but we had to eat dinner as well. It was a struggle. We stayed there until about 10, the electricity went out so it was hard to navigate in the dark. We ended up at some friend-of-the-family's home, where they had a bed for us. Without notice, they gave us a room to ourselves with a bed big enough for the three of us... how nice is that?! Amadou wanted to make Attaya, which was a really bad idea before bed, but he was offering. It took about 3 hours to make all three rounds, and I only survived through the first round and had lay down because I wasn't feeling well. While I was up though, we watched every Justin Bieber video EVER! Senegal has Bieber Fever HARD CORE? Who would have thunk it? Anyways, I got my next to rounds in bed... man, am I living the life? Unfortunately, this meant that it was hard to fall asleep, but it eventually happened.  

Saturday: We were SUPPOSED to be at the main house at 8am; however, Amadou and his friend just NEEDED a haircut, so by the time we got to the baptism, the name had already been chosen and the sheep had been killed. Now, I know you're asking why I'd like to see a animal slaughtered. The answer is I just wanted to live the full experience and I've never seen an animal killed before. Although, we were there to see the sheep butchered and surprisingly I wasn't grossed out at all! Definitely a learning experience I'll never forget. When we arrived everyone was so excited to see us and took us in as family. We had "Laax" for breakfast, which is like porridge with yogurt on top. We ended up going upstairs, assuming we were making attaya, but we ended up in a room with all men who liked to joke with us. One guy I met lived in the States for 9 years and the majority of them in Washington D.C.  Then we checked on Erica, who was under the weather, and ended up falling asleep for a couple of hours. We woke up for lunch and of course got yelled at for not eating enough. We then hung out with the boys and it took us awhile to realize that we were hanging out with ONLY boys. So, we went downstairs to find about 100 women sitting under a tent and yelling in Wolof. They were super nice and gave us seats right in the middle next to the action. We later found out that the women weren’t yelling at each other, but they were just saying nice things about the family. A couple women starting singing and everyone danced. One of the most moving experiences I’ve ever experienced. After awhile, we went upstairs again and hung out with about 20 young boys who were OBSESSED with taking pictures and trying to speak English. One kid didn’t believe my hair was natural so he tried to yank it from my head. It was tons of fun. 

Women cutting the mouton! So much mouton!

We then decided to take a break from the baptism and go to a "festival". Before we could go though, the women under the tent made Katie and I dance by ourselves while everyone starred at us. Very embarrassing, but I think we did pretty good for Americans.. lol.. NOT. It was then difficult to get to the concert because the roads were so flooded. We actually had to walk because the taxis couldn’t get down the road. We then paid about $1 to sit on the other side of this curtain. I’ve never had so many eyes look my way. They gave us front row…  Again, hate it when that happens! But then the announcer tried to talk to us in Wolof and we totally failed. We then saw a couple skits, which we couldn’t understand because it was in Wolof, but Katie’s host brother translated for us. They were actually really funny and very provocative. Very surprising. We had to leave early because we didn’t want miss dinner. We then had a small dinner, changed our clothes and said goodbye because we were so so so tired. We got back to the house and taught the boys some card games and then fell asleep really fast.

The women chanting under the tent.

Sunday: Woke up and went to the main house again. We had bread with SO MUCH chocolate for breakfast and then our Senegalese coffee (which actually is just ½ a cup of powdered milk and 5 sugar cubes… ssoooo tasty). Then we hung out with the family and got eaten up by bugs. One thing I learned is that women can breastfeed anywhere they want. Did you hear that boys?! Anywhere! Okay, that’s my feminist statement for the day. While we were sitting, a bunch of people thanked us for coming and couldn’t believe we traveled all that way. They said we were now apart of the family and it made me feel like crying. We then ate lunch and said our goodbyes. It was hard to leave because everyone was so welcoming and nice. We took a taxi to the bus station, but decided to take what looked like kind of a station wagon instead because we were told it was quicker. Katie, Erica and I got shoved in the back, which was clearly for very small children. Katie and Erica were in the wheel wells and the roof curved so that they couldn’t sit up straight. I’ve never been so happy to be short. Amadou sat in the row in front of us with two other randoms. I listened to music they entire time, which put me in a good mood. The car was going really fast, and it seemed like we were making good time, until we got closer to Dakar. Then we sat in traffic for forever. So, in the end, the trip took just as long as the bus did on the way to Kaolack, and we weren’t as comfortable. Surprisingly, for me, it went really fast and the confined space didn’t bother me one bit. So, we got home around 10pm and Katie’s brother cooked us dinner.

Taking Pictures

This sums up the entire weekend.

All and all… I had a wonderful time and it was hard to leave.

Cute kid.

Everyone say a prayer for my brother. He has malaria and has been in the hospital for a week and 4 days now. 

I miss you all! Stay beautiful!