So I wrote this on Thursday, but have only gotten internet now:
I have been struggling with a severe bout of digestive issues of late and writing blog entries (or doing much else than just laying on my bed) has been out of the question. I will spare you the gory details, but needless to say it has not been a pleasant three days. I am taking some pretty strong medications to cure the problem, but for the time being, things are pretty miserable! It is especially difficult to be so far away from home, having health problems that I have never (at least not within my memory) had, and wondering if it is severe enough to warrant medical attention. I get the impression that it is good that I waited because I seem to be improving. If not, I guess it will have to wait until Saturday because tomorrow is KORITE! The end of Ramadan! Hilariously, we had to wait until tonight to find out if we have school tomorrow because no one really knew if the last day of Ramadan was going to be today or tomorrow. Muslim holidays are celebrated according to a lunar calendar, so we had to wait until sunset tonight to find out if it really was the last day of Ramadan! My mom was listening to the radio, a really common occurrence, and they made a public announcement that korite would indeed be celebrated tomorrow. It is funny because everyone insisted that they didn't know which day it would be, but I sort of get the impression that only us Toubabs were fooled into believing that there was a big chance it would be Saturday. I know that technically there wasn't any way to know until it happened, but now that it is tomorrow it makes me think that the Senegalese were all pretty sure that it would be, but just maintained a level of doubt to make sure they weren't wrong. Unfortunately, the taille basse that I ordered on Sunday wasn't quite ready when I went after school to go get it. Hopefully I will be able to run over to Liberte 1 (my friend Lecretia's neighborhood) in the morning to get my clothes to celebrate the festivities! If not, it isn't the end of the world, but I really don't have anything all that appropriate to wear. The saddest part of tomorrow being korite is that with my stomach in the shape it is, I really doubt I will be able to eat much. Korite is all about feasting after a month of fasting and I won't be able to partake! I suppose I should just be glad that I am getting healthy again and not push things too far, especially because all of the food here is very well spiced and cooked using a lot of oil. My family has been really good to me in my sick state. My host mother seems to have accepted that I cannot eat much and tonight the ladies prepared me some plain pasta to eat. This was very much appreciated because last night even eggs, bread, and coffee were a little bit too much for me to handle. The coffee here is one thing that I have been meaning to comment on. I never, ever drink coffee at home, but I drink it here because it is just what people have with breakfast and ndogo (the Wolof word for breaking the fast during Ramadan). The funny thing is that no one here drinks real coffee. They all drink Nescafe with 5 or 6 sugar cubes in it. I sort of like it (after all it is really just a bunch of sugar), but I think it makes Senegal look like a little Nestle colony. There are Nescafe signs EVERYWHERE! Plus, the milk products people use (powdered milk, unsweetened condensed milk, etc) are also Nestle. And then there's Nesquik and the normal things we see all over in the states. There is also a plethora of advertising for the various cell phone companies. My cell phone is Orange, but Tiga and Expresso are also popular choices. Orange advertises using these large square signs that are just orange with big white block letters. They are at the center of almost every roundabout in town. Tiga has little round blue signs all over the place and Expresso uses more traditional looking billboards featuring happy people prancing in the sunshine using their 3G capable cellular devices. Between cell phones and Nestle, every surface in Dakar has been made into an opportunity to sell things. Even the little boutiques (holes in the wall that sell basic food and sundry items located en masse in all the neighborhoods) have a ludicrous amount of advertising. This isn't any different than in the United States, but for some reason I find it a lot more noticeable here. Maybe it is the juxtaposition of all the flashy ads with the reality of the rainy season in Dakar, but they really stand out.
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