This week has been interesting. It was the week of Tabaski, so naturally everyone took the entire week off. For me, that meant that I was introduced to an entirely new, completely transitory, new cast of characters. Family from out of town flocked to Mbam, including three nephews of Binta's who were staying at my house. This was in addition to the fact that many of the people I'd grown used to seeing daily, including Ke, Thiarma, Khady, Jean and Joe went back to celebrate with their families in other villages. I had no work to do given that it was a holiday and was faced with a new social makeup. One of the houseguests made me feel really patronized all the time, so I got fairly cranky pretty quick. My emotions have been really up and down and I can't decide if its a result of hormones, culture shock, my headcold, or all three.
Even with my uncertain emotional state, I can't help but count this week as a success. I have eaten really well, given that the sheep came just in time to make up for the lack of fresh fish that's started. I got to see a ram slaughtered and celebrate a major Muslim holiday in a Senegalese village, with all the luttes and dances and accompanying gaiety. Really, I have done quite a few new things and will remember Tabaski fondly.
The funniest development this week was discovering the way that jours feries happen in Senegal. I needed to know which days school would be canceled, given that I volunteer at the elementary school in town on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tabaski was Wednesday, so naturally Tuesday and Thursday classes would be canceled to allow people to visit their families. Everyone at the house immediately started complaining that the break was far too short. After living in Senegal awhile, I have to agree. If anyone is planning to leave town at all, three days is barely time to make it out the door. But the decision had been made by the school authorities, so I figured that people would deal and I planned to go to school on Friday. When Thursday night arrived, Binta said that she wasn't sure if there would be class the next day. I asked how that was possible, given that I had talked to the director and he assured me there would be class on Friday. She told me that sometimes things happen and classes may or may not happen. Hm, vague and confusing. But I woke up the next day and headed to school anyway. When I arrived, I found about half the student body, one teacher, and the director at Mbam II. Apparently everyone else just couldn't make it back in time. How hilarious! The two men were trying their best to find a way to hold classes, I think more than anything to make a point, but they just couldn't manage. They ended up having short sessions with two or three of the classes, and afterwords everyone got to go home. It was so funny to me to see that the holiday was universally regarded as too short, so people just didn't show up. Even funnier, the high school usually has class Saturdays, but after canceling Friday they went ahead and canceled Saturday too, so the break turned from a three day break into a five day break.
I couldn't help but think of the lead-up to Korite, when everyone claimed that they weren't sure which day the celebration would be. I can't help but think that the Senegalese really knew all along that school would be canceled but didn't want to say it out loud for fear of jinxing it or something. Ke Ndiaye didn't even bother to come back to Mbam on Thursday, which to me seems to indicate that she was pretty sure there wouldn't be class Friday. I think it's really funny that a day off happened by the force of everyone's unified (but unplanned/undiscussed) unwillingness to rush their Tabaski for the sake of following rules and schedules. I guess this happens other times too. Every year the Senegalese celebrate the Magal de Touba, a day that celebrates the exile of a major Mauride religious leader, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, and everyone at the University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar decides not to show up. But I guess that's just the way things work here. I find it understandable, especially in the case of Tabaski, when everyone wants to go home and physically cannot make the trip in the three days allotted to them.
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