Today was a great day. Nothing all that earth shattering happened, but it was wonderful for its simplicity and the sheer number of positive experiences I had.
I woke up early, but before my alarm, which is something that happens often here. I've found that one of the things I love most about living in Mbam is my sleep schedule. I am free to let myself go to bed when I'm tired, whether that's 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock and drift off to sleep without worrying about an assignment that's imminent or whether or not everything is done for the day. Things always get done, and if they don't, there's always time in the morning. And I love waking up here! I always wake up fairly early, usually between 6 and 7 o'clock, to the sounds of birds and donkeys and brooms sweeping the dirt outside. It's such a calming feeling. I roll over, look at my clock, and realize that I still have an hour or so to take for myself. I usually lay in bed, listening to music or writing and relaxing as the sunlight slowly starts creeping through my shutters (we don't have windows). I love that most days I don't even have to set an alarm even though I always do because I don't want to look like a big lazy butt sleeping all day- my family here is constantly being productive and even if I can't always help, I don't want to spend my day napping.
So I woke up at a nice leisurely pace. More leisurely than normal, in fact, because I had nothing scheduled for today. It's Saturday, after all. I took my time getting ready and then headed to the boutique with Kordue to buy bread and candy for her. Then I ate breakfast before running off to see Pape, who was going to the peanut fields.
Binta told me to go along with the boys who were going to work on the peanuts, so I jumped on the donkey cart and off we went. One of the donkeys had a baby last year, and the yearling trotted behind the cart the entire time, accompanied by Pape's dog Chuey. I loved that every time I looked behind us, there was a small donkey and a dog trotting side by side.
Upon arrival at the field, I realized that my lurking question about what happens to the rest of the peanuts was finally going to be answered. When we came back from harvesting, we usually only brought a few pagnes full of plants to process, which left a large number of peanuts sitting in the field to dry. It turns out that the men go out with rakes and pile all of the smaller piles together in one great big pile and then let them dry for a few days. After that, they return with rakes and very strong sticks and do some of the most repetitive work I've seen yet! First, they pull off the whole plants in large stacks using rakes. Then each man takes one or two fairly solid sticks and starts hitting the plants, knocking off peanuts and small pieces of dried plant material. After this initial processing, there are always still lots of peanuts on the plants, so the remaining large pieces get put in another pile, where they get hit again. After the second round of beating, the plants that remain get put in their own stack, where they will later be beaten with an even bigger stick and get used for feeding animals and collecting peanuts. This means that there are three separate rounds of really tedious hitting of peanut plants which in the end leaves piles of loose peanuts with small pieces of plant mixed all together. So after the entire gigantic pile of dried peanuts is beaten the requisite number of times, the harvesters use the wind, throwing the pile up in the air (okay it isn't really throwing- there's sort of an art to it I guess) and letting the peanuts drop while the wind carries off the foliage. So finally there are all these peanuts sitting in the field to be painstakingly collected and sold to the government cooperatives for 175f CFA per kilogram. What a process. With peanuts, the work is never done. The Senegalese are the first to admit it, but everyone grows them anyways. I guess it's valuable because they can keep half for food and seed and depend on making a profit off the rest by selling them to the government. It makes some sense to have a cash crop in the mix, especially one you can still use for food if the market falls through.
So my afternoon was full of observing Pape abuse peanut plants. I tried to help, but was laughed out of the job (no surprise there- it's pretty physical work). Tomorrow, I hope to go back, but with a bucket so I can collect loose peanuts instead of just sitting around and eating all the peanuts that we're trying to harvest. Eating the peanuts straight from the field is my favorite part of going harvesting. There's nothing better than freshly roasted peanuts straight from the dirt they grew in. We were in the field over lunch, so I ate as many peanuts as I wanted. And after awhile Pape set a few plants on fire and we ate the charred peanuts directly off the ground. I love when they are prepared like that! They stay in the shells so that the peanuts are warm and taste a little bit roasted, but are rarely burned (even though the shells are totally charred and turn my hands black as night and get all over my face so that all of the black people around me make fun of my pale skin). There's nothing better than freshly harvested food, especially when you can prepare it at the field! Really, I was in the field for something like six hours, but I can't really tell where the time went. It didn't feel like six hours.
And the day just kept on moving. When I got home everyone made me eat a little rice and fish, given that I'd missed lunch, and I rested a bit before drinking some attaya. Then it was off to the well! I have become pretty decent at carrying my buckets and tonight I made the trip all three times with the other ladies! They usually stop me after one or two tries with concerned warnings about doing damage to my neck, but tonight they let me keep going, which was exciting! It makes me feel accomplished and I am glad to be able to pull my weight occasionally. I also managed to make it to the tailor tonight, so hopefully I will have a new skirt to wear around town in my last week! And we ate a delicious rice and peanut pudding dish for dinner. I was still full from the peanuts from earlier, but the porridge was delicious nonetheless! It was rice and peanuts pounded together and then cooked and mixed with some milky yogurt type deal (lait caille I think, but it also could have just been condensed milk), sugar, and some orange flavoring. Everyone told me to eat my fill so that I can get the jaayfonde I have been hoping for! Jaayfonde is a Wolof word equating to “badonkadonk” and it is the goal of every Senegalese lady to have one. I added getting one to my 'to do in Senegal' list awhile ago, but have yet to make significant progress.
So there you have it. A day that was fairly unremarkable in the grand scheme, but will inevitably remain clear in my memory for a long time. I can't believe I only have a week left here. I am really starting to grow attached to the people here in Mbam, especially the ladies of my house. I can tell that leaving is going to be really sad, but also strange given that this means that I only have two weeks left in Senegal, and about a month left being abroad. It's bizarre to think about because I have spent a lot of time thinking about leaving and the time has finally arrived. I also think that I have unconsciously become very used to my surroundings and am going to be a little surprised when I (inevitably) experience the reverse culture shock everyone keeps warning me about. Right now I can't see the changes that I know have occurred in myself, so it will be an odd feeling to leave and have them all become apparent. Or maybe they won't. Or maybe I haven't changed. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
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