Happy Tabaski!

Tabaski is a holiday to honor the almost-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. That means sheep killin’ here in Senegal!

The morning started out when Alyssa’s family slaughtered a big ole sheep bull in the compound. They placed it near a deep hole to catch the blood, and with three men holding it down, her dad slit the sheep’s throat. It was gruesome. (I have video.) The men went to work skinning and butchering up the animal. The women sliced kilo upon kilo of onions and potatoes for the afternoon meal. A few hours later, we all dove in to a gigantic platter of sheep, lettuce, French fries and onion sauce. …And then it was over. No more sheep. Or, at least, one less sheep in the world.

Once everyone was over the food-induced stupor (naptime!), it was time to get dressed up. Tradition says that Tabaski (and Korite) is the time of year to go house to house and ask forgiveness from your neighbors. Tradition also says that you have to do this dressed to the nines in a new outfit and, if you have white people living with you, it’s good to make them dress up and parade them around the neighborhood looking ridiculous. Why I’d be happy to oblige. We put on our complets – mine’s a repeat, Alyssa’s is new – and asked Mami to do our makeup Senegalese style. Sure enough, we looked silly. Pictures are posted; go see for yourself. We went around the neighborhood to a few families with one of Alyssa’s brothers, but honestly that part of the evening was boring, uneventful. Still, now we can say we’ve done Tabaski from beginning to end. Next year, we’re already planning on killing our own sheep…