RAMADEATH (How I nearly didn't survive Ramadan)

This past August, Senegal celebrated the Islamic holiday Ramadan! The majority of the populationhere in Senegal are Muslim (about 95%), and Ramadan is a very significant holiday in the Islamic religion. It is the holiest month of the Muslim year; a time for tolerance, sharing, and spiritualpurity. It is a month when Muslims don’t eat, drink, have sex, or smoke during the daylight hours.Fasting is supposed to redirect the heart away from daily matters and to bring it closer to God.

I started the holiday on a good note with a nice little trip to Dakar with some fellow volunteers. We thought it would be a good idea to stock up on as much delicious food as we could stuff in our bellies before we fasted for the rest of the month. Dakar was amazing; it is so different from the rest of Senegal that you almost forget what country you are in. It’s almost like a little European city. The coastline is breathtaking! Dakar sits on these rocky, steep cliffs that overlook the Atlantic Ocean (I promise to take some pictures next time I’m there).

For the few days we were there, all we did was eat and eat and eat! The first day in Dakar we went to Club Atlantique (a.k.a the American Club) where we sat by the pool drinking coronas with limes and ate an appetizing Greek chicken wrap. It was heaven, to say the least. We also took a trip to the mall (which at first seemed like a good idea) and did a little window shopping; which ended up being torture because we knew we couldn’t afford anything! The only store in the mall that we could afford was the candy store  and I’m sure you can imagine just how much candy 4 volunteers,  who were about to fast for a month, bought. Let’s just say we went to town..I think we shocked the lady working the cash register.

The best part of the trip for me was the Happy Hour (2 for 1’s) we found at this Hotel (where the drinks were actually a reasonable price). I had my best margarita so far in country..almost as good as the ones back home! We had an amazing time in Dakar and were a little sad to leave knowing we were heading back to village, where we would be fasting all day L!

My village Mboula..the women loved our skits!

I had made it back to Linguere just in time for the beginning of Ramadan, which began on August 2, when the first crescent of the new moon showed itself. Since it was the height of rainy season, which means MALARIA season, my fellow volunteers and I in the Linguere region decided to kick malaria in the butt before we all headed back to our villages. Team Djolof embarked on a 4-day educational malaria tourney to 11 different villages. We performed theatre debunking myths they have here about how you get malaria (for instance, they think you can get malaria from eating unripe mangoes or from the sun or even from drinking too much milk).  Our skits and presentation discussed how malaria is spread, the proper use and care of mosquito nets, mosquito population control and we also touched on the use of inexpensive insect repellant-Neem Lotion (you boil the leaves of a neem tree and then stir in grated soap and a little oil) .We had songs, skits and beautiful visual aids that we all helped design. I was especially proud of my village..we had over 100 people show up for our little presentation; although I’m sure most of them came to just see a bunch of Toubabs acting like crazy fools. *Toubab is what they call a white person or Westerner here, and you definitely grow to hate it especially when you hear people calling you it every day!

Say Hello to Team Djolof!!!

Me playing police...debunking all the myths about how you get Malaria. I was Malaria Patrol!

Boiling the Neem Leaves

Stiring the soap and the water from the boiled neem leaves
And Voila..you have Neem Lotion!

After our tourney, I returned to village ready and eager to start fasting along with my family, out of respect for their religion; and also I wanted to prove to them that I could fast too..I wanted some street cred in the village. Fasting was not as bad as I thought it might be, although I wasn’t crazy enough to go “full-force fasting” and refrain from drinking water throughout the day; so in a way I kind of cheated. You get over the hunger part pretty easily...it’s the thirst that kills you; I couldn’t do it. I don’t know how they go all day in this heat without drinking any water. Although from what people say, there are those that do cheat and sneak in some food and water. Some people even fake being sick just so they can eat and drink throughout the day. Children and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding are excused from fasting, as well as those women who are on their menstrual cycle.

At first I was doing really well at fasting. Each day my family and I would wake up at around 4:30am to eat breakfast, which normally consisted of duti (this sweet tea that they make from a Kinkiliba (sp?) tree; it’s like picking leaves off an oak tree and making tea with it), some sort of sweet porridge or leftovers from dinner and some benes (think of a little ball of fried dough). So since we started our day out with a nice sugary breakfast, it’s no surprise that people would collapse during the day after their sugar rush; and remember it’s the month of august, in the heat of the day, in the middle of the desert!  After my lovely breakfast I would then go back to sleep until around 6:30 and then finally get up and would go for a run to get my day going (this is one of the reasons why I drank water too). The men in my village would head to their fields no later than 7 and work until around 11, all while fasting;  although in the Koran it says you are allowed to drink water if you are working, but some still don’t, which is absolutely absurd! You can imagine that dehydration and heat stroke are very common during this time at the health post.

The women would get up early as well and continue with their normal house chores; sweeping, laundry, preparing the food to break fast with, and taking care of the children. I felt like they were constantly working on their feet while the men came home after the fields around 11 and then just lay around until we broke fast (so unfair). The days were really slow and long during Ramadan, which was a nice excuse not to do anything. We were able to officially break fast at 7:30; so usually at around 7, people would start laying out the food and drinks and counting down the minutes with Great Anticipation. This was torture to just watch and stare at food and not being able to eat until a certain time after starving yourself for the whole day…yah I’d say this was the worst part of Ramadan. 

We usually broke fast after all the men had finished with their prayers with some dates, yummy village bread (Tapalapa), and benes. We also had plenty of water, bissap juice (which is a flower that they make this really sweet juice out of..once again lots of sugar; I’m going to come back to America needing false teeth) and some duti to top things off. After breaking fast with everyone’s bellies so full, we normally just laid around sometimes watching T.V or I would just play around with kids until dinner was served between 10:30-11pm.

I had been fasting for about a week when all of sudden one day, while at a Baptism in my village, I started to feel really tired. I just assumed it was because I really hadn’t been drinking any water that day and it was extremely hot, but as the day went on I started feeling worse and worse; and by the time dinner was served, I had a fever of about 103. That night I tossed and turned and got absolutely no sleep whatsoever. I was praying the next day I would feel better. No luck there; if anything I was worse. I couldn’t  even get out of bed! I had a severe migraine to the point that it hurt to move my head and a fever that had climbed to 104. The worst part wasn’t even the migraine or the fever…it was my family! They had no idea how to react to me being sick. See, Senegalese people believe that if you are sick, you should sit outside and interact with your family, eat lots of food and drink some tea, and then you should start to feel so much better. I believe that was the last thing on my mind. Every hour someone came in asking me if I was feeling better, if I had taken some medicine and if so why I wasn’t feeling better- lol. For the next four days I was stuck in village (mainly because I had no money to get out and go to the regional house in Linguere) with a fever and migraine that would come and go. I would wake up feeling ok and then by the end of the day my fever would return. I think I really freaked my family out because for those four days I just laid around too sick to do anything…God bless them but they had no idea how to take care of me. But no worries; my fellow volunteers (Fae, Justin, Abby, and Ann Marie) came to the rescue. I also have to thank my local doctor in village, Dr. Diallo, who drove me in the ambulance (which is an old station wagon) to Fae’s village where she, Justin, Abby and Ann Marie were all waiting for me with hot soup, a cold compress and a rapid malaria test. I had been in touch with the Peace Corps doctor over the phone who told me that my symptoms resembled malaria and that I needed to take a rapid malaria test as soon as possible.

This is the food my family tried to serve me when I was sick
YUMMY!

Don’t worry my friends…the test was NEGATIVE! As relieved as I was to find out I didn’t have malaria, I still wasn’t feeling better, and by the time Justin had escorted me on a bush taxi from Mbeuleukhe (Fae’s village) then on an Alhum bus to the regional house my fever had spiked again to 104. Too make a long story short, a few days rest at the regional house along with anti-malaria pills (just to make sure) and some strong doses of Ibuprofen was all I needed… or so I thought but that’s another story that I will save for later. I do owe a big shout out to my fellow Team Djolof friends for taking such great care of me. You were all LIFE SAVERS!

By the time I was feeling better and able to head back to village, it was already the end of Ramadan (I guess you could say I got a little lucky then). With the end of Ramadan comes the celebration of Korite; this marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and its date is determined by the appearance of the moon. Now this causes a little controversy because not every place in Senegal will see the moon on the same day, so some places will celebrate Korite before other places. I remember as soon as it was August 31 looking at the sky asking my family “do you see the moon?”…Nope, and then the next night,” is the moon out?”….Nope, and then finally  on the night of September 2, my family announced that the moon had shown itself; even though I personally didn’t see it, I was not about to complain. I was ready for Ramadeath to be over with. The next day started out like any other day, except that I had to help cut a million onions for lunch. But besides that I got to eat breakfast and I didn’t have to wake up at 4:30am! All the little kids got dressed up in their new clothes (they were so adorable)..my family made me take lots of photos. Now celebrations in Senegal are very different from America; think of an elementary school dance- there’s dancing but no one dances, there’s  food but no alcohol, it’s very much just sitting around awkwardly. Good time.

The little babies all dressed up looking just ohh soo adorable!! To the left is Baby Aida in her American outfit that my mom sent her..Don't worry Mom she's not crying because she hates it!

I will say that the nice thing about Korite is that it brings everyone together…family from all over Senegal came to visit their families in Mboula. And for lunch, all of the Ndoa’s(which is my last name) in the village came to my house with huge bowls of cooked meat, potatoes, and onions along with some bread. Everyone ate and ate until there was nothing left in the bowls- literally! I also love seeing all the men dressed in their grand bou bou’s to go and pray at the mosque before eating the grand feast (lunch)and the women dressed up in their beautiful fancy traditional clothing. Once all dressed up, everyone spends the afternoon lounging around drinking tea and visiting people in the village asking for their forgiveness for any offenses they may have committed. The cutest part is the kids in their brand new stylish outfits going around to each home asking for candy or money and showing off their new clothes (it reminds me of Halloween, but less scary). Then it was over.. Ramadan had come and gone just like that!

To the left are all the Ndoa Men. On the right is Mamtou with all the bowls of food that everyone brought. And at the bottom is all the older women of Ndoa (I like to call them Cheeb Mamas)

Baby Awa in her afternoon outfit!

I know a lot of people must think of how agonizing and draining the month of Ramadan is and question why would people ever fast. I know I went into Ramadan a little worried that it would be a miserable time filled with lots of cranky, starving people; but instead I found it to be a joyous month… a month of forgiveness and reconciliation where friends and family can come together to share their spirituality. Besides my near death experience (I’m being a little melodramatic), I found Ramadan to be a time of peacefulness, and fasting a time to really reflect on the little things we take for granted in life and to be more appreciative of what we have.

Next year though it is so on- I’m fasting for the whole month...no sickness. Can’t wait!!

This Andrew dressed up as a Senegalese woman for one of our skits

To the Left we have our beautiful visual aid that we designed showing how to make Neem Lotion. And to the Right is Laura and Emily explaining why it is so important to sleep under a mosquitoe net and the proper use and care of it.

And here we have Fae explaining to people that you cant

get malaria from the Sun!