A day in the life

Ramadan, man.  Wow.  So, they get up before sunrise to eat breakfast, then don’t eat anything or even drink water until the mosque sounds that the sun has gone behind the horizon. We break-fast with a date, then a cup of some kind of coffee and a beignet. I think most people eat bread, but my awesome cousin next door makes and sells beignets. Then, we eat Ceeb u Jeen (normally lunch stuff) for dinner at the normal time of about 9. My version is: wake up like normal and eat breakfast. Drink water often (must replace the copious amounts I sweat out). So far, I must admit, I’ve had a handful of cheez-its or trail mix and a couple Dove chocolates both days. But that’s it from about 9 ‘til about 7:30.  And it’s a trip!

Yesterday was really hard, because I got word that my beloved baby Huxley passed away. He lived a long happy life and was an amazing friend to me, my parents, and his buddy the wonderful Nando. But just when I found out a storm was rolling in, so I went for a long walk, got soaked, tried to pick a fight with the clouds, but you know, they just aren’t very fighty. Not much more to say about that. It was hard, and it still hurts, but loss… yeah all that.

What I really want to talk about is life here. I want to explain today’s experience of Ramadan, which was kind of awesome. After that storm we had two more good rains before morning, so today was relatively cool (compared to yesterday’s hellish sauna). I did laundry from about 11-1, not super wise, seeing as it’s the hottest, sunniest part of the day. I sunblocked like crazy, but still got a little burned. I find doing laundry here totally enjoyable though. It’s just… kind of zen. Then I set out for my counterparts house, where my 9 year old cousin lives. Before I left for Thies, I promised her we’d paint our nails when I got back, so I brought my nail polish. I also brought a bag of candies I bought in Thies to give out to kids here. That was a great outing. I hit all the kids of Niangeen (my neighborhood), then went to sit with my small friend Ndeye-Baby (she’s really lovely) for a little pink toe-nail action. When we finished, the sleepiness hit. Getting hungry in the heat of Senegal leads to serious sleepiness.  So, just like yesterday, I found a spot on a mat under a tree with some friends and layed down. I wanted to ascend, and I did, but was asleep by the middle of the third sphere. Lovely nap. That’s one thing I seriously dig about Ramadan here. Everybody gets their work done early in the day, when breakfast hasn’t completely faded yet, then parks it under a tree or in their rooms for most of the day. I prefer the under a tree option. And at two o’clock when the mosque sounds it “yalllaaaaaah hu ak bar” (sure I spelled that all kinds of wrong), everyone does they’re prayers, and then lies down and passes out.  It’s kind of beautiful to see all these people laying together sleeping under trees… After doing a little clean-up in my room, I headed out to try to get ice. Ndeye-baby wanted to get the ice for me, but I wanted to go too so we went together. They were out of ice, but there were kids there I hadn’t hit yet.  So I left to get my candy. Ndeye came with. We were stopped three times and I was asked to sit and talk, but I was on a mission, and it was getting close to break-fast time. I got my candy, and played santa (or something) for awhile. I can’t possibly express how enjoyable this was. I mean, a bunch of not so young people asked me for candy, and I gave it to them, and somehow this was hilariously adorable to me. Why? Again, I can’t explain. Let me just say that the tiredness and hunger of Ramadan can lead to a state of slap-happy euphoria. That’s really the point of this story. Maybe that’s just as many people as say that Ramadan is hard say that it’s a good time. Mind altering hunger. Yay! HAH!  Well, so that’s that.

Here’s something I wish I could just show you a picture of, because explaining just won’t suffice. But my camera seems not to be sensitive enough to photo the stars here. My first night back, I was absolutely blown away by the sky. I mean, I’ve seen the milky way here before. And it’s beautiful. But this was different. This was CRAZY. There was a patchy stripe all the way across the sky, and everywhere was static, no blackness, just blue-sparkly (J). The milky, creamy strip of GLORIOUS also contained an even darker part than the most sparsely starred part of the rest of the sky.  Was this a hole it the disk of stars I was looking through? Or was is dark matter? I don’t know!! It was AMAZING though. Again, I’m sorry, words fail, but GOD I wish I could share this experience with everyone.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything so AWE-some. And to top it off, there was a storm moving in, so intermittently there was lightning flashing across the edge of the sky, and the energy of it was palpable. OH man.  SO grateful to have been just there to stand and stare in awed wonder. There’s an inexplicable intimacy I felt with the BIG from being so small in it. Just wonderful…..  mmmmm…..