giving thanks for tabaski

HAPPY DECEMBER!!!

Soon I will be making my way back to the US so this will most likely be my last entry unless something really interesting happens and I find enough time in my last few days to produce one more short post.

Currently, I am back from Sanankoroba where I did most of my research for my ISP, or field research project. I stayed for ten days at the SOS Village there and conducted tons of interviews with the directors of the establishment and the schools that work in conjunction with it. The SOS Village is a type of orphanage but the word orphanage is not a very accurate description. The SOS Village in Sanankoroba is one of 450 villages internationally and the organization works to house and create families within its own structure for orphaned and abandoned children in troubled and poor areas. It also creates community outreach programs providing clothes, education, food and medical attention to the poorest children in neighboring villages that would have been abandoned from their families without the support of the organization. Because the organization creates families, complete with houses on the premises that include mothers, aunts, etc, none of the children can be adopted but instead the organization works as the adoptive agent. I loved the time I got to spend there and actually ended up living with one of the families, family 15 to be exact. Between the SOS Village homes, community programs, and school system it has established, the organization in Sanankoroba helps over 1000 kids currently, and that figure does not take into account the children that have left the area due to age. Within its 20 years of existence in this particular area, the SOS Village has helped TONS of kids create great futures for themselves through loving home environments. Overall the organization is run incredibly, both at the local and international levels, and I felt really privileged to gain as much access into their lives as I did. Writing my paper went great and because I finished it and the rest of my research so quickly, my life has been somewhat relaxing the past few weeks… for the most part, I hang out around my house with my housemates, explore the city, go to the pool, hang out with my host family, watch movies, and try to learn to cook.

As for the two big things that have gone on lately:

1. Thanksgiving:
Yes, even being abroad, I celebrated Thanksgiving. Not only is it one of my favorite holidays in the US but celebrating our little traditions, even while abroad, makes me feel like a ‘good’ American. Most of my class decided to get together and celebrate in a potluck style. My housemates (Kat, Luke, and Sam) and I were put in charge of making the mashed potatoes and took our job VERY seriously. The morning of, Kat and I went to an alimentation and bought 15 kilos of potatoes… I don’t know how to accurately convert that into pounds but it is something like 33 pounds, which is a LOT of potatoes. We also got 7 full cloves of garlic and 6 sticks of butter, so you can imagine how many potatoes we must have gotten in order to need that much garlic and that much butter. The four of us then spent the entire afternoon peeling all of the potatoes (a process that took all four of us two hours) and trying to cook them. The cooking situation at our house is interesting. Most Malian houses don’t have indoor kitchens and definitely do not have stoves. Because we are renting a more Western style house due to the fact that we couldn’t survive with just the four of us in a Malian style house, we have an indoor kitchen but the stove and pots &pan situation is very difficult; only two of the small burners work and we have a limited selection of strange pots and only two small pans with which to try and cook. Although cooking all of the potatoes we had peeled proved to be difficult, we rotated the cooking and mashing into organized shifts and I took responsibility for the garlic. I even got to use one of the traditional Malian pounders to mash up all of the garlic before I roasted it in a pan on the oven, which was the highlight of my day. There’s nothing cooler than using a traditional African cooking technique while preparing western mashed potatoes for an American Thanksgiving potluck. After we made our three large bowls, we piled into a taxi and headed for school where the potluck was being held. There was about three-fourths of my class present at the dinner (some kids were still traveling for their ISP or conducting interviews so they couldn’t make it) and all of our professors. We had a smorgasbord of food present including traditional stuffing, sweet potato pie, green beans, citrus carrots, bread pudding, brochetta, apple sauce, and obviously tons of watermelon (they are in season and thus we eat about a watermelon a day here). We sat outside in the courtyard of our school on our main steps under the stars. The weather was perfect, not TOO hot and eating all together as our new little SIT family was great. Also, having the opportunity to share the holiday with our teachers was neat since they always go out of their way to include us in their holiday festivities. Although it was a very untraditional take on a very traditional holiday, we did the best we could with what we had and it turned out great in the end. I will say this though, I am sure I am not the only kid from the program who is now anxiously awaiting the arrival of next year’s Thanksgiving dinner.

2. Tabaski:
I got to celebrate another Islamic holiday with my family! Although the post-Ramadan fete (or the last fete that I celebrated with my family back in September) was a little disappointing, this holiday was the bomb. The holiday is called Tabaski and it’s a three day celebration centered on the slaughtering of a ram in honor of the prophet Issac. The first day was the 28th of November so I headed over early that morning to my families compound to start the celebration. The first thing I was greeted with as I walked in the door, besides an attack of love from my little sisters and cousins, was the view of one of my family’s rams being slaughtered in our courtyard. I had always been told that it is forbidden for women to see the killing of animals and that especially in these instances, where there is a religious context, it is absolutely not allowed. But, those rules either don’t apply in my family or don’t apply to Tabaski because I got to see the whole thing. I unfortunately arrived a little late and did not get to witness the initial killing of the ram but I must admit I don’t know if I would have had enough courage to sit through that part. I did make it in time for everything else though. From skinning to cutting it open to removing all of the insides to emptying the intestines and bladder to cutting up all of the big pieces into small pieces, I got to see everything… and take pictures! The guys in my family LOVED that I wanted to take pictures so not only did I get to document the process, I earned brown points. I am sure witnessing the slaughter of an animal is not that unique of an experience for some people but it was a first for me and I am proud that I didn’t squirm or chicken out of watching it because overall, it wasn’t that bad. I think within this context and how the family went about the entire process, really helped me as I witnessed my first animal death and dismemberment. Plus, my six and twelve year old little sisters were with me and they were totally fine with it... and I didn’t want to look like a huge baby all by myself, so I sucked it up. Funny side note, they moved the second ram (to be killed on the third day of the party) to the other side of the compound so it couldn’t see anything in the courtyard and thus, couldn’t witness the death of its buddy. They said that it was cruel to make it witness the death of its friend and I thought that was thoughtful and kind… I don’t know if I would have thought through it like that before I killed the ram but then again, I wouldn’t kill a ram.
After everyone cleaned up, I rode around with my host brother running errands. We dropped off a leg of the ram (which I got to carry) to other family members across town and picked up a head and some legs of a ram (which I ALSO got to carry) from my brother’s boss. We had to take it to a place on the side of a street to get ‘prepared’ or burned to a crisp until all of the hair had fallen off. They then return the head and feet to the family so they can prepare it… to eat. We then rode around meeting a bunch of his friends and visiting different families to send them prayers and well wishes for the holiday.
The overall purpose of the celebration, other than its religious context, is to eat. They spend all day preparing and eating food, in abundance. Similar to the last holiday, they like different parts of the animal then we do in the West so once again, being the pushover I tend to be here, I got to eat many ‘different’ things including… heart (everyone’s favorite organ!), lung, stomach, and intestine. Luckily for me, my French has improved and I can now identify what I am eating BEFORE I put it in my mouth thanks to the gift of language and thorough interegation. My family also surprised me with a gift for the fete! They gave me a dress and some jewelry which is a huge honor and really touched my heart. My host mom was so excited to give it to me and so I immediately changed to sport the dress and all of the new jewelry… everyone was beyond thrilled. After a day full of witnessing, observing, participating, playing, eating, errand-running and communicating in two languages other than English, I was exhausted but filled to the brim with the knowledge that it was a day well spent. I loved Tabaski and getting to experience the two holidays with my family, one at the beginning of my stay and this one at the end. The two parties helped to show me how much I have developed within my host family. Comparing my participation, the role I played, and overall interactions with my family from each holiday shows me how much I have changed and grown within the culture and host family which is crazy to think about. All-in-all, Tabaski was awesome and I hope the pictures on facebook help you visualize my experiences of the day a little better.


I’ll see everyone soon… love and miss you all!
Love. Sarah