Ramadan

I headed back to The Niani earlier this month, getting excited to start new projects and work on new things. I was greeted by the wonderful Ramadan, where everyone of the Muslim faith fasts during the daylight hours for 30-days. This excludes pregnant women, menstruating women, and children; however all of those groups have their exceptions as well. The fasting includes not eating or drinking after the sun comes up and once it goes down. The people in my town eat at 5am and then break fast promptly at 7:30pm. We were encouraged by the Peace Corps to attempt to fast in order to understand how hard it truly is, however we were advised to drink water because it is very easy to get dehydrated here and also to not feel that we must complete the entire month of fasting. I have decided to not fully take part in this holiday. I understand it is a hard task to fully take part in Ramadan and I admire those whose faith is so strong that they are able to complete the 30 days without eating or drinking during some of the hottest hours. They are very inquisitive on my religious practices during this time and ask me lots of questions. It is strange for me to be put in this position because I do not have the language skills to explain to the full capacity about my religious beliefs and I dont always feel comfortable telling them everything because of view on religion in this area. I do, however, think during this time that the breaking of fast is a fun and beautiful part of the Muslim faith. It is fun to experience and I am happy to be a part of it.

Right at 7:30pm my family eats a date and drinks a cup of a bush-leave tea called Kinkilliba tea. It is sweet and milky... I look forward to it all day. This is then followed by a sandwich. Then the different members of my house go to the mosque to pray. We wait a couple of hours where we chat and drink some more traditional tea, and then dinner around 9:30pm. It is really a fun time and good bonding with my family. The only big downside to Ramadan is the fact that no one is really motivated to do much work. They are tired, hungry and thirsty and would much rather lie around then go out and do anything. This is with the exception of working in the fields, which is what MANY people are doing right around now. Ive started to go running out in the bush and have gotten the opportunity to see the fields and where the people go every day. It is really interesting to be living in my town but get to run 5 min into the bush and feel like I am nowhere near civilization. The area in Tambacounda is beautiful right now; green with lush plant life and much of the day smells of wet dirt. I love it.

Since everyone is fairly preoccupied during this time, I also took the opportunity to paint a mural at our middle school. I was going for something light, but the principle wanted to painting that addressed forced, youth marriage and early pregnancy. WHOA! A little heavy, but I was ready to take it on. I did just a little mural now, but I am hoping it will snowball itself and I will start getting requests for more soon.

On another note, today I lost a good friend of mine... my trusty red computer. She has been with me for years now and just couldnt take it anymore. She has been all over the world and see so many of my papers, powerpoints, pictures, and music from my young adulthood. I am sad to see her go, but she was having a hard time holding on. I am having my parents send me my little black computer which will be nice and portable to have here. I hope he proves to be as reliable as Big Red was. With that said... I will try to keep up on Skype dates via my IPod, but I do not trust its clarity.

Other things on the horizon, I am working on some traveling that I would like to do... places include a cruise in Europe, Mali, and obviously AMERICA! I will keep you updated on all of that as it works itself out.