Tabaski in pictures

So, Tabaski has now come and gone and I have pics to prove it. It is probably the biggest holiday of the year for Senegal (and other Muslim countries) and in many ways parallels Christmas because family member travel across the country to go back home for a week and be together, eating good food, though the meaning is different. Taken straight from Annicka's blog, this is the general gist of Tabaski:

"Tabaski is the celebration of what I believe in Jewish tradition is the Akedah? It’s when Abraham took his son to the mountain to sacrifice him and the son was spared and God provided a ram to stand in his place. Judeo-christian belief is that it was Isaac. Muslims tell the story with Ishmael. To each his own, literally. So each family has appointed at least one person to be responsible for sacrificing a sheep on Tabaski. They’ll fast until after the prayer service and then they’ll slaughter the sheep and we’ll eat meat all day long. "

Yea, that's basically it...
There were a lot more pics, but I can't change the orientation of pictures with blogspot, so the pic of the sheep being gutted and a bunch of the kids are only available on picasa (which has also been updated, but not arranged or with descriptions, yet).

Tabaski Dinner, the Dioufs!

Tabaski dinner, the Gningues

Killing the Gningues' Tabaski dinnerPrepping the "sauce" with the Gningue women

Abdou "Jambar" Diouf and Kara Diouf, my village parents
"George" Gningue and Mame Dib, his first wife. (He's the 93 year old who thinks I'm his 3rd wife...not so much!)

Head shot of my in my Tabaski outfit...you can't see the braids or the henna, but they are there, I promise!


A week later, I took my hair out of the braids, and this was the scary result...

And now I am off on vacation, yay!!!!!! More posts from there, maybe :)