Liver on Korite, again

It’s that time of year again, when we buy a sheep and murder it to become out breakfast, lunch and dinner! Ramadan is officially over so I can try and get back into a normal routine of actually working with hydrated, happier people who are not constantly thinking about food. This year’s Korite is a bit different than last year’s. The big reason being I am no longer in training, the others being that I understand more what is going on and am no longer freaked out by the fact that the sheep was hanging out, eating grass one minute and on the grill the next! And what made it even more exciting is that I was reading the book Alive, about the survivors of a plane crash where they survived 70 days in the Andes eating the crash victims. Eating liver of a sheep and reading how they ate human liver… Not a good combo!

I am celebrating Korite with my host mom’s sister’s family. You know the little 3 year old, Khali, that was staying at our house? We are with his (very pregnant) mom and dad in Mbour for 3 nights. I have to admit, I was dreading this since I didn’t really know what the situation would be. Being a guest at someone’s house, when sometimes, I feel like I am still a guest at my own home. So we got here on Monday evening and I was surprised to how beautiful this house is, that was built not quite 2 years ago. It has a nice roof to sit out on, tile rooms and hallways and cement ceilings! On Tuesday, myself and a volunteer that lives about 45 minutes south met for lunch. Mbour is a beach city, populated with Senegalese and Saly, it’s neighbor is a city that is more like a foreigner’s paradise with restaurants, chic hotels and night clubs. Well my friend and I wandered around Mbour the day before Korite when everyone was still fasting, and to our surprise, there were no restaurants open! So we went and spoiled ourselves in Saly at a restaurant where I had a seafood pizza and bailey’s ice cream for dessert. Amazing.

So that way my day yesterday until around 10pm when the women (mom, sister and aunt) decided it was a good time to go to the market. WHAT?! I was in the market earlier that day and it was crowded with far too many people, way too many cars and a lot of mud and pools of water from the rain that morning. This didn’t stop us! The market was bustling with people all last minute shopping, but like a thousand times worse than the day before Christmas since they are all yelling, pushing and shoving and one wrong step could cause you to fall in a puddle of mud. We got back after midnight and I was exhausted.

This morning, I woke up and got ready to come downstairs and see that the cooking had begun. I was assigned to pealing and cutting potatoes into fries. I have a small blister on my hand from too many potatoes and the dull knife only cut me once. I didn’t have to witness the killing of the sheep today, which was nice, since I was in the kitchen. “Breakfast” was ready around 2 consisting of liver, ribs and onions. “Lunch” was only a few hours later, with more meat, onions, french fries and raw veggies. Who knows when “dinner” will be but I know that it will involve more sheep! After the second meal, at 6 I wandered around greeting friends of Khali’s dad. Honestly, I hate doing this. I am like this token to show off to their friends who can speak Wolof. After a few houses, when he was ready to take a taxi into town to continue this, I said it was time for me to return home. Ha! I wasn’t able to express myself in that way last Korite! Life is good. I got some work done on my computer and am able to relax in front of the fan and type to you.

Tomorrow we are getting picked up by the same chauffer that brought us out here to bring us back home to Bambey. My host mom hates transport during the holidays so paid a bit more to reserve us a comfortable ride. Then on Friday I will have a demyster (a brand new volunteer who just arrived in September) coming to stay with me for a week. Hopefully she will be the replacement for my closest neighbor! It’s kind of hard to believe that now it is my turn to host rather than be the one to get de-mystified! I have been here a while huh?

Make sure to enjoy the turning colors of the leaves! I miss fall just thinking about it. Here everything is just going to die but there are no maples to appreciate. Take pictures for me!