Touba (3/26/03)
I have become smart, my friends, I have decided to write this week’s edition on the computer at home, saving my work to disk and emailing it at the cyber cafe. These means that I won’t be as rushed. You might be thinking that this new luxury will allow me to check over what i write and eliminate typos. Ha ha ha. Fat chance my friends.
Anyway, what to recount. I’m practically on vacation. I’ve had only half of my courses this week. Enjoying the highlife. At the moment I’m munching on these new, incredible altoids that my parents sent in my birthday package. Citrus sours tehy are called and they come in an adorable silver andn lime green tin. Can’t stop eating them. Almost all gone. Btw, Mom, Dad, we ate all the chocolate. Went through that baby in a night. It’s dangerous to bring chocolate around teh family. Vultures!!!! We hardly eat any sweets in my house so when we do have candy, it’s every person for herself.
I have also found the tuna stash. Oh yes, tuna, canned tuna. Heaven. Sunday night it appeared out of no where. I made in known just how much i like tuna, and when i woke up this morning, there was a can next to my bed. It’s liek teh toothfairy but better. I’ll be eating tuna for lunch. It’s amazing how happy simple things can make you.
As for this weekend, I went to Touba, the holy city started by Cheikh Amadou Bamba, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, les Mourides. There are four main brotherhoods in Senegal and a lot of smaller ones. Everyone thinks i belong to the bayefalls, which is a renegade sect, known for their dreadlocks, their funky clothes, and for not praying the standard 5 times a day. They are looked down upon by the rest of teh muslim population, being called baye faux ( faux is french for false) and what not. Some don’t even consider them muslim. Real Bayefalls are known for their impeccable work ethic, BayeFaux are known for smoking up and making a lot of noise in the middle of the night. You can hear them from miles away tapping on the tamtams and chanting. But I digress.
Back to Touba. Touba was an experience. We took a tour of teh mosque which is abolutely incredible. We were lucky we got to go inside because it’s usually off-limits to infidels. Teh façade is made of pink marble from portugal and white marble from italy. The ceilings are covered with ceramic tiles. Out of all the mosques i’ve seen, it’s one of my favorites. Of course, stupid me forgot to bring my camera. Our leaving at 645 am threw me off. I can’t function before sunrise. Oh well.
We also got to tour the huge library with tons of religous and philosphical litterature. The trip was enriching, but it also felt like a death march. 110 degree weather while covered from head to toe for modesty’s sake is not a picnic. But i survived. Papa sent me on a mission while in Touba. I had to buy kinkeliba, which is a type of tea. But of course this special tea doesn’t come in tea bags, it comes on branches. So i had to carry 3 foot stalks of tea on public transportation. Everyone laughed at me of course but then again, i got to whack (accidentally of course) people with my merchandise. And since i delivered the goods, i wasn’t disowned.
Sunday, i went to a tae kwon do championship with a senegalese friend. It reminded me of my days of competition. I think i’d rather fight in the states tho, the combattants only wore chess and head protection. When i fought i had wrist guards, shin guards and a mouth piece. Brutal. I thought the women fought better than the men at this particular tourney. Talk about culture shock, more than half the women fought while sporting a full veil. I would think the extra cloth would make teh heat unbearable but they didn’t seem to mind. Most of the senegalese population doesn’t adhere to this more strict form of islam so i was surprised that so many of the fighters did.
So, Friday, Papa is going out of town, I forget where, and Yaay is at a meteorology conference in Niger. This means that the kids get the run of teh house... Party! Unfort, i leave saturday for Cape Verde, not getting to partake in this parental freedom. Pity. Poor me, chillin on the beach in Cape Verde.
Anyway, i think this has been a lengthy enough email but before i go, i will leave y’all with some interesting facts:
Africa is 30.5 million square kilometers (sorry, i don’t know how many miles squared that is but it means that all of Western Europe and North America can fit inside) but only has a population of 600 million people (that’s a little over twice the United States Population. It’s the most underpopulated continent (not including Antarctica of course). There exist between 1500 and 2000 languages (note, these are languages, not dialects). Next week, if i remember, i wil provide some fun facts about Senegal. For know, it’s time to make my tuna fish sandwich. Alhamdullilahi
Maya
Anyway, what to recount. I’m practically on vacation. I’ve had only half of my courses this week. Enjoying the highlife. At the moment I’m munching on these new, incredible altoids that my parents sent in my birthday package. Citrus sours tehy are called and they come in an adorable silver andn lime green tin. Can’t stop eating them. Almost all gone. Btw, Mom, Dad, we ate all the chocolate. Went through that baby in a night. It’s dangerous to bring chocolate around teh family. Vultures!!!! We hardly eat any sweets in my house so when we do have candy, it’s every person for herself.
I have also found the tuna stash. Oh yes, tuna, canned tuna. Heaven. Sunday night it appeared out of no where. I made in known just how much i like tuna, and when i woke up this morning, there was a can next to my bed. It’s liek teh toothfairy but better. I’ll be eating tuna for lunch. It’s amazing how happy simple things can make you.
As for this weekend, I went to Touba, the holy city started by Cheikh Amadou Bamba, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, les Mourides. There are four main brotherhoods in Senegal and a lot of smaller ones. Everyone thinks i belong to the bayefalls, which is a renegade sect, known for their dreadlocks, their funky clothes, and for not praying the standard 5 times a day. They are looked down upon by the rest of teh muslim population, being called baye faux ( faux is french for false) and what not. Some don’t even consider them muslim. Real Bayefalls are known for their impeccable work ethic, BayeFaux are known for smoking up and making a lot of noise in the middle of the night. You can hear them from miles away tapping on the tamtams and chanting. But I digress.
Back to Touba. Touba was an experience. We took a tour of teh mosque which is abolutely incredible. We were lucky we got to go inside because it’s usually off-limits to infidels. Teh façade is made of pink marble from portugal and white marble from italy. The ceilings are covered with ceramic tiles. Out of all the mosques i’ve seen, it’s one of my favorites. Of course, stupid me forgot to bring my camera. Our leaving at 645 am threw me off. I can’t function before sunrise. Oh well.
We also got to tour the huge library with tons of religous and philosphical litterature. The trip was enriching, but it also felt like a death march. 110 degree weather while covered from head to toe for modesty’s sake is not a picnic. But i survived. Papa sent me on a mission while in Touba. I had to buy kinkeliba, which is a type of tea. But of course this special tea doesn’t come in tea bags, it comes on branches. So i had to carry 3 foot stalks of tea on public transportation. Everyone laughed at me of course but then again, i got to whack (accidentally of course) people with my merchandise. And since i delivered the goods, i wasn’t disowned.
Sunday, i went to a tae kwon do championship with a senegalese friend. It reminded me of my days of competition. I think i’d rather fight in the states tho, the combattants only wore chess and head protection. When i fought i had wrist guards, shin guards and a mouth piece. Brutal. I thought the women fought better than the men at this particular tourney. Talk about culture shock, more than half the women fought while sporting a full veil. I would think the extra cloth would make teh heat unbearable but they didn’t seem to mind. Most of the senegalese population doesn’t adhere to this more strict form of islam so i was surprised that so many of the fighters did.
So, Friday, Papa is going out of town, I forget where, and Yaay is at a meteorology conference in Niger. This means that the kids get the run of teh house... Party! Unfort, i leave saturday for Cape Verde, not getting to partake in this parental freedom. Pity. Poor me, chillin on the beach in Cape Verde.
Anyway, i think this has been a lengthy enough email but before i go, i will leave y’all with some interesting facts:
Africa is 30.5 million square kilometers (sorry, i don’t know how many miles squared that is but it means that all of Western Europe and North America can fit inside) but only has a population of 600 million people (that’s a little over twice the United States Population. It’s the most underpopulated continent (not including Antarctica of course). There exist between 1500 and 2000 languages (note, these are languages, not dialects). Next week, if i remember, i wil provide some fun facts about Senegal. For know, it’s time to make my tuna fish sandwich. Alhamdullilahi
Maya
posted by maya at 7:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home