Viva Tabaski!

I have been camping this weekend and it was fabulous. We camped on a hill about 1500 feet up. In the photo, you will see the view from our campsite and the Senegal river. On this side of the river is Mali and the other side is Senegal. We saw a few monkeys on the hike up and heard them all night long--similar to sleeping through a grandmothers' tea party at the Synagogue. On the return hike, we ran into one of the local villagers and when we explained what we were doing, he was shocked that we survived the night because "devils live on top of the hill." Local Malian folklore always says evil spirits live on top of each of the big hills around here. If the evil spirits happen to be the beetles that were crawling all over my backpack this morning, then call me a local folklore believer.

Tabaski begins tomorrow, here's a website with a great explanation of it: http://www.nhm.org/africa/tour/unit001/016.htm Not exactly my cup of tea. Evidently all the cows, chickens and goats in the villages give a sigh of relief on Tabaski. I'm certainly one of those people who would be a strict vegetarian if I had to do my own slaughtering--let alone doing it for religious purposes. My heart and thoughts go out to all the local sheep tomorrow and I tried my best when I suggested they slaughter heads of cabbage this year but I received the "you are a crazy white lady" look again. I would love to go on a sheep rescue mission tonight but I think the other person in this household might object to my compassionate efforts.

By the way, for those of you who might like to know, here's a great story of some "real" American Ambassadors to Mali........ (just when I thought Air Force dudes couldn't be any more sexy, along comes Humanitarian Air Force dudes.....)

http://www2.hurlburt.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123126767

Is it really December?!

Wow! It's really December. (only 16 more days til Galicia!!) The temperatures have finally gone down to the lower 90's during the day and 70's at night. It scares me to think what the Spring will be like. I'm told it's the hottest part of the year. Oh Joy.

Everyone is preparing for Tabaski, which begins on Monday. I will explain more about Tabaski later this weekend. FYI-Vegetarians might want to skip my Tabaski post. Ramadan and Tabaski are equivalent to the Christmas/Easter or Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur of Mali Muslims.

By the way, did I ever mention the local language here is called "Bambra" and that Mali means "hipopotamus" in Bambra? Now you know--impress your friends.

Another interesting Mali factoid is Lemongrass grows wild here. Back in Houston, there was only one Asian grocery store (in a town of 4 million) where you could buy fresh lemongrass. There are at least 8 lemongrass patches in the back yard. Now if I could just grow some nacho and India Pale Ale patches in the back yard, life would be beautiful. The other night I actually tried making tortillas with the local corn flour here, I think "disaster" is a relatively appropriate description for how they turned out. Oh Texas cuisine--how I miss thee.

By the way, I added a photo of my Mali/Senegal border crossing from this past weekend. First class.

East Senegal Weekend

I have spent the past weekend at an exploration camp across the river in Senegal. (Notice the photo of some of the little dudes hangin' on the river) It's a stunning area. However, I think every Tsetse fly in Eastern Senegal decided to investigate us. It just wouldn't be trip to a new area in West Africa without the local insects giving you a massive amount of itchy bon voyage gifts. This was also my first experience of an all-dude camp. If you have the time one day, I'll give you the one-on-one briefing. I also had my first experience with an interesting array of foods. Not as bad as it could be, but I now know the scent of deep fried fish heads is a superior appetite supressant.
There were some great highlights though, a lung-expanding hike up one of the local hills which included an inadvertant ambush on a family of mongooses (mongeese?). We also saw a huge troop of baboons and some antelope looking things. (Eventually, I will get around to primping my Picassa site so I can share more photos.) The absolute best was the overwhelmingly appreciated organization of a Thanksgiving BBQ on top one of the hills. It has been ages since I've enjoyed a bonfire in the middle of nowhere and cooked everything from scratch on the fire. Bliss....
Hope everyone had a wicked awesome Thanksgiving.

Getting Thankful

Am slowly recovering from last night's festivities. Red wine hangovers are never welcomed in 98 degree weather. Reinet, my newly dubbed Patron Saint of Rioja, flew in from the UK and brought two bottles of Spanish Rioja with her. Therefore, last night we feasted upon some of my homemade spinach and chicken lasagna and mucho vino. Thanks to my sous chef, the lasagna noodles were also made from scratch (whole grain cracked pepper noodles!)

Was feeling a little down earlier b/c I will be spending Thanksgiving alone. Everyone foxtrot oscared today to go over to the Senegal camp. However, tomorrow is just a regular day (and no sign of a turkey within about 1000 miles) here so it won't be too depressing. Plus, I was looking through photos earlier and found this one of a local village (yes that's a burnt trash pile in front of the hut). I'm extremely thankful I was neither raised in this type of environment nor do I live in it now. These people will probably never have a Thanksgiving dinner (nor my Mamaw Beaumont's Date Pudding). I've got it pretty good, even if I am in the third poorest country in the world. Was also thinking back to last Thanksgiving when my Mom came down to Houston and we epitomized gluttony by devouring a half log of Boucheron and several bottles of a NZ Sauv Blanc---and that was just the starter. Probably not going to do a repeat performance this year.

On the upside, I'll be heading over to the Senegal camp on Friday and we're going to do a West African Thanksgiving BBQ. Now.....time to get to those lasagna leftovers--sans vino.