The Art of Tabaski

Yesterday was Tabaski.  Tabaski is one of the biggest holidays here in Senegal and is quite the celebration.  Every family purchases a sheep to butcher and eat.  This year I feel like we finally mastered the “art of” Tabaski.  Last year we ran around trying to make it to every house we had been invited to.  We ended up eating 4 lunches and returning home absolutely exhausted.  Then we realized that everyone stayed home for the afternoon and went around and visited people in the evening.  So that is what we did this year.  We accepted one lunch invitation and then made rounds of visits in the evening, which was MUCH BETTER.  Slowly but surely we are learning how to follow the flow of life and culture here.

Here is a little of how our day went:

• The morning we got front row seats to our neighbors as they butchered 4 sheep and buried the remains in the ground just in front of their house.  (no pictures provided since this is a family friendly blog :))
• Around noon we all got dressed up to eat with one of the families we have grown really close too.

  

• We ate lunch there and then stayed for tea and discussions

  

• We came home and received visitors
• Then we went around to visit our old and new neighbors.

  

• We now will be eating sheep for the next week to finish up all the leftovers we have at home

  

Growth

They did everything that they were supposed to do without even being asked.  They greeted everyone upon arrival (super important here), they waited patiently for the food to be finished, they ate around the bowl with us and handled themselves Amazingly!  Last year we didn’t even want to bring the kids because we knew it would be such a struggle and this year they did it without hesitation.  Now that is growth!   God is Good!