Happy Birthday, Mohammed

Saturday was a party all around Senegal to celebrate the Muslim prophet Mohammed's birthday. I biked in to Linguere to go to the get-together (gamou) at my aunt's house. The main idea is to sit around, cook and eat an incredible amount of food, listen to music, then go to an all-night singing/praying fest under a big tent with lots of lights, dressed to the nines. I skipped the night part this time, but spent the day cutting kilos and kilos of onions, then chatting with family, neighbors, and no shortage of precocious children.

The men killed and processed 2 cows in the morning

Then the women cooked the meat with more rice than I have ever seen in my life.

  

The lunch serving process was quite a production- complete with a parade of boys carrying platters upon platters of food to their recipients. This is my cousin's wife Yacine getting things organized.

A few of the plates

... after lunch, the women cooked another unbelievable amount of food- macaroni with meat and onion sauce for dinner.

A few of my new friends- two of my cousin's kids and a neighbor.

Sitting with my little sister Rose and her son

And that was that- cooking, eating, sitting, and catching as much of the Africa Cup games as possible in between. I got my Senegalese party fix, and lots of brownie points with the family for chopping onions and taking photos.

The real parties are in 2 cities in Senegal: Tivaoune and Kaolack. People belonging to one of the Muslim brotherhoods, Tidiane, go to Tivaoune if they can, and lots people head to Kaolack. These gamous are a real big deal here- people travel from all over the country to go, and take them very seriously. Of course, this makes it hard to travel through the crowds and to get a car to anywhere else, so unless you're in it for the full gamou experience, it's best to just stay put until the chaos subsides.

In other news, the official presidential election campaign started yesterday, and we're all staying tuned to see how things go. If you're not following the latest Senegal news, the election is set for February 26th and the government recently declared the current president, Abdoulaye Wade eligible to run in the election despite his already having served two terms. The term limit was changed from three to two while he was in office, and it's been decided that he can be grandfathered in. He's 85 now, has made some controversial decisions recently, and those opposing his re-election have been more and more vocal about their views. There is also speculation that if he wins, his son Karim Wade will be appointed in his stead.

The opposing party has also had difficulty organizing behind a single candidate. The singer Youssou N'Dour, who recently decided to enter the presidential race was was declared ineligible to run (this accompanied the the ruling that Wade is eligible). There have been some problems in big cities with violence and demonstrations, but nothing so far in or around Linguere. My Senegalese friends and family tell me that it should stay pretty quiet here, so I'm safe and sound. If there's any sign that there will be major problems, Peace Core has plans of action, and we've all been briefed. So don't worry- I'm probably just sitting here inmy hut drinking tea while people are working out the election problems elsewhere: