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Tabaski

The week started with Lynn having to go into work by herself as I had a virus which affected my sense of balance, no jokes please. Every vertical movement I tried brought waves of nausea so it was a quiet week for Lynn as she went to work to review the previous weeks training events. That said the whole week was geared towards Tabaski. Tabaski is the Wolof word for sacrifice and it is a national holiday that takes place 2 months and 10 days after the end of Ramadam to commemorate the story of Abraham. Every family sacrifices a sheep on Tabaski morning and the rest of the day is spent feasting, giving presents and in prayer.
Just as in the UK the final week before Christmas brings a sense of anticipation and excitement so it is here before Tabaski. The families in the compound had purchased two rams for the celebration and these were tied together outside our home for the week awaiting their fate. On Tuesday they were sent to be cleaned ready for the slaughter and as Friday approached Lynn and finally I did not want to look at them. Now to be clear we know it is slightly hypocritical of us because we eat meat and the rams were to be slaughtered for food but what we found hard to stomach was that after prayers on Friday, Tabaski, every compound and every family in every village in the Gambia would watch as their ram, sheep, goat was slaughter in the same hour of the same day. The whole family, including young children, would watch. In our compound the families wanted us to join in “the fun” but needless to say we were out on more urgent business, like hiding at a friend’s house so we could not witness the events.
Three days of celebration follows Tabaski and everyone dresses in their finest parties and visits friends. Groups of youngsters from 3-21 wander the streets looking for adults whom they ask for “Salibo” a gift of money of anything else one might wish to give them. That said it was difficult to know the level of gift we should offer. One group of 4-5 year olds were overjoyed at the gift of 5 Dalasi while a group of 15-19 year old girls looking very western in their Saturday night finest were quite disdainful of their 25 Dalasi. Sure I know that 5D is only 10p and 25D around 50p but hey you can buy 5 eggs for 25D.
There were some funny sights seen which sadly we couldn’t take photos of as it seemed inappropriate, some Gambian adults are very anti photographs and believe that it removes their souls, so we always have to be careful. On Thursday we saw a man cycling on the main road with a large washing bucket tied to the rear pannier of the bike in which was a goat. Now knowing each goat’s fate tempered the moment but had we seen it at other times it would have been quite funny for the goats seemed quite happy sitting watching the world go by as the man struggled to cycle along this potholed street.
Highlight of the week was an impromptu concert put on for us at our friend’s compound. Juan and Olga had invited us for lunch during Tabaski where we played Petanque, the pipes and generally avoided the moment of sacrifice. Seven girls aged from 7-11 arrived at the compound to say hello and found our boule on the floor. Not knowing what they were loved the chinking noise they made when knocked together and so decided that they should sing while tapping out a rhythm with our boule. It was great. Gambian children have a real sense of rhythm and often spend their time drumming and singing. See the short clip below.