April 11

Today is our 3 month anniversary in Dakar-more than 3/4 in!  I'm starting to feel pretty Dakaroise given a few interactions I had this weekend...
namely the religious festival in Ouakam.
But first things first.  We started the weekend by going to a salsa club (called New Africa, obviously a toubab spot), which was great, especially when around 2am it devolved into a giant Michael Jackson only dance party, led by a Senegalese man wearing neon checkered pants.
After about 2 hours of sleep, I wander home from Jenn's house on Saturday morning for the 8am prep-time for the festival...which consisted of all of the women cooking and dealing with the children while the men shot the shit outside.  Oh wait they did kill several bulls, but that was like a 2 person job.
Anyways, I spent the morning cutting and peeling onions and potatoes with Tabara and Umi (our new bonne...we have a maid now that we have 2 newborns in the house!), and eating peanut butter lax to get in the festive mood.  At exactly 3pm, all of the women started frantically preparing themselves for the ceremony (which began at 5pm)-we all got dressed in our matching white boubous (the more stately older ladies wore matching blue and white gauzy scarves, as well) and walked to the local middle school (the only venue large enough to host the event) in what looked like a massive wedding processional.  The event itself consisted of sections of prayer, sermons, and chants (all in Wolof or Arabic, so needless to say, my comprehension was limited at best) but the entire event was really an experience...the men and women were seated separately, and all of the women, the toubabs included, needed to wear head coverings.  The ceremony (which, by the way, was in memorial of El Haji Mbaye Diop, who is the grandfather of my host family-as well as every other family in town, considering he had 4 wives and bajillions of children with each) lasted about 4 or 5 hours, and at the end everybody went back to my house for dinner...and then promptly passed out.
Yesterday was a post-celebration relaxation/children's entertainment day.  Tabara, Umi, and I took Colle, Maguette, and Marietou to the beach, where we saw a pelican roughly my size...it chased away a stray dog and sent the children into a fit of hysterics.  Other than that, it was a lovely day of lounging on the rocks while Colle retrieved various fish body parts from the water (the Ouakam beach is generally used for fishing and fish preparation, rather than for recreation)-don't worry, I soaked her in my hand sanitizer back at the house.  Oh and on the way home, Maguette was sleepy so I was carrying her, and was approached by a Senegalese man who asked me if I was married, or if she was my illegitimate child, because white women tend to sleep around...and, part B to his question, if I wasn't, in fact, married, could he join in on the fun?
Yikes.  I'll be honest, I'm really looking forward to being back in a country where a comment like that isn't perfectly acceptable.
Starting today, the kids' vacation from school is over, and everyone is getting back into the usual routine...so I don't have too much else exciting to report.  I'll keep you posted if that changes.
Mangiy dem.