Ramadan Is Over

Well today was the “jour de la fete” (holiday – end of Ramadan). Apparently there was some discord about when the fete was (apparently they celebrated yesterday in Conakry). I assume it is the Imam who decides the day. My Outhouse Calendar said it should be today. So…iron clad fact, right?

Anyway as usual I was lying awake when the prayer call came out at 5-something AM. For some reason I am always awake for the prayer call. Maybe Allah is trying to tell me something. So I fade in and out of sleep and then after the 6am prayer the drums start. Or I should say, THE drum. Evidently it is a big drum. I assume one person is beating on it. It sounds like they are doing it in my backyard and the sound resonates on the walls of my room. Slow, measured, then quicker, then fast, then it stops for a few minutes and restarts.

Yogi thinks this is Allah coming down on him and is FREAKING OUT. He is barking and whimpering and skittering around the room. Me, I might have been able to sleep through the drum, but not Yogi making pagaille (chaos) everywhere. I try letting him into the living room. He starts scratching at doors. I try putting him outside but am so annoyed that I don’t get the rope all the way round his neck and he is loose so I have to chase him into the yard in my little shorts and tattered tank top, braless, but luckily he has to pee and that is apparently more pressing than escape so I catch him without much trouble. Then somebody calls my name from the road while I am dragging him back to the porch and I don’t even look and just hold up my hand and in English say, “not right now!” Attach Yogi to the rope and slam the door without another thought. Whoever it was must think I am really rude. Oh well.

This doesn’t stop Yogi. The drum is still freaking him out and I end up having to get up and dressed by 7am. Around 9:30 I decide I want to buy meat for the family I have been eating with of late so I abandon LOTR: The Two Towers and go to the Carrefour, where I can hear the butchers chopping cows on the tables from my house.

It is a PAGAILLE (chaos). There are dozens of people crowded around the two tables, everyone wanting some meat for the fete. The butchers are throwing back knives and hatchets and I dunno how nobody got one in the eye, but apparently they are swift to get out of the way. I see Caw Ousmane (member of the family) trying to get meat and I tell him I want to buy a kilo for the family and he says he will get it. So I give him the 7 mille (not even $1.50) that it costs for a kilo of beef and then sit with my friend Ousmane the Boutiquier (yes, everyone is named Ousmane) and watch the pagaille unfold. Apparently Caw Ousmane does not have sharp elbows because he was one of the last to still be trying to get meat.

Dude. The smell of butchered cow is FOUL. I couldn’t stand at the table. I could barely sit back at my friend’s boutique watching. Forget the stench, the bloody parts, the hide, the kids hitting each other with the dead cow’s tail, people walking away with its feet, women coming up with entrails in their hands asking Ousmane the Boutiquier for a bag to put them in…GROSS. And on top of all that the sickening smell.

So anyway Caw Ousmane had to go pray and I didn’t know if he ended up getting any meat but when Aissatu Bah brought me rice and sauce in the evening, there was beef in it so I guess he did.

Anyway I gave the family 5 Fantas (3x the cost of the kilo of beef), a liter goblet full of candies (WWF gum complete with temporary tattoos in the wrappers, lollipops, toffees) and a pot of popcorn. They thought the popcorn was HELLA doux and wanted me to teach them how to make it. I can, it’s easy, but the corn they grow here isn’t sweet corn so it isn’t exactly the same, but it’s something.

So I did the Attaya thing while they ate their bon-bons and then when it started to rain had to run home to get my solar charger out of harm’s way and then Aissatu brought me rice and sauce (but it was soup sauce so it was Yogi who enjoyed it) and we sat on my porch awhile talking while we had the hardest rain we’ve had in awhile and I filled my buckets. When it waned a little I loaned her my rainjacket to run home in and then went out and took my bath, which ended up being in the rain. Since it was raining and getting my hair wet I just washed my hair (hadn’t done that for almost 2 weeks!). Then I put on music and did a bunch of chores till Bella came over to go to the dance.

We went and got Aissatu Bah and Hoodia found us on the road. It was like the last time I went (all kids) because we were early and it was raining. But I don’t mind the kids because they’ll dance with me if I take their hands and originally we were up on the raised part where the DJ is but when we went to sit down I had a sudden urge to run into the main crowd and make kids dance with me. So I did. It was crazy. Once I got down there, a circle formed around me, everyone wanting to see what the white girl was doing. So I danced with some kids like that before my friends pulled me away. Dude some of those little kids can DANCE. And have really cute clothes. Like cute white shirts that glow in the blacklight.

Anyway my friends were spent by like 10:30 which I found shocking so I went home even though I was ready for more.

And now I sleep.