It's done! I've celebrated my first Eid (Tabaski) in Senegal! And it was wonderful. I was in Ngallèle with my families there. If you're curious about the story of the holiday, BBC did a brief outline of the story of Eid.

We woke up early in the morning to prepare the house for the festivities. Around 9h30, the men go to the mosque to pray all together, and then when they come back, they say special Tabaksi greetings, asking for forgiveness and praying for each other. Then, they slaughter a sheep. In the morning, everyone fasts in the morning until the men remove the liver and give it to the women to grill. I was a bit skeptical about eating grilled liver as I don't even eat much meat anymore, but it was delicious! A nice traditional way to break the fast. The men are in charge of skinning and cutting the meat while the women prepare the meal for the first meal: meat with some fries and lots of onions. Needless to say we ate really well.

For the second meal of the day, I went to Adiou's house, my other family in Ngallele. They also prepared meat for lunch. It was really nice to spend time with them on the holiday. I wore my beautiful Senegalese ensemble that turned out really nicely! It's an orangey mustard color and it's really nice. I'm very pleased with it. But I still feel pretty awkward in it. Hah. I spent the afternoon with them and then went to a coworkers house for the evening just relax and to let everything digest. Oh man. Holy meat hangover. Hah. Everyone wears beautiful ensembles and the fiesta lasts for DAYS. It's pretty wonderful. All the free time, the days off, the beautiful clothing! Wow.

It is pretty amazing to me how everyone spends so much money for Tabaski. Because it's such an important holiday, it's important to really go all out, even if you don't have the money. Everyone was shocked that I bought lower-quality fabric and didn't pay too much to get mine sewn. My whole ensemble ended up costing less than $40 (which to me is a lot of money on one ensemble!!!). Other people spent $100 on the fabric alone! It's interesting to see what people find important.

In other news, I'm finally moved into my new place. And I really like it. The people I live with are nice, and it's safe. It really feels like home now. And one of the sisters in the family that I'm really close to in town (that I now live right next to!), she came back from Dakar... it's the first time I've seen her! So it's been so much fun to be with her again! It's nice to know that they consider me like family now. :D I'm excited for my real family to come to meet all of my Senegalese families. It's going to be so much fun!