Since my last post, the dog situation has improved quite a bit.  Demba has been bizarrely nice to me, and Mon Ami has actually become friends with the “mean” street dogs because she has been escaping from the compound whenever I’m not keeping her under strict supervision.

Ramadan is in full swing right now.  We are in the 3rd week of fasting (no food, no water) from 6:00 AM to 7:20 PM, and by “we” I mean everyone in Thilogne except for me.  People ask me every day if I’m fasting, and I tell them that I fasted for one day, which is true, and half of them laugh and tell me I’m too weak to do it every day, and I’m fine with that.  However, the other half of the population gets angry that I’m not fasting and they accuse me of not liking Muslims and not wanting to integrate. So, just recently, I have been telling people that I am fasting to avoid being hassled.  I feel slightly guilty about this, of course, because people will ask if I’m fasting after I’ve downed a cold Coke or eaten a huge piece of bread with Nutella.

The one part of Ramadan that I do participate in every day is the breaking of the fast.  My host mother makes delicious bissap juice with ice, and we all sit around drinking that and coffee when the mosque announces sundown.  I’m really not sure how people go without water in this sweltering heat, but one of their strategies is to stay up until around 2 AM and to sleep in until around 10 AM and then rest as much as possible during the day.

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One problem with Ramadan here (in addition to the numerous people complaining of terrible headaches and stomach aches) is the fact that mothers do not cook nutritious meals for their kids during the day.  I held a nutrition/cooking class for 28 mothers on Friday and asked them what they were feeding their children, and they said they were giving them Gosi, which is rice mixed with sugar and water, or just plain milk.  Marisa and I showed them how to make an easy, cheap, and nutritious porridge, made with millet flour, oil, sugar, bananas, and peanut butter - all local ingredients.  It was really successful, and everyone loved the recipe, so we will continue every Friday and can only hope that the women will make it themselves at home.

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Aside from Ramadan, the Humanitarian Assistance team from the US Army paid a visit to Thilogne last week, as they may fund a project here, and it was fun to show them around the town.  Also, thanks to generous donations of art supplies by teachers in America, I will be able to do an art camp when school starts!  If you are interested in donating, please check out the “School Supplies for Sukaabe” page, as the more supplies we have, the more kids who are able to participate in the camp.  Now, I’m just going to eat some spaghetti…

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 5:51 am and is filed under Pre-service training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.