"The · darkest · thing · about · Africa · has · always · been · our · ignorance · of · it"

(Note from Mom: B created a number of blog posts on her computer over the summer/fall months when she didn't leave her site and then sent them to me on disc.  Thus the occasional references to time periods that are actually a few months ago...)

It’s September 2^nd, and Ramadan has officially begun! That means no food or water for teens and adults between dawn and dusk. (The kids get to eat as normal.) Last year, participating wasn’t even really an option for me: I’d just come through two bouts of dysentery, was adjusting to a new malaria med (which can gave digestive side effects), and didn’t have the emotional stability to deprive myself of yet one more thing. This year, I’m still not going to do the whole thing, but I’ll probably do a couple days to satisfy my host family. Here’s why:

The thing that drives me nuts about Ramadan is that it makes no accommodations for health or cultural concerns. Even nursing moms are expected to fast (not healthy for the baby, a fact which I attempted to point out to the two nursing moms in my compound last year, to no avail), or are considered bad Muslims. Ramadan is scheduled by the lunar year, so it moves up each year, but for now and the next few years, it will continue to take place during the rainy season, which is also the malaria season, which is also the hungry season. So in essence, you have people working in the fields all day, with no water or food, then when they do eat, there’s not a lot of “extras” like meat or veggies, since they can’t afford it in the hungry season. So they’re undernourished and dehydrated, then expect their bodies to fight off malaria. Brilliant. Needless to say, a lot of people die during Ramadan. (This may not be the case when Ramadan falls at a time of year when people aren’t in the fields all day and can afford better food, but that won’t happen again for 5 years or so.) So I have difficulty participating in (and therefore supporting) a cultural practice that is so physically dangerous. Obviously, with multivitamins, anti-malarial meds, and more nutritious food (not to mention the fact that I would still drink water regardless), I’m not at the risk they are by fasting, but they don’t know all that. My host family keeps asking if I’m going to fast, even telling me that Salama (my PCV predecessor) fasted. Considering the fact that (according to my host family) Salama couldn’t even speak basic Mandinka, I find it highly unlikely that she went out of her way to observe many cultural practices. I pointed out the fact that she could have told them she was fasting and then just eaten inside her house (this wouldn’t be difficult—I cook all three meals and my host family still thinks I eat only their food), but they resisted that possibility. Anyway, so I’d like to do a couple days or so, but I have no intentions of going the whole month.  (There are a few PCVs who do this, and they’re either crazy or super devoted. Not sure which.)

Cer (one of my sitemates) has recently found out Peace Corps is going to send her home early (about 2 months) for medical reasons. So now she’s scrambling to pack and get rid of stuff and clean out her house. She’s also going to try to take her dog, Willy (one of Minty’s buddies, who originally belonged to Salama, my PCV predecessor in my village) back to America with her. Problem is, she hadn’t started on preparations (he hasn’t had his vaccines and his crate is just now being built), so it’ll be very last minute. Hopefully it’ll all work out though, because Willy has passed through so many PCV owners (5, by my count) that he has all kinds of behavioral issues and many Gambians have made death threats against him (attacking livestock is the unforgivable sin here). If she’s not able to take him, there’s no telling what’ll happen. (One dog is all I can handle here!) If it does work out, she should be flying an almost identical itinerary to what I’ll be flying in April, so I’ll be able to get tips on how to get a dog through that whole process.