Magal/General Update

This is only half of the post I wanted to put up, but the internet has been so slow and inconsistent here that it took over an hour to upload these six pictures...

These are all pictures from my trip to Touba. It is the holy city of Mouridism (a brotherhood of Islam) and the burial place of Mouridism's founder, Cheikh Amadou Bamba. Completed in 1963 the mosque is also the site of his tomb.

Every year, millions of Muslims from all over the world make a pilgrimage to Touba (called the Magal), worshipping at the mosque and honouring the memory of Cheikh Amadou Bamba.

The mosque early in the morning.

Day before Magal and people were already pouring in by the thousands by 5am...

The mosque in Touba. (Rich followers will often donate things to help improve the mosque. You can see in this picture that a load of air conditioners has been donated and in the process of being installed.)

Two of the four towers. The one on the right is where the imam sings the call to prayer five times a day.

Inside the mosque where people pray facing east towards Mecca. It was incredibly beautiful and during the Magal, even at 5am, there were so many women praying that it was impossible to walk through.

More prayer space in the mosque.

A look at one of the towers with a few talibé children hanging around

(Talibé are children who attend coranic schools and live with a marabout (religious leader) and usually do not wear shoes and beg for money as a way to learn humility.)

Some ladies with their children walking through the mosque.

I have more pictures I would like to put up but since the internet is being so frustratingly slow I am going to leave that for another time. In other news here's what has been happening on my end of things recently:

• The strike is finally over!!!! Although to tell you the truth, I was really starting to like not having to do anything for weeks on end. I like to think of it as a 3-month-long vacation. Spring break is coming up soon, although there were rumors that it was going to be canceled because of all of the lost time from the strike. If they took away spring break there would be more strike to bring it back, so I suppose it's in everyone's best interests to just relax and enjoy these next two weeks.

• Second semester should be starting April 11th, although with the way the school year has been going I'm a little skeptical. I am hopefully going to be taking a few literature classes and maybe a french grammar class. However, if last semester is any indicator, one of my classes won't exist, one will be at the same time as another, and I will not be able to find the third class because they will have changed the room without telling anyone. Gotta love the French system... I'm still teaching english to elementary school children in town every Wednesday and continuing with my wolof classes. Even though the UGB has been on strike most of my time here I have still learned a lot outside of school and I can't even begin to realize what I've subconsciously learned until I get back.

• Speaking of returning, I am officially coming home July 7th, 2011. It's only about three months away... I try not to think about leaving because mostly it just ends in tears. Senegal is absolutely wonderful and I am going to be very sad having to leave behind such amazing friends. My Senegalese life is quite different from my American one (for example I have four things on my To Do list here and it's really quite stressful.) A life full of sand, 105˚F heat, goats, cafe touba, daily powerouts, wolof, mosquitos, no obligations (except for the very important social obligations) and I am going to miss it quite terribly.

• The end of winter is upon Senegal (although I'm sure most of you wouldn't agree that what I had to endure could be called winter...) Today was a toasty 100˚F and the mosquitos are starting to come back. This means the battery-powered fan my mom brought me will come in handy because I am sure there will be a spike in the power outages as more people start using their fans and the power grid won't be able to handle it...

• Other than that, life has be tranquil as usual. I'll be gone from the internet for a while again because I'll be out and about for spring break, but I assure you that I'm staying safe as always!

Love,

Hannah