Ramadon

So this month is Ramadan the Muslim holy month were the Koran was relieved to Muhammad. People celebrate this by fasting for one month, witch means no eating or drinking from sun up to sun down. Also the small mosque that I have in my town now gives out the call to pray five times a day, I never have seen it used until now. When I asked my older brother about he said "God wants to hear the mosque during Ramadan". So Islam over here is Sufism but they have different brotherhoods like we have protestant religions. My family is of the Tiegion branch witch I don't know a lot about their beliefs and if they differ all that much from Islam but there holy mosque is in Dakar. I do know that all the brotherhoods over here are very liberal. Most Muslim countries women can not show the curves of their body. Over here it is very a prorate to show off your butt, in fact you wealth is directly related to how big your butt is, the fatter you are the healthier you are. The only rule is you can not show knees if you are a female, typically men wear only pants but know cares if you wear shorts in my village. I did decide to try fasting witch I lasted 13 days of not eating, I was always drinking water because I don't like dehydration. After that I broke down and started eating, now I have been stuffing my face full of food in Kaolack for the last week. Although my brothers fast and then go and work in the fields and I do not know how they can do that in the heat of the day. I have also found that my village has a bakery were they make delicious bread to sell during Ramadan. That and I have been making friends with the baker and getting free bread. That and it is really interesting to see how they bake it. He built a giant mud oven and they cover the bottom with sand. They then proceeded to light a giant fire inside the oven and make the bread all day. After the bread is rolled out they push the burning logs to the side of the oven and bake the bread in the hot sand. It is so delicious and the baker has started playing around and putting chocolate in the bread as well.
The other interesting thing that happened was I went to by new nieces baptism. Over here baptism are for new born babies. The baby is born then they wait one week and have the baptism. What happens is people go over to the house and the mother sits with the baby on a mat in the middle of the compound. The father then shaves the baby's head and then whispers the name of the baby in it's ear. Then the father passes out kola nuts, the only drugs that Islam allows (basically highly caffeinated nuts), then every one eats really good porridge, socialize, and then eat really good rice and sheep or goat. It was fun plus it was the daughter of my uncle who I like. Other than that I will leave you with the word for fasting because people ask me this everyday. In Seereer the word for fasting is hor (pronounced whore) so so this month people keep asking me if I am horing today.