Well the holiday season is in full swing both in the United States and here in Senegal. The funny thing about Senegal is that around the middle of November, Christmas decorations start appearing all over the place. Not only do stores and private residences occasionally decorate for Christmas, but many people on the street peddle Christmas wares, ranging from tacky decorations to full-blown fake trees (all from China, of course!) An interesting phenomenon for a Muslim country!
The big Muslim holiday here that coincides with Christmas (more or less) is Tabaski. Tabaski and Korite are the two biggest fetes of the year in Muslim countries, Senegal being no exception. All over Dakar, vacant lots have been transformed into huge seething masses of mutton belching and braying incessantly. Having a large mutton is the Senegalese equivalent of having a large turkey for Thanksgiving – every family simply has to have one, whatever the cost. And they are expensive – a large mutton can cost between CFA200,000 and 500,000 (from $400-$1000). So it’s a big deal. On the morning of Tabaski (tomorrow, as a matter of fact), the city suddenly becomes eerily silent as hundreds of thousands of these animals are sliced and diced for the feast. The smell of slaughter and cooking flesh hangs over the city until early afternoon. Our neighbors downstairs have a very nice mutton tied up under Maddie’s window. She’s visited him a few times but generally she’s surprisingly disinterested in them. He’s very loud at times but she doesn’t seem to mind.
Madeline has had a busy past month. She’s starting to get caught up in the Christmas fray as she has opened one gift a day
for the past few days now (we are trying to get her to appreciate gifts by not opening a million in one sitting, but rather one per day more or less). She’s gotten a few choice Christmas presents already. The grand-daddy gift of all was the light blue baby bike (see photo). She’s probably too young for this but knows exactly how to use it already and motors around the house. She has fallen off a few times but that’s the risk of having such an awesome toy 
. Her other Senegal gifts are a telephone set (both a cellular and regular phone) that speaks to her in French and a set of beach toys. A real plastic Christmas so far!
In late November we had some visitors from Holland stay for a week – we all had a great time, especially Madeline of course. The highlight was a trip 3 hours south of Dakar to a wonderful lodge on the edge of a river, in the middle of nowhere. This was the same place we went when Amy’s parents visited in the spring… but the big difference this time was that Madeline can now walk and run and is much more independent and self-sufficient. This is both a good and bad thing in a place like that! Upon arrival she promptly fell into the river face-first; then later in the day smashed her face on a bench and got a bloody lip. Finally, the next day she sliced the bottoms of her feet to pieces from shells in the river. All of that being said, she had a great time! She loves being outdoors with infinite space to run around. See the pictures below for what was probably our last trip to Sine Saloum in Senegal (unfortunately we are getting to the point already where we are probably doing things in Senegal ‘for the last time’).
And how is Madeline? She’s been a bit off the past few days – I think she caught some sort of bug that has slowed her down and made her irritable. Her sleep has been terrible the past few nights – up 4 or 5 times, hardly able to get back to sleep. The worst episodes are between 3:30 and 5:30 am. She’s getting a few more big teeth and generally fussy. Tomorrow morning at 2:30 am we are flying to the United States for a two week holiday. 15 hours in the air with a 14 month-old has the potential to be really fun… this will be a different experience than it was the last time we flew this distance, because she’s much more mobile and expressive, and is starting to figure out how to really get her way. Our families will hardly recognize this kid – she’s so different than she was in August.
While in California and Colorado for the holidays, we plan to start weaning Madeline. But the catch is that nursing her is a godsend on the airplane – so clearly we will need this tool when flying back to Senegal in 20 days. We’ll wean her, but not too much!
