Gri Gri

I bought a monkey head today. I know that doesnt really sound polite or interesting, but I bought it nonetheless. West Africa has a voodoo like belief that their religious leaders can BLESS them if they carry certain artifacts that have been blessed themseleves. Its pretty interesting. For example take Billy. Billy doesnt like knives. Billy really doesnt like to get stabbed by knives. So Billy goes to talk to his local religious leader about not being stabbed by a knife. The religious leader, or Marabout, writes a passage out of the Koran and blesses it. After Billy takes his blessed piece of writing to the local gri gri maker. The Gri gri maker can make a necklace, ring, belt, etc with the blessed piece of Koran inside. Its like magic. Now Billy believes that if he wears his new gri gri necklace, hell never be stabbed. It seems to work. Ive never seen anyone stabbed here. My village has a local marabout that im friends with. Ive thought about talking to him. Because like Billy, I too dont like to be stabbed by knives. But you can have a gri gri made for really any purpose. Good luck with school, money, love, etc... I could have used one of each about a year ago when i was in school, broke, and when Naeda dumped me and etc...

moral of the story: I bought a monkey head from the gri gri maker. Its the size of my fist and he looks like hes smiling.

Obligation

I fell obligated to write something, but I just cant think of anything to write about. Tomorrow im on my way back to Thies. Thats pretty exciting, right? For the next three weeks ill be able to ,check my email whenever I want. Thats a blessing here. Africa is exactly what you think it is, its Africa. Now I dont mean to be negative but someone has to say it. Though to be 100% fair, Senegal isnt really Africa. Picture 1800s Western America living in the 1980s. Theres a lot of sand. There hardly any electricity. The industrialized world is ALMOST here. And everyone wears our leftover clothes from the "Footloose" era. But I cant complain. I love the clothes here. Theyre cheap. And my village doesnt count, because everyone has solar powered everything, including me. Its the best investment that Ive never paid for. Except for just about everything I own back home. Well, im a ramblin man. And to think that i had nothing to say.

Hush Hush

So football season is coming to an end. To tell you the truth, I dont even know when it started. Africa doesnt know anything about football. They only know soccer, which is ironically called football here. Though, the Senegalese DO wear American sports gear. I see NY Yankee hats, Philly Eagle jerseys, etc... But when I ask, they have no clue about football or baseball.

But the SuperBowl is on Feb 5th, one day after my birthday. If you could please just forget to tell me who wins, that would be great. Id rather be stupid for a while until I get to watch the game. Though I do think the Seattle is going all the way this year. And much props for Chicago this year.

New Diet Plan

I finally found a new diet plan that actually works. All of you still counting calories and/or still on the atkins diet are fools. I call my new eating habits THE AFRICAN DIET. So far Ive lost 28 pounds. No lies. So for only 80 cents a week you can sponsor me so I can eat a nutritious meal. I can draw you a picture and send you a monthly news letter about my people. It'll be good times. But seriously, Im fine here. I eat well. I sometimes eat breakfast. For lunch I eat rice and fish. For dinner I eat millet and fish. For all of you wondering what millet is, picture dirt and...well, just picture dirt. Thats what I eat. I eat dirt. And thats why the African Diet works.  

yum

So Wednesday the 10th was a religious holiday here and everywhere in the world. They call it Tabaski. Quite simply, its Christmas for Muslims. To clearify Tabaski, it is simply a holiday that celebrates Abraham. This is the same Abraham that the Bible talks about. Yes, Christians and Muslims have the SAME God. Well, for all of you who are not religious buffs, Abraham sacrificed his son in the name of God because God told him to. Right before the moment of death, God stopped Abraham and so on and so on. Tabaski is the holiday that celebrates this. So instead of killing their sons, Muslims kill a sheep instead. So I ate about 8 years worth of sheep in just 2 days. Impressive? So on an educational note, next time you hear someone bashing a Muslim person because of terrorism, remember:

Islamic fundamentalists (terrorists) are to Islam, like the KKK is to Catholicism. The majority of Muslims ARE not terrorists. They are really religious people who share the same God as you and the other 92% of the worlds population.