Tabaski Part Two; The Part Where We Eat

After a fascinating Tabaski morning Rebecca and I began the second half of our day: two Tabaski feasts.  Our first feast was at the home of our friend Modibo, a tailor who works on our property.  Modibo lives in Kabala, about 10km from Bamako's center, with his wife and 6 children.  He calls his neighborhood "la brose" (the brush). Kabala is on this map in the lower left corner:

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To get to Kabala we took a Sotrama for the first time. The image below is actually a piece of art at the Musée national du Mali, but it is a fairly good rendering of what a real sotrama is like.  They are small vans, always green, and almost always packed with people.  When traveling inter-city, it is not uncommon to see them stacked this high with stuff. 

Most sotramas are labeled maximum 18 or 20 passengers, but on the way to Kabala there were over 30 people in ours at one point (though many of them were children).  It was an interesting experience, and for the fare and convenience (about $.60 to go 10km), I'd do it again.  In fact we did do it again coming home from our second party.  (That Sotrama was much smaller, but still had over 20 adults in it at one point.)  No matter how full the Sotrama is, the "conductor" is always calling the destination looking for more passengers.

We arrived in Kabala and made our way to Modibo's house, a one room barren concrete structure -- actually pretty nice by local standards.  Though we were two hours late and the family had already eaten, they treated us as honored guests, reheating mutton on the grill and also serving it in sauce with bread and couscous.  We also enjoyed a delicious tomato salad followed by watermelon and Malian tea (more on tea in a later post).  Below is a pic of Modibo serving us grilled mutton.

Modibo is wearing the traditional attire for Tabaski.  He has on matching pants which you can't see in the photo.

Above Rebecca enjoying a mutton rib.  If you're wondering what this delicious ram looked like the day before, please see Tabaski Part 1.

We were both really moved by Modibo and his family's hospitality.  But since we were running late, we had to make a hasty departure from Modibo's for stop #2: dinner with one of the first people I met when I moved to Mali - Mohamed the furniture maker.

I met Mohamed on the street while walking past his shop.  He introduced me to his good friend, roommate, and "brother", Adama, who became one of my French tutors. Mohamed and Adama invited Rebecca and I to join them, their wives (Fatim and Rokia), and Mohamed's baby daughter for their Tabaski feast.  We enjoyed their company on their rooftop and ate more mutton -- this time in a sauce with french fries and fried plantains.  We stayed until after dark and caught a sotrama home.

Unfortunately our camera was maladjusted and the photos are a bit blurry.

Tabaski was a memorable day and I feel fortunate to have been able to participate so intimately in the festivities.

And for those keeping score, I did mention that we attended three Tabaski parties.  The third party was the Tabaski equivalent of a work Christmas party.  It was held the Friday evening before Tabaski.  All of the faculty and staff and at Rebecca's school was invited to the headmaster's home.  His lawn was set with tables, there was a lively band, a traditional dance performance, and of course plenty of mutton.  A (live) ram was given away to one lucky staff member (all of the staff are local).  He seemed very moved and according to my friends he was quite deserving of the prize.  Every head of family is obligated to provide his family with a ram, and at about 100,000 francs, this is an expense almost equal to a full months salary.