Touba

Long time, no post! I've been busy with wrapping things up and I keep meaning to write but keep putting it off. Anyways, I went to Touba on Tuesday with my Islam class, a city that is about 3-4 hours away from Dakar. It is the capital of the Mouride brotherhood in Senegal, so it is a very very big deal city, and one that is rapidly growing as well. Mouridisime was founded by Chieck Ahmadou Bamba, a Senegalese, so there is a great deal of national pride in the brotherhood.
The city is owned by the Khalif, the head of the brotherhood, and it is he who distributes the land to people- they don't buy it. Hence, the city is rapidly growing. People come to Touba for Magal, which celebrates a week after the prophets birth, his baptism. For that it is a mini pilgrimage for Mourides, and everyone heads out here. My family here is Mouride, so they were very excited about me getting the chance to go to Touba (and were shocked that I wasn't staying the night).
When we actually went, we drove out there, stopped at the house of a friend of our professor to use the restroom, and chilled out on some mats to 'recover from our journey'. Very welcoming. Following this we drove up to the grande mosque- and boy is it grand! At this time we ladies also had to put on our headscarves (already dressed in long skirts and tops that covered part of our arms). It was HOT out! We had a guide to show us around the mosque and show us different parts (and keep us out of where we weren't supposed to go). It was a gorgeous place and quite large with multiple rooms for praying- I can only imagine how full it is during Friday prayer, let alone during Magal. The mosque was done in a very morracan style (I suggest googling images of it- there are some great ones, better than what I could get).
Following touring the mosque we went to go and see an old source where people go to drink the water because it is holy. Mostly felt annoyed because some kid decided to take pictures of us on his camera phone. Aggravating because I don't do it to other people (always ask before you take a picture) but I know a bunch of tourists do it anyways.
By this point it was lunch time so we went to another friends house to have some tasty Chieb. Our host was an important (female) leader in the brotherhood and in the group that my professor is a part of (he himself is quite important). She is the wife of the now deceased marabout, which is a big deal in itself. It was a wonderful lunch- and I ate with my hands! Sometimes it is just SO much easier to do things that way.
That was pretty much the end of our field trip- it might seem like we didn't do much, but it was important for us to go and see Touba, a city completely run by the Mourides, and it really is like a mini-Mecca. And it was important for me to get to go because it is an important place for my family (I picked up some prayer beads for my host mom). It was very too the point too, which is always nice, as opposed to lingering in the sun.
I came home that evening, exhausted, but went over to my friend Jessie's house for some yummy yassa poulet- and ate with my hands again!!!
Other than that, this week has just been some tests (nothing too hard) and working up the energy to write my anthropology paper- which will have to be postponed while I go to the beach this weekend- a bunch of us have rented a house for sat/sun, to cook and generally hang out. Really looking forward to that!!!