On Dakar Time: Rafet na! - It's beautiful!

Last weekend was the Senegalese presidential elections. My family and I spent most of the day in our backyard relaxing, playing, and cleaning the sheep. In the evening, we watched the TV as the votes were provisionally reported from different voting stations and regions. Officials from each voting station called in to the TV station and the call was broadcast live. Between phone calls, they showed footage of people standing in line to vote, picking up ballots, dropping them in the box of votes (for lack of a better word), and of officials counting votes. Watching democracy in action was beautiful. Especially because many of the voting stations were schools, especially because the vote counts were written on blackboards in Senegalese cursive, especially because the weekend had been peaceful.

Here's some of the beauty of that weekend:

The photographer, 6 year old Papito (a family friend).

My host mom and brothers (Moctar and Mohammad) preparing to wash our sheep. If you think giving a dog or cat a bath is hard and/or amusing, washing sheep is even more so.

Step #1: Tie the sheep to a cement brick so they can't run away. (Essential step)

One of my favorite pics. Teamwork!

My host sister, Mariam. She is beautiful, period. Over the course of the day, several child cousins and family friends came over (while their parents went to vote?). Watching her play with them and play mother to them in some ways was beautiful.