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| My family's cows in our yard |
I have just moved in with my sort of maybe permanent family
in Tareedji. Tareedji is located in the Futa (a general region in the north of
Senegal). This region is predominately made of herders whose wellbeing depends
on livestock as a source of milk and meat. As such, I have been drinking a lot
of milk.
Milk in Senegal is a completely different substance than in
America. In America, most people buy their milk at a grocery store. It comes is
a carton. There are a few select and consistent varieties of milk: nonfat, 1%,
2%, whole, heavy cream, etc. In America, milk is pasteurized and refrigerated.
Typically, Americans consume milk in cereal, to bake or cook with, as a
additive to certain beverages i.e. tea an coffee, or to drink from a glass.
Close to none of these hold true for Senegalese milk.
Senegalese milk is as varied as it is mysterious -- at least
to me as an American outsider. Clearly it is not mysterious to my family. It
comes in many forms from sweet to sour, warm (from the outside temperature or
from the cow itself) to chilled, creamy and smooth to chunky and somewhat
curdled.
In Tareedji, people also consume milk in many ways Americans
do not.
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After milking the cow into a wooden bowl
specially designated for this purpose, Senegalese people either use a large
ladle or drink the warm milk straight from the bowl.
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Another common way to drink milk is to mix the
milk in a large jug with water and sugar until the milk fats have consolidated.
You are left with a sweet watery-milky drink with milk chunks floating in it.
Sometime, people drink this from cups or, again, from large bowls with a ladle
that is passed from person to person. This milk is surprising good, especially
when served chilled (from ice that you buy from a boutique in small plastic
bags—not a refrigerator).
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Similarly, this kind of milk can be poured over Senegalese-style
couscous and for some reason I do not quite understand, it ends up tasting like
chunky oatmeal covered in banana-flavored yogurt.
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Plain unprocessed milk can be added to a dried
fish/bean sauce and served over couscous for a savory and salty dinner. Note: I
have not had this in Tareeji, only in my CBT site in Ngheho.
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Milk—both plain and with sugar—can also be
bought in individual plastic bags which are sold at boutiques. As with many Senegalese beverages (water,
bissap, baobab juice), to drink these, you must tear a hole in the bad with
your teeth and drink it from the bag.
·
You can also purchase milk by approaching any
milk sellers (my family for instance) and pour milk from their buckets into whatever
contain you have on hand.
Most of these forms of milk are drinkable if not delicious,
except straight from the cow. Even though my family serves me unprocessed milk
multiple times a day I still find it difficult mentally to personally milk a
cow (which I have down twice now!) and then drink its warm milk from the bowl.
At first, I told my family “Mi susa” which means I have no courage. But they
milk the cows and by cultural obligation offer me some so many times a day that
I cannot refuse. Not surprisingly, I have not gotten sick at all from this milk
despite what my Peace Corps-issued health book has to say about milk. Most
likely Senegalese milk is better for me anyways because of the way the animals
are treated here and how the milk and the cows are not pumped with hormones,
but who knows. One day I will stop telling my family I have no courage and
drink up.
