Ibraima's Wedding

So my brother Ibraima got married just after I got back from training. I have some pictures, but I wont be able to upload them for another time. Ibraima is about one year older than me, and his new bride(Sirrah) is actually from the new part of Sami, which lies across the soccer field. They have a duaghter together (Kumba), so I think they were officially married in the mosque about one year ago, but waited until this year for the ceremony. They waited because he works in Senegal for most of the year, and the wedding is expensive. I don't know everything about what I participated in, but after going to a few marriage ceremonies I definitely know more now than I did before. Here's what I know: First, a couple of weeks before the ceremony my brothers all built a new hut for Ibraima and Sirra. They put up a backyard fence and an outdoor bed, so its really a complete suite. About a week before the wedding my brother quit going over to her compound to visit, which signaled that she was kind of off limits until the wedding. My other brothers and I were still supposed to go over though and chat with her, treat her like part of the family. The wedding was on a Thursday, and on the Tuesday before Sirra made an appearance. She was fully covered in cloth and led out into the center of the common area. There she laid on the ground, completely covered. A crowd gathered around here with drummers playing and people dancing. Then people just started walking up to her and throwing money at her. Someone was there beside her to collect it all. This went on only for about an hour and then the crowd dispersed pretty early. The next afternoon I went over to her compound and all the women were dying her feet black, braiding her hair, and putting jewelery on her. In addition to making up the bride, they were also cooking HUGE amounts of lunch. During a ceremony they give out food to all of the friends and family around, which means pretty much anyone in the village. The brides family cooks for about three days before the wedding. Finally the wedding day came, and it was surprisingly really really tame at our house. Finally around 11 at night we rounded up together and set off for Sirra's compound to pick up the bride. We didnt go straight there though, we just sat outside for awhile until her family was ready to let her go. I think it was 2 am before the whole crowd, bride included, returned to the compound. At that point the bride just sits on the bed, and everyone comes in and sits around her and starts chatting. They brew attaya, and everyone hangs out pretty much all night. The next morning the same community cooking then switches to the new compound, so it was huge bowls of rice, bread, meat, fish, and all sorts of food at my compound. The bride will then keep sitting on the bed and the whole next day people will just come by to see her and sit and chat. Its essentially just aknowledging that shes a bride, and has a new home. She actually doesnt leave the hut for an entire week, which sounds bad, but people will fetch all of her water, and she does all the cooking in the backyard. On the next Thursday she makes an appearance, walking around town with all her beads and finest clothes on. She goes to all the compounds and most people give her a little money. Other highlights of that day are the first time she pounds grain, and the first time she washes her husbands clothes. Then at some point she just starts being a part of the new family, which is where we are now!

 Alysa, Malcolm, and Alex after we finished painting the living room at the transit house

Me and Malcolm celebrating a job well done on the back porch of the transit house

House Painting

I made it to Basse yesterday specifically to participate in helping paint the Transit House today. The Transit House is a house owned by Peace Corps, with a bunch of bunk beds in it and its essentially a big communal space where people can go when they need to do something in town or just want to get out of their village for a few days. I am pretty far up the country away from Kombo (there is a really nice transit house there) but I feel lucky because I am so close to the second biggest city, Basse, and the transit house here. I generally try to avoid any extra work, but since the house is such a luxury for me I wanted to contribute to its upkeep. In the village work is done not so much according to a clock, but according to the time of day and length of the job. People get up around six and are usually back from their chores around ten before it gets too hot. Alot of times the work is just going to the bush to collect firewood, poles for building, or grass for weaving together for a fence or roof. Every so often there is a bigger task, like for example making huts for the school teachers or mending the Womens Garden's fence. For both of these projects all the men in the village agreed on a day to meet. They woke up, hd breakfast and then all met either at the school or the garden. Then, maybe because they've worked together so much, everyone will just start working and going and they know what to do until in about three hours the job is done. At home we would probably take on a fence or house project solo, and devote evenings and weekends to it until in a few months it was finished. But here, everyone just gives up a morning, works together and gets it done. With that kind of work schedule, I was dreading the commitment of house painting for two days. Once we started though, it felt great to be working, listening to music, and enjoying peoples company that you dont get to see that much. Sometimes I get so used to trying to be a part of the community that I dont want to do anything out of the ordinary, like extra work. But today was a good reminder that even though I have to be a part of the community, its okay to do things that are different every once in a while. And tomorrow morning we'll be painting the floors red.

Travelling to Basse and Swimming in Fatoto

I came to Basse this morning because there is a small work party going on to paint the House that we all stay in here. I dont do much work when I am in the village, and would prefer to do even less when not in the village, but since Im so close to the house and it is so nice to have I feel like I should contribute to the effort of beautifying it. Malcolm is on the house committee so he is here too, and our friend Alysa needed to take a trip so she decided just to come up and see us first and then we would all ride down to Basse together. They got to my house Wednesday night, and Thursday morning we had planned the whole day by the river. Since its so hot weve been scouting swimming spots, and found a great one to try yesterday. We rode bikes there around noon, laid down the bikes and set up to get in the water. Malcolm didnt find it sufficient to just get in the water, he wanted to jump in off the bank. So he did. Then Alysa decided to do the same, she took a slow running start and then got a little cold feet, so instead of jumping off the bank she just slid down it on her butt, but still made the water. I jumped in next and we all swam across the Gambia river and back again. We got out of the water, ate sausage sandwiches (summer sausage brought from home), mangos and then all napped in the shade, for most of the afternoon. Around five we roused, and got back in the water for round two, and then of course some more sitting and chatting before we got home. We relaxed so hard that we barely made it home before dark. Everyone was pretty drained, so we just went right to bed and decided we should take a vehicle today to Basse instead of our original plan of all riding bikes. The thing is the only vehicle leaves at six am, and the town is about 15 minutes away from Sami Koto, so we had to get up at five to get there in time. We managed that part, but as soon as we were on the road realized we had a flat bike tire, but there was nowhere to go but forward. We pumped the down tire and then rode a fast sprint for about three minutes before stopping to do it all again. This repeated maybe five times, and to be honest it was a pretty amazing effort to make Garawol in the time we did having to pump the tire, however it was still 20 minutes after the vehicle was gone. From Garawol we decided to walk another 40 minutes out to the main highway where we might catch another vehicle passing by. We laid there, still tired for about two hours wondering how long we should wait before calling it a day and trying to get on tomorrow. Luckily, this big cell tower service truck was coming out of Garawol and pulled right over and told us to get in the back seat and drove us all the way to Basse.

Corrections!

I had written about the wonderful boxes I received from Megan, my dad, and my mom. All the boxes are still great and beautiful, but I think I made an error. While home over the last month I was eating dried apricots from the Austin box, and writing a letter to Aunt Judy. The apricots were wonderful and I was answering a card that Judy put in Megan's box, when my apricots were gone and I went back to the box for the second bag, I noticed that Megan had used Judy's address for the return address on the box, I at first attributed this to laziness, as if you didnt have time to write out your own full address you would just use somebody that lived close to you and had an easier address to write. But then I realized Megans street would actually be easier to write than Judy's... and that Judy didnt just slip a card in Megan's box.... She actually sent me the box!!!! It didnt change how much I loved the content of the box, but it did give me a slightly different feeling. When it was Megan's box I had imagined it displayed in the kitchen, maybe holding some Mediterranean spices. But Judy's box reminds me of that cool box in the top of the closet with all these old black and white photos that you love to get out and show people. When I leave here someday I would have picked the person I thought to be the coolest volunteer, and put in everything I thought was handy and given them Megans box because it was special and cool to me. Now I know that Ill put everything special to me that has come from everybody I love at home, and carry it all home again with me inside of Judy's box because it makes me feel warm and cozy and cared for... and still pretty cool. Sorry about the mix up. Im going home soon to eat the beef jerky and potato chips, I have been saving them in Basse.