Cultural events

written Saturday, 7 April 2007


On Thursday, my Mandinka teacher took our class to a baptism at his house (his cousin's baby son was being baptized). Baptism traditionally takes place one week after a child is born, and is both when the child is given its name and when it officially becomes a Muslim.

We got there a little late for the actual ceremony, so we didn't get to see much... except for three sheep being slaughtered. Ew! I took pictures of it with my eyes closed.

Then, when I got home in the afternoon, there was a wedding taking place at the house next door to mine, and my host mom had told them they could use our courtyard for cooking. So our yard was jam packed with old ladies and giant cauldrons full of couscous.

My mom took me next door to see the wedding, but there wasn't much happening, just a lot of girls in very preetty boubous sitting around talking. They did have a griot (traditional singer), who when he saw me, the toubab sticking out like a sore thumb, starting singing me a song (Bonjour! Ca va? over and over). Of course him singing to me made everyone stare at me, and I had no idea what to do (later I found out I was supposed to give him money, but I didn't have any with me anyway), so that was an awkward moment. I got some great couscous for dinner though.