Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Big Naming Ceremony

We had a big naming ceremony in our village.  This one was ‘big’ because people from outside the village attended and a goat was killed, drummers came, women wore asoebes, and women danced until late.  Sibou made sure I was dressed in the proper asoebe; It was a big deal – getting the fabric and having it tailored to Sibou’s taste. Now, I officially have a modern African complet that our villagers say is nice – 'A Niceta'! I hope to never have to spend money on one of these complets again, but that most likely will not be possible.
Another interesting part of the day was the fact that we needed to be in the city early the next day for a Peace Corps meeting.  We did this by getting a ride with some firewood collectors to the main road and getting picked up by a nice woman who attended the naming ceremony.  We rode with them until they turned off the main road to their house and then we got a taxi to the Peace Corps transit house.
We took lots of pictures of the big ceremony as well:
Ushering the drummers into the compound

Amie looking pretty and having a great time

One of the drummers, gambians love the whistling


The Kora or as our host dad calls it 'black mans guitar'

The women dancing

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