My host parents and I on my last night in Sangalkam
Saying good-bye to my host family. Here is almost my whole compund, there were 30+ people living at my house!!!
My fellow Americans having our last meal at our favorite spot in Sangalkam. May I say it was our favorite place because it was the ONLY place to eat. However, they had amazing fatayas which is dough filled with meat, eggs, french fries, and onions. YUM!!!
Here are the women chilling during my host cousin's wedding.
And here is the lovely bride!!
I am finally done with my Pre-Service training and I will officailly become a volunteer this friday!! I must say I had a tearful good-bye with my host family. They are great people and it was a wonderful welcome into Senegal. This Sunday I will move to my permanent home in Kedougou!
During my last week with my host family I found out that I was going to my host cousin's wedding in Dakar. I was told that we would be leaving at 8am, so I got up at 7am to shower and get ready. Thankfully my host mom lent me some traditional clothing so I wouldn't stick out too much. So at 8am I was ready to hit the road, however, the Senegalese had a different idea of what leaving at 8am means. We sat around until 11:30am when the busses came to pick us up for Dakar. When we got there at 2:30pm (normally it takes an hour but traffic was terrible getting into Dakar) lucnh was served and then I sat around and watched everyone sit around or nap. Around 4pm they told me to go outside and sit under a tarp they had there. I sat there and waited, for what, I wasn't sure yet. Around 4:30 the drums started and the women proceeded to "dance" (pretty much that meant jumping around). They continued for about a half hour and then all the women went to change their clothes. I got to sit around some more and wait for everyone to get ready. We were then given some couscous with a milk sauce to snack on while we waited, again I didn't know for what. At 6:30 the bluching bride FINALLY showed up. I have realized that the Senegalese don't believe that mak-up should look natural and they feel that the more they paint their faces the better they look. When she showed up everyone started taking pitcures with her while I sat around some more. Around 7:30pm wo were served dinner and by 8 I was hurried onto a bus with my family telling me we were going to leave. I still don't know why I was hurried on the bus when I sat on it for a half hour waiting for others to arrive. Finally and 8:30pm we hit the road and by 10:30 I was back home.
I realized that at a Senegalese wedding one sits around a lot and no one ever really knows what is going on.
2 comments:
It sounds confusing. Congratulations on passing your language test! Now you'll be official. :)
I recall learning in my intercultural communications class that Africans have no concept of time. For example, if a tribe sets a community meeting at noon the next day, it doesn't officially start until the last tribal member shows up. If that last member shows up at 5 pm, then that's when the meeting starts. Africa's quite different from our fast paced culture, huh?!
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