fete de paques--Easter Mass

I went to Easter Mass with Martine, her god daughter, Beatrice, was receiving first communion. She is pictured to the right of her twin cousins in the first photo. In the other photo is me with Martine, her husband and Beatrice. In addition to all the children celebrating their first communion, there were dozens of families with babies to be baptized. Afterwards there was a great party. Martine had a dress made for me to wear to Mass, with a picture of Jesus, and below it said "I have faith in you" (in French of course. Except for the French priest, I was the only white person at Mass. I took the two video clips in the church in order to record the music. This was during the baptizisms. It was a very joyous occasion. The choir was terrific. In addition to the Senegalese music with traditional instruments, they performed the Easter portion of Handel's Messiah with recorded music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3xH8IXdC4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_lQeVOyqZc

pounding fabric at Mali market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxpt7Y5Igrs

I think I finally figured out how to link my youtube videos into the blog. This clip was taken in January at the Mali market, the men are pounding wax into the fabric.

A family meal chez Martine in Bignona

When I arrive with Martine at her mother's house in Bignona, her mother invited me to stay at the house. Before leaving Dakar, Martine had made a reservation at an inn in town. Her mother and Martine thought the house was too primative for me. They had me check out the outhouse and the fenced-in area where you took a bucket of water to take a "shower". After assuring them that it was fine--my only adapation was buying bottled water and not drinking from their well--Martine's mother declared that "my house is your house" and announced they would make a special meal for me. Her youngest brother, Sedi was the chef. Martine pounded the palm nuts in the large morter and pestle. Except for sleeping--most of life takes place outside in their yard. Cooking is done over charcoal stoves.

Martine's sister-in-law, who has an 18 month-old little girl, Martee killed and plucked a chicken from the yard. Wandering around the yard were sheep and chickens the whole time I was there. They seem to put up some barrier at night to keep the sheep from coming into the house

We ate Senegalese style, from one large bowl with our hands, I was given a spoon. In polite Senegalese style, they would push extra chicken over to my section of the bowl.

Most of the time we ate at this little table outside the house--this is a typical breakfast--when a family has money for it--French bagettes. After we bought the bread, we would stop at a little store, slice the bread and pay for them to spread on the chocolate spread (like Nutella) that they use here--or cheese. The family would make a pot of tea from some local leaves. Martine's mother liked coffee so I would buy at the same little shop, a miniscule plastic bag with about 1 teaspoon of instant coffee and another bag with powdered milk. The whole meal would cost less than a dollar to feed lots of people. When you don't have enough money to eat this "European" breakfast, you take some kind of plastic container and go to a place where they sell already cooked millet porridge. The seller dishes it into the container you brought with you--costs about 20 cents to feed a family. Martine was always grateful to me for this trip--but I am equally grateful for the opportunity to learn about village life in a way I never would have as a tourist.

The other day I took this photo of the family across the street from me, eating from the one pot. I often see the security guards eating this type of communial meal. I often wonder, where does the food come from, who cooks for them. Sharing is certainly the way of life here. As a matter of fact, when you thank someone here in Wolof, the reply, our "you're welcome", is literally translated as "we share it."

Boat trip to Casamance

For spring break, I took the ferry over night from Dakar to Ziguinchor in Casamance. I went with my maid, Martine who is from Casamance. We had berths in an 8 person cabin. We ate dinner and breakfast in the restaurant on the ferry. The boat, named Osama, sailed from Dakar, south along the Atlantic and then went up river to Ziguinchor. Look at a map, Casamance is the area below the Gambia--an English speaking country that is long and thin on either side of the Gambia River. There has been some fighting in Casamance–– as there is a separatist movement among some who want independence from Senegal. Some people asked when I returned if it was dangerous but I did not see or hear any fighting. There are several military check points as we traveled between Ziguinchor and Martine's home town of Bignona. The trip between the two towns took about 1 1/2 hour by taxi.