Party in the Pellel

Circumcisions:

The boys (around 9) dress in white and that's really all I see of them from the women's area, so don't worry about ghastly descriptions like that. Usually in Senegal, the boys ask for money before it happens, standing on the road in their white outfits. Sometimes it's a scam. But in my village, we like to concentrate on superior begging methods: cross-dressing women.

It's amazing. These women aren't old, but with 4 or 5 kids already, they're far from girls. They're respected and dutiful women. Pretending to be little boys. Wearing men's shoes, caps, baggy shorts, and all, they also paint their faces white, dangle corn cobs around their faces and necks, and scrounge up an odd backpack or thermos. The sing, dance, and bang cans or bottles as drums. They're pretending to be talibe and collect change from people so they can split it later to buy mint candies for everyone.

Neene Galle is the funniest. I think she's usually best at whatever she's doing, and I love that this also applies to being a class-clown. She walked and danced with an over-the-top limp, talked like a boy with a lisp, and changed even her posture and facial expressions. I love this woman.

Besides this, circumcisions are also lots of sitting and eating, just like everything else....

Baptisms:

See previous sentence. One interesting thing, though, is some of the naming traditions.

If a child is born after 3 or more deceased children, there's a jinxing kind of tradition the mother follows by "throwing out" her child. She leaves him or her in the woods and another woman in the family follows to reclaim him or her. Long ago, they used to leave the babies overnight, sometimes in a fishing net in the river. If the baby was meant to live, they'd find him or her the next morning. These days, the baby is reclaimed immediately. Then, they name the baby one of the "throw-out" names: Naari, Bono, Wandu, Hawka, Noge, Kenda... (Cat, Hyena, Monkey, Trash...) My baaba was originally a throw-out baby and was named for the basket thing you use to sift out corn fluff from the kernels. They changed his name to Alphajo because Imams in Kedougou (maybe Senegal?) must be named either Thierno or Alphajo.

If a woman gives birth to twins, there are designated names for them too. (Houssaynatu and Hassanatou, Adama and Hawa...) A child born after twins is Sadio. Names can be repeated in the family.

I was hoping to get a baby tokora (named after me) at some point, but I neglected to focus enough of my friendship attentions on women pregnant with girls. The closest I got was little Aissatou naming the stuffed frog I gave her after me. But as she is an unnaturally shy and suspicious girl who doesn't like people to even catch her smiling, I was touched. When I asked if the frog had a name and if she was going to have a baptism, she shyly said, "A girl named Hadiatou" smiled and looked away quickly. Awww! Also Diardi said she'd name her daughter after me if she ever has one. But as she had about 6 kids who died, it doesn't look like the odds are strong. She said if she has a boy she'll name him Ian or Ben, after my American brothers.

Birthdays:

We don't have them. We have no idea even how old we are. They are baffled when I try to explain the importance we place on them in America. A cake and all that hoo-haa just for a single person not even getting married-- every year? Who's weird now?