Off to Casamance!

Today is the last day in Pekine/Dakar before we take off for a ten-day journey through the southern part of the country, a region called Casamance. The most important destination is Bounkiling, the village where the Kouyate family is from. To get to this area, we will take a huge bus in the middle of the night, which must stop midway to cross the Gambian border—twice, actually: we will cut straight through the middle of this tiny, narrow country which divides Senegal into two parts.

The past few days have been really great, but I have barely had a moment to myself to reflect on all of the new sights, sounds, tastes, and smells. On the other hand, it is probably best to think about the smells as little as possible…

The highlights so far have definitely been the Mandinka music festival on Saturday and the naming ceremony on Sunday. The music festival was organized by Alphousseyni, along with a committee of other individuals in the Mande ethnic community in Pekine. As with everything in Senegal (at least that I have seen so far), the festival was a lengthy, drawn-out affair—the music didn’t even commence until around 8:00 PM. Alphousseyni told me that music would start immediately after lunch, at about 3 PM, which brings to mind another characteristic I’m beginning to apprehend about life in Senegal: everything takes much longer than you expect, and thus everything happens much later than you say it will. Dinner, which occurs at “9 PM,” is actually eaten at midnight. If you say you will go to a relative’s house for lunch you might show up in the early evening. An appointment for 10 AM might be actualized at noon or 1 PM, and EVERYTHING is put on hold for a conversation, especially a conversation over the thick, frothy “Ataff” (delicious Senegalese tea—I’m learning how to make it right now, but it is harder than it looks and usually people just laugh at me when I try to pour it). It takes some getting used to, but it reflects the friendliness and generous hospitality of people here—consideration for your family, friends, and neighbors takes precedence over the trifling commitments that I am used to taking so seriously (although I am prone to being late myself…just ask my Mom). “Time waits for time,” Alphousseyni says, and in Senegal, at least, he seems to be correct.

Anyhow, the music festival was great—a famous female singer was present and sang some songs, but I wasn’t nearly as impressed with her as I was with Alphousseyni’s band, which is huge (admittedly, probably too big: even Alphousseyni says “There are too many people on the stage…I need to kick some of these people out of my band.”), loud, and awesome.

The naming ceremony was incredible, and I am beginning to realize that the things I am so privileged to be experiencing are really unique—there would have been no way for me to see this kind of celebration—especially in this neighborhood—if Alphousseyni hadn’t taken me there. I already described the unique way he played kora at the naming ceremony, but I can’t get that sound out of my head. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some good recordings of him playing with the two “boys” (I think they’re actually my age) furiously smacking the sides and top of his beautiful instrument with sticks. I guess koras aren’t really that fragile after all!

Just for your information (all three of you who read this blog), after tomorrow I will be pretty out of touch…there are no “cybers” in the rural area we will be traveling in for the next ten days, so I will not have access to email or the “lime green wonder” until I get back. My phone will still work, but other than that I’ll be cut off from the outside world…I will probably be a changed person—much wiser, with even more remarkably high levels of consciousness and self-actualization—after ten days of forced separation between me and technological sophistication. Kind of like Thoreau, only in Senegal, which is much cooler than New England. Actually, I will probably miss whining on this blog and having the opportunity to check scores on ESPN.com.

Hope you are doing well and miss you all!