Ugh, I’m so mad. My family finally got my laundry taken care of, and it was a disaster. Some kind of blue dye got on a bunch of my clothes, about 5 tank tops were stretched in weird and uneven places, rendering them unwearable, and stains weren’t taken out of any of my clothes. Basically, my wardrobe just got cut in half here… I know I’m not supposed to be so attached to material things, and I probably shouldn’t have brought my favorite clothes to Africa with me, but how hard is it to do laundry right?? I obviously will be doing my own laudry from now on.
On another note, yesterday I went to a baptism, which was an interesting experience. The baby was born ONE week ago, and about 150 people were at the family’s house. It was a huge celebration – it lasted from 8am-10pm!! The family fed everybody 3 meals, provided bevorages (non-alcoholic of course), and opened their house to all that chaos for an entire day. It was actually pretty boring since everyone was speaking Wolof and most everyone was really old. But there were a few interesting cultural elements involved.
1) People got VERY dressed up for the occasion – the family even changed partway thru the day. Women wore their most tacky boubous (sparkles and all), got their hair professionally done (glued to the sides of their heads), and put so much makeup on that in America, they would be deemed porn stars. People in Senegal have a lot of pride in the way they dress and everyone is always well-dressed (if they can afford it), but this was a little overkill. P.S. I had to wear a boubou too. I’ll try to get a picture of it.
2) Apparently, a sheep was killed bright and early in the morning, to feed all the guests for the entire day. I guess the family had bought the sheep two days before, let it chill in their back yard, and then slit its throat in the morning. I wonder if the sheep knew he was on his death bed… This reminds me of this Muslim holiday, called Tabaski, where EVERY muslim family kills a sheep in rememberance of the sacrifice of Abraham. Poor sheep – why do they have to be the object of these silly traditions?
3) The baby doesn’t get named until the day of his baptism (7 days after his birth). Then they have this huge naming ceremony. An Imam is present, lots of prayers are said, and someone (not sure who) names the baby. Then, they proceed to shave off all his hair. Apparently the original hair on the head is considered impure because it passed through the vagina (reflection on how they feel about women and sexuality). But the poor baby’s scalp isn’t rough enough yet, so everywhere they shave, they cut, and the baby’s scalp ends up bleeding like crazy. But they just keep on shaving…
I had to leave the baptism to go to class. I went back afterwards because that was when the real party was supposed to start. But, from I could tell, it never did. I mean there was so music playing for a while, but just as I was getting ready to dance, the power went out. This has been a daily occurrence for the past 2 weeks. So then I’m sitting by the light of the candle in this house eating rice (and avoiding the lamb). I left soon after because I was just too damn disoriented!
It must have been really expensive to hold this baptism! It was so extravagant and so much preparation had to be involved…. Wow. This family was obviously well off, but I wonder what the poorer families do. Baptisms are very important here (there is one every single day, I’m sure), so I can’t imagine that the poor families would just not have them…
The Baptism
