Sunday, November 25, 2012

Some of the family, pt 1



 Kii Chendou Ceesay mooy suma baay la fii, this person is Chendou Ceesay, he is the one that is my host father here.  My host dad is one of my most favorite Gambian males I have met here.  He has really taken the host father thing to heart.  One night I had arrived into town too late to catch a horse cart back to village and was without my bicycle, I called my host father and explained my situation and told him I would walk.  It's a bit of a hike and the sun was setting.  He was not pleased- he left his affairs early to come grab me by horse cart so that I wouldn't have to walk alone in the dark.  I had fortunately found some nice neighbors to accompany me but that wasn't good enough for baay.  He grows most of the food his family eats excluding rice.  He is the Imam or prayer leader of the village and will go out of his way to do just about anything I need for safety comfort and happiness.  He doesn't speak a lick of English, that I know of, but I'm learning his language slow slow.



This is the other baay.  Only my host mom calls Malick or Yura baay meaning father.  I think because he's the youngest son he gets that honorary name.  Malick is around 8 years old.  He's in grade three at the school and thanks to this Words On Wheels project (see future post) he has built confidence and continues to show interest in reading!  As a mildly dyslexic reader myself, I see apparent signs in him.  The word "is" for instance always comes out as si like sigh.  But we try to practice which helps.  Besides being a pretty darned good beginner reader, Malick is an excellent football or soccer to you Americans, player.  He's also one of the most amazing baby sitters I've ever seen!


Maddi Ceesay.  Maddi is the baby in the family at about a year old, at my best guess.  He can walk and is just trying to start some words.  He is the son of Ndey (below) who is the daughter of one of my fathers sisters, I think!  Family relationships are explained differently here.  I still need to sit down with them sometime to try to map it all out.  She's related to my father somehow though I believe.  Maddi is adorable and I'm pretty much in-love with the kid.  I think he likes me too as anytime I come back after an extended stay, he'll come to me to be picked up and won't want his mom for at least a few minutes.  But she definitely wins in that he's much more in-love with her, which is how it should be =)


Here is mother and son.  Ndey loves it when I shake my lappijuice or butt and loves to talk about how big it is and encourages me to talk about and or shake it as often as possible.  Gotta love the Wolofs!





Fana Ceesay.  Fana is one of my sisters, Ndey is also considered a sister since she's the daughter of my fathers sister, but she's not an immediate sister.  What is that in the states anymore, cousin?  Anyway Fana is a sister sister, maybe in her early twenties.  She has gone up to grade ten and therefore can speak very good English which is very helpful.  Ndey and Fana are the main cooks for the compound and both produce delicious food!




Maram or Jugal is the youngest sister and also excellent babysitter!  She's probably around eleven or twelve.  Several people, if not every person, has two names to help identify them as the same ten or so names get used over and over again, especially at the village level.  If you ever come to visit, depending on your name, it's sometimes easier to give a Gambian name.  Some comon fanafana wolof names include (fanafana meaning bush wolof):

For girls:
Fana
Kumba
Mariama
Awa
Rohe
Hoja
Yasin
Dado

and boys:
Malick
Omar
Mustafa
Musa
Abduli
Ebrima
Alhaji
Saikou
Maddi


Here is me and my host mother Dado Mbye.  Her and her family are from Senegal only ten km from our village.  I have yet to go there but hope to soon as every time I see any of her relatives from there I'm asked to come.  My host mom has also taken her role to heart and goes out of her way and above and beyond to make sure I'm healthy well and working hard, but not too hard.  One of our biggest points of disagreement is over me hauling my own water or doing my own laundry.  She seems to take some offense that I won't let them always help me but I argue that they have so much work and that I live here and need to get my own water and do my own laundry but they think it's too much for me.  Sometimes I give in ;-)


And lastly for this post, but certainly not the entire family (my host mom and dad have ten children themselves!) is my best friend in village, Peace Corps community representative, and host sister (cousin) Hoja Ceesay.  She has gone up to grade nine in school and so can also speak very fine English which makes forming a more solid friendship much easier!  She truly feels like a friend here which is such a gift to have.  She will help me with any confusion or anything and be upset with me when I don't eat at an invited meal from her cook fire.  She has also spent time with me in my hut running around and screaming and killing rats!
That's all the photos I really have for now.  More to come!  I thought sharing the current people in my life would be helpful for those back home trying to picture what it's like.  These people truly are my family here, my support, my friends, and will inevitably be the reasons why it will be so damn hard to say goodbye.  I already don't know how I'll face it!



1 comment:

  1. I have tears in my eyes looking at these pictures of your beautiful family. Love crosses all cultures. This always moves me deeply. Thank you.
    Billie

    ReplyDelete