Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

December 20th
Yesterday we had the baptism for the new baby. His name is Moussa by the way. We had a baptism but I don’t think it was a traditional ceremony because my family is short of money because of Tabaski. Like I said before, everyone spends every penny they have on Tabaski. In general, when a family has a baptism, the father slaughters an animal to share with family and friends. We did not do that. The baptism consisted of people coming over in the morning to visit and drop off small gifts and money. The men all gathered and prayed all morning. He women mostly stayed in the bedroom all day with my mom and the new baby. It is very strange but my mother and the baby have yet to come out of her bedroom. I saw her come out one time earlier in the week for about 30 seconds and then she went back in. I thought that was the whole point of the baptism… a big showing of the baby. I didn’t expect anything like the Lion King ( you know, when the monkey, Rafiki takes the new baby lion, Simba out to Pride Rock and holds him out for all the animals to see and they all start singing and bowing JJ) but I certainly thought Amie would bring the baby out for all to see. Anyway, the day went on and people came and went. I went in to hold the new baby and a man came in to pray for him. He held Moussa’s head and prayed for about a minute and then haucked a big luggy (don’t know how to spell that but you get the point) and spit on his head…lets just say not all of it went on the babies head and I got rather large blessing myself! The day continued and all the women gathered and made tea for hours and hours. I decided to be a good volunteer and I went to town to buy some sodas… That went over well but then some women were very angry because they didn’t get any. Whatever. Anyway, many people stayed for lunch and then in the evening everyone from the whole village came over for a dancing ceremony. I got some great photos and videos. If you read my previous blog entry, you will remember that I mentioned the women pulling their skirts up to show all when they dance at baptisms… nothing less happened at my house. I got flashed more than a few times! All in all, the day came and went and was quite eventful.
Every day, I eat lunch and dinner with my family. I never eat breakfast there because volunteer before me didn’t so they just assume I don’t want to I think. The first day, my mother told me to go to the boutique and buy bread…so that’s what I do. My family eats dinner generally around 8 pm but for some reason lately it has been getting later and later in the evening. A few nights ago I was in my room waiting for dinner and it was about 8:45. My mother Binta came to my door and asked me if I had eaten already and I said no. She looked very upset and she told me that there would be no dinner that night because the family didn’t have any food. That night we didn’t eat and I heard the children crying before bed because they were hungry and couldn’t fall asleep. This leaves me in a weird position. I pay the family every week for me to live here. They get more than enough money from me. I also usually buy them food in the market or fruit in town before I come home. When my mother came and told me there was no food, I wanted to go and buy something for them but it was too late at night and nothing was open. That night sucked and we all went to bed hungry. Now I don’t know what to do if this happens again. It’s difficult here because if you give an inch, people will take a football field…really. I don’t want the children to go hungry but also I don’t want the family to get the idea that I will just go buy them whatever they want if they don’t have money. I think that would start a trend that would be difficult to stop. I want to know why my father is not giving the mothers money to buy food. I also want to know what is happening to the money that I give them. I don’t give them enough to support the whole family but I give them more than enough to feed just me. If it happens again, I will go to my father and ask why but for now I’m keeping my mouth shut because I don’t want to cause any drama in the family.
Other than that, all is well in Senegal. Today it was a chilly 60 degrees. It also rained. This is the dry season and I haven’t seen rain since November 4th. It only rained for about 5 minutes but it was a nice surprise nonetheless. I hope everyone at home is prepared for a wonderful Christmas. I hope you all have a great holiday. Eat some Christmas cookies for me!!!