The last couple months have been interesting for me. I left Jigimar-Farafenni in tears, drifted around for a couple months living out of a suitcase, and have now found my situated in a rather swank living arrangement here in Saateebaa (Big Village) Brikama. And by swank, I mean 3 rooms of intermittent electricity, with a flushing toilet, and cold shower. But I guess that beats waking up every morning lightly coated with grass, dirt, and tiny little termites.
You may be thinking to yourself "This guy's moved up in the world". That thought is correct. I am a visiting lecturer at The University of The Gambia (UTG), so a man in my position can't be suffering from a lack of basic needs. Because, that just looks bad. And in this country, image is everything.
When I'm not busy cultivating my image, I'm just, well, busy. When I lived in Farafenni, one of my goals in a day might have been "Today I'm going to show Fatou how to print something on the computer". Now, my goals are "Today, I'm going to finish the lecture slides for CPS101 and CPS212 and load them on the class server. Oh, and maybe I should go ahead and start grading their last assignment too." It's not easy. But rewarding.
The students are the best this country has to offer. Some of them are legitimately good and can actually program. But they're suckers, since I've lured them in to playing pickup Ultimate for some (paltry) bonus points. Or maybe they just really like Ultimate; which is exciting because I had 25 people last time and had to make two fields.
But enough about the new Stevo. Let's revisit the old Stevo. I did. Last weekend when I went back to Farafenni to visit my family for a naming ceremony. The event was pretty standard as far as naming ceremonies go: 3 big meals, 3 dead ungulates, more than 3 old ladies asking for money, and of course, alot of music, dancing, and drumming.
A couple things that stuck about the weekend were:
An old lady asking for money stole my brother's attaya cups for not giving her money.
-Bless
And now, time for some pictures.
Toulaye = cute
Serra and the mother of the baby, Yama.
These guys stole the party
This boy likes chatting too much
Baba accepting big money as head of the compound
She came bearing gifts
And more gifts
Apparently, this guy is important. When he greeted me, the first thing he asked for was money. I don't care how long I live here, that will always be rude.
What did you expect, a Thanksgiving turkey?
This was actually a combination wedding/naming ceremony. Not exactly sure what's going on here, but that's the bride/mother
It's never a bad time to answer your mobile
