Circus Freaks
You know, I think Africans would love to see a circus. They love the unbelievable. The only problem is that in our freak shows, we like to see things we can’t believe. Africans like to believe what they can’t see. Who knows, we probably do quite a bit of that ourselves as well.
Really, right here in Boukoumbe we practically have our own circus freak show… but they’re not usually people. They are actually the tata somba’s (traditional mud fortress housing. Refer to previous posts for details). Did you know that there are tata’s that are more than 100 years old? There are also tata’s that are so mysterious that if you were to enter you wouldn’t be able to find the door to leave. Other tata’s actually just fell from the sky one day. Some will curse you if you were to use artificial lighting in them. To quote one of my good, and fairly educated friends, “Tata’s are very mysterious.”
I love how even educated people still appreciate the magic of Africa. It’s like they departmentalize it: There is their education, and then there are those things that education could never explain. Things like multiple personalities and mental diseases are always ‘gri gri’ (voodoo) though, and nothing bad could ever happen unless someone had put bad gri gri on you.
There is also good gri gri as well though. You could gri gri a husband back to health, you could gri gri necklaces that protect your children from any harm (therefore freeing you of the need to look after them. Hehe.), or you could even sacrifice a chicken to help a daughter get pregnant.
It’s crazy, but education is almost completely denied to the lower class women. Many women do see pregnancy and family planning to be in the hands of God and gri gri. In fact, a woman who has had multiple miscarriages has surely been cursed. I have a good friend that I feel is about to possibly get disowned by society and therefore forced to move because she has had such bad luck. She just recently had a miscarriage, her 2nd in a row, and to top it all off this last one has left her constantly ill. On top of that, her husband and a son have also been very ill of different maladies… Things like this are never taken well in society here. If it got bad enough, people would see them as though a dark cloud hangs over them, and they would be forced out of society. These people are by far the coolest, most interesting friends I have here, and I would be heartbroken if they were forced to move. I and my new post mate, Kate, might actually help the wife get to a better medical facility so that the whole thing might get cleared up faster.
Yes, I do have a new post mate! I had one before but he was rarely there, and we didn’t share many of the same interests to begin with. Kate has replaced him now though, and we have a really good time together! She is a Business volunteer on the other side of the Togo/Benin border, and her project, oddly, is to work with micro finance groups. Lucky for her, I had already started a couple of those in her village, so I just handed them over to her in the name of convenience. So now we’re working together on that, and also we are going to hopefully start a radio show. It would be a 30 minute show once a weak, and we would play American music and then talk about important issues like water treatment, health, AIDS, saving techniques, and other things like that. This radio show is also encouraging me to find a Tutor for the local language, Diitamari. Kate would also be doing the tutoring with us.
So, things are going pretty well. All the stuff I brought from home is starting to dwindle off into my belly, but I guess I will be back home in only 2 months! It’s so weird to think that I was just home and that I’ll be there again so soon. I’m looking forward to it, but thanks to that last visit I’m not wishing the days away in hopes that December might get here sooner. Honestly, my recent visit home did wonders for my mental fragility. I’m cured!!! In the sense of diseases and the like that plane ticket doctored me up for probably less than the cost of a consultation, being as the ticket was free via SkyMiles. (Thanks Mom and Dad and Delta!!!).
Well, that’s all my recent history. I hope all of you are doing well, and I hope to see as many of you as possible in December! To all the new babies in the world, welcome ou bienvenue! You know who you are … or maybe not yet, but welcome anyway!
Sarah
Really, right here in Boukoumbe we practically have our own circus freak show… but they’re not usually people. They are actually the tata somba’s (traditional mud fortress housing. Refer to previous posts for details). Did you know that there are tata’s that are more than 100 years old? There are also tata’s that are so mysterious that if you were to enter you wouldn’t be able to find the door to leave. Other tata’s actually just fell from the sky one day. Some will curse you if you were to use artificial lighting in them. To quote one of my good, and fairly educated friends, “Tata’s are very mysterious.”
I love how even educated people still appreciate the magic of Africa. It’s like they departmentalize it: There is their education, and then there are those things that education could never explain. Things like multiple personalities and mental diseases are always ‘gri gri’ (voodoo) though, and nothing bad could ever happen unless someone had put bad gri gri on you.
There is also good gri gri as well though. You could gri gri a husband back to health, you could gri gri necklaces that protect your children from any harm (therefore freeing you of the need to look after them. Hehe.), or you could even sacrifice a chicken to help a daughter get pregnant.
It’s crazy, but education is almost completely denied to the lower class women. Many women do see pregnancy and family planning to be in the hands of God and gri gri. In fact, a woman who has had multiple miscarriages has surely been cursed. I have a good friend that I feel is about to possibly get disowned by society and therefore forced to move because she has had such bad luck. She just recently had a miscarriage, her 2nd in a row, and to top it all off this last one has left her constantly ill. On top of that, her husband and a son have also been very ill of different maladies… Things like this are never taken well in society here. If it got bad enough, people would see them as though a dark cloud hangs over them, and they would be forced out of society. These people are by far the coolest, most interesting friends I have here, and I would be heartbroken if they were forced to move. I and my new post mate, Kate, might actually help the wife get to a better medical facility so that the whole thing might get cleared up faster.
Yes, I do have a new post mate! I had one before but he was rarely there, and we didn’t share many of the same interests to begin with. Kate has replaced him now though, and we have a really good time together! She is a Business volunteer on the other side of the Togo/Benin border, and her project, oddly, is to work with micro finance groups. Lucky for her, I had already started a couple of those in her village, so I just handed them over to her in the name of convenience. So now we’re working together on that, and also we are going to hopefully start a radio show. It would be a 30 minute show once a weak, and we would play American music and then talk about important issues like water treatment, health, AIDS, saving techniques, and other things like that. This radio show is also encouraging me to find a Tutor for the local language, Diitamari. Kate would also be doing the tutoring with us.
So, things are going pretty well. All the stuff I brought from home is starting to dwindle off into my belly, but I guess I will be back home in only 2 months! It’s so weird to think that I was just home and that I’ll be there again so soon. I’m looking forward to it, but thanks to that last visit I’m not wishing the days away in hopes that December might get here sooner. Honestly, my recent visit home did wonders for my mental fragility. I’m cured!!! In the sense of diseases and the like that plane ticket doctored me up for probably less than the cost of a consultation, being as the ticket was free via SkyMiles. (Thanks Mom and Dad and Delta!!!).
Well, that’s all my recent history. I hope all of you are doing well, and I hope to see as many of you as possible in December! To all the new babies in the world, welcome ou bienvenue! You know who you are … or maybe not yet, but welcome anyway!
Sarah
posted by sarah at 12:01 PM
2 Comments:
Hooray! I am so glad to see you are posting again. I was going out of my mind wondering how you were doing! Glad to see you and Kate are creating some good gris-gris!
Courtney
Thanks for looking out for me Courtney!!! I hope the family is doing well!
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