4.1.14 Saturday. Naming Ceremony

We had travelled up country especially for the naming ceremony today, as Mr Sowe has decided to name his latest daughter after me.  This is considered a great honour here in Gambia and we had been consulted as to our availability before the date had been set.  We were awake early and had brought some things for the local clinic, so we delivered the items before we returned and got dressed in our best African finery for the occasion.  Everything was loaded into the truck and we set off for Farato where we were collecting Ousman’s family to take along with us.  Everyone was ready and dressed in their best clothes, so we all climbed aboard and set off for Pallen.  On arrival the four English guests were taken into the house to meet the new baby and her mum.  The next eldest girl is also being named today and Mr Sowe had decided to name her Dorothy after my mum who passed away last August.  Both girls were introduced to us and photos taken of all of us.  Mr Sowe had invited everyone he worked with at both Kumbija and the school where he works in the afternoon, everyone from his village, all the surrounding villages and people from Farafenni.  Consequently there were at least 200 grown ups and probably as many children all gathered in the compound.  We were asked to visit each house in the compound and meet all the family members, so we were escorted around by one of the girls who spoke English, and seated in some of the houses to meet various relatives, this took over an hour, and then we returned to the first house and waited for breakfast.  This had been promised for 11am, but as usual things didn’t go on time and it was 1pm before breakfast was served to all the guests.  The traditional Fula breakfast is sour milk with couscous and sugar, but knowing that we are not fond of it, Mr Sowe had arranged for the four of us to have chicken with pasta and cous.  We were taken into a separate house and waited on by one of his nieces, the breakfast arrived and it was very tasty, and lots of it.  The official part of the day was yet to come and so we adjourned to the courtyard where we could sit in the shade.  The elders of the village and the family members then went into the house where the baby had been born, and the official ceremony took place.  This consists of prayers and the actual naming of the child or children.  A Griot (singer of the family history) then came out into the courtyard and announced that the youngest child had been named Hilary, and that my name would live forever in the village. Traditionally children here are named after someone in the family, so the name continues down the generations and it literally continues forever.  Lots of hand shaking then took place as people wanted to meet me, and ask about mum.  We finally persuaded Mr Sowe to let us leave before the afternoon meal which he was also providing, but we explained that as we had eaten such a large and delicious breakfast we would not be able to eat anything else, also we felt that as the timing had already slipped by 2 hours it would be dark before we could leave.   We said our goodbyes and got into the truck to drive to Tendaba camp on the south bank of the river to spend two nights enjoying the wildlife.  We arrived around 4pm without incident, still no queue at the ferry, and managed a swim and relax before a small evening meal and bed.  This is not the most comfortable of the bird camps, the beds are certainly not 5 star!  The advertisements for the camp give you some idea of the terrain, 'ten million mosquitos cannot be wrong, Tendaba camp is fabulous!'