Christmas in The Gambia

Aside from the whole cold temperatures, Christmas trees, gift giving and delicious food factor, Christmas in The Gambia is the same as Christmas in the US. True if you take all those things away, then in reality the holiday celebrations are nothing alike....but that's just details. All joking aside my first Christmas in The Gambia didn't feel a whole lot like Christmas despite the best efforts of myself and my fellow PCV's. I did get to spend a lot of time on the beach and a bunch of us cooked a big meal for Christmas dinner together at the Peace Corps hostel, but I am a sucker for traditions around the holiday's so the experience just didn't match up to the holiday season at home. I did get a call from my family on Christmas Day so that brightened my mood a bit.

Even though the overwhelming majority of Gambians are Muslim, both Christians and Muslims celebrate Christmas here. Christmas celebrations are a bigger deal in the capital of Banjul and the surrounding metropolitan area than in the provinces because of Western influence and the simple fact that more Christians live in the city. One of the big traditions is for Christmas (or really any holiday here) is for children to dress in their best clothes (almost always brand new clothes that have been specially made for the holiday, clothes are a really big deal in Gambian culture, and West African culture in general) with one child dressed in a costume that resembles a large bush, called a kankara that is somehow related to tribal traditions and initiation rights. The children go around the neighborhoods in big groups beating drums, singing and dancing and asking for salibou, which roughly translates to charity, so people just give them a couple dalasi and they go on their way. Traditionally, people don't give individual gifts for Christmas - they just give the children the salibou and cook a big dinner and then drum and dance at night. The drumming and singing lends a festive mood to the day but it doesn't quiet match up to listening to Christmas music with the whole family back home.

Now that one holiday is behind me I am looking forward to experience the combined craziness of Tobaski and New Year's Eve all rolled into one day. Tobaski is the big Muslim holiday around this time of year to celebrate the Abraham's sacrifice of his only son to God and then God rewarding him for his faith by replacing his son with a ram. Every Muslim man that is financially able to slaughter a ram must do so and if he is able should slaughter an extra one and give it out to those less fortunate. I have been told that Tobaski is pretty much the most important holiday for Gambians and from what I hear there is a lot of praying in the morning, the big killing of the ram moment and then just massive amounts of meat and food for the rest of the day. I have been warned that Tobaski celebrations can sometimes go on for several days, so the experience is bound to be interesting. I am going to celebrate the holiday at the compound of my vice principal and his family. It is bound to be an interesting day so I will be sure to update everyone on the details of the celebration.

Till then, enjoy preparing for New Year's!

Merry Christmas!

After a bit of a hiatus, I am back in the city and able to check the internet, upload some pictures and update everyone.

First of all, a very belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed Turkey Day and watching lots of American football. To celebrate the holiday, a bunch of PCV's of my training group met up in Janjanbureh, an island in the middle of the country to cook a big Thanksgiving feast together. We successfully made a pretty respectable dinner, with stuffing, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, corn and even freeze dried "camping" blueberry cheescake that was actually really good. The only thing we were missing was lots of American football.

Following traveling up country for Thanksgiving, I tried to spend the remainder of my three month challenge in my village. It was kind of crazy between preparing students for end of term exams, receiving a shipment of computer equipment from our German NGO, starting up Girl's Club meetings and activities and other just day to day school activities. I also started working with a local NGO, The Stay Green Foundation, teaching computer applications to the staff. I am teaching pretty simple stuff, just e-mail, database creation and helping to make their reports a bit more professional. The NGO is really great and it works with rural women farmers in my district to combat deforestation and implementing sustainable farming techniques. It is a really important issue since the Sahara is rapidly encroaching on the Sahel, the savanna grasslands that extends across Africa just south of the Sahara. I am exciting to be working with the NGO and it is nice to have a change of pace from school everyday.

Life in village is going really well and I think I am pretty well adjusted (strange to say that) and have a normal routine down. Recently, nights have been very chilly (50-55 degrees is my best estimation) so my whole family gathers around a fire in the middle of the compound to stay warm and chat about the day, crack peanuts to prepare them for cooking and listen to the radio. It is actually a lot of fun, and the stars are beautiful - it's a very peaceful way to spend the evening after a long day at school with lots of hyper kids. My host father has recently been asking lots of questions about America and also teaching my more Wolof. Some of my fav questions posed by my host father in the past couple of weeks:

• In America, do they have electric cars or petrol? (trying to explain hybrid cars proved to be to much to ask of my Wolof skills)
• In a fight, which one will win, fire or water? (This one was in Wolof so I had to clarify that I was translating correctly, but I was. I chose water.)
• In America, you no have mosquito's? (Response was shock, followed by even more shock when I declared the mosquito's did not have malaria.)
• In America, one beer cost how much? wine? sugar? a wife? (Conclusion of the conversation, America is very expensive ~ America, dafa ser torop!)

Right now I am down in the city for a PC - Education meeting and to spend the holidays with friends. I will also be down here until New Year/Tobaski, as I am spending that holiday at the compound of my vice principal who lives in the city. I will try and update to let everyone know how they celebrate Christmas and Tobaski in The Gambia. Both Muslims and Christians celebrate both holidays so they are sure to be a week of lots of festivities!

Check out some more pics of my village on my Flickr page!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!!!!!!!!!