In a word - spunky. In three words - crazy as hell. In essence - sweet as can be. Malick Sy, the marabout of the village of Diagenne (sp?) was one of the many friends we made during our rural visit.
Marabout is an interesting word and requires a quick explanation. There are at least three different types of marabouts in senegal. First, traditional animist spiritual guides acting as a shaman for big questions and healing. Second, there are grand marabouts, which are the leaders of the spiritual brotherhoods of Islam in Senegal. And third, there's the smaller marabouts, which act as spiritual guides rooted in islam, and usually have schools to teach the koran to kids. These places are full of young boys that are forced to beg to collect money for the marabout's gain, but that's a different story altogether.
Malick was somewhere in the middle of the first and third type since he practiced traditional medicine, and led his community in their journey of faith, but he seemed to have his own creative spin on Islam - something that isn't exactly encouraged officially, but is common in rural areas. For example, when he was giving us a tour of his peanut field on our first day, he stopped to pray and came back holding out his prayer beads. He proceeded to explain "this is my portable [phone] with Allah." That much is pretty normal, but when he was showing us around his house later that night, he started going on about how Ewan and I were going to be sleeping that night but he was going to be praying. And with what we might ask? With the longest strand of prayer beads I've ever seen. He could barely hold on to the whole thing it was so huge, and he held them with a great big smile and booming pride.
When Ewan got a bit sick to the stomach, Malick prayed a number of times for his recovery. Ewan is better now, Alhumdulilahi.
So another part of village life aside from getting sick that Malick helped us with was the endless attention. It was exhausting being in the village - having to talk in Wolof, whack piles of peanuts, explain why we didn't want to give our camaras away (a surprisingly tough challenge), explain why we couldn't take anyone's baby back to the states even if we wanted to, try to stop eating after 3 rounds of ceebu jen ~ fish with rice, and trying to keep it a surprise that we were going to give them the soccer ball we brought - so tiring that when it came time to rest, it was a bit of a surprise to see the 20 kids surrounding us in a circle when we sat up. Anyway, Malick had been out working all day, and came back to find us desperately trying to rest. So, quick as a flash, he flew after the kids, elegant boubou flowing behind him, bare feet kicking up sand and yelling "demleen" ~ go! or alternatively "ashaa," which is the word they use to encourage horses and donkeys to move. He came right back to fix us Ataayah, and talk a bit about our day.
1 comment:
Hi Mike, I know...it's taken me long enough to type in some sort of comment. But what am I to write? I've read most of your blogs, and looked at your pictures...sorry about your hand, I hope it's better now. I'm still confused at what it is that you are doing out there though, are you going to school, on some sort of mission, or learning how to play African instruments appropriately? What ever it is, I'm glad you are getting to do exactly what you want. How much longer are you staying out there? I'll be up in Atl during Christmas time so, give me a hollar. Oh, btw...I saw in some of your pics that you were upset by the fact that peanuts and weeds are the only things that grow in the soil out there. www.echonet.org is a place where I sometimes volunteer. Basically, they send out mass quantities of seeds that will grow in the different areas of need and they also train Americans in how to train whole communities how to harvest these crops. :) Enjoy. OH, and I miss ya.
Post a Comment