Happy first day of Christmas!
We had a lovely Finnish Christmas dinner here, presented by the Finnish residents. Rice porridge with a peanut instead of an almond, pancakes, potato salad and rye bread, glogg with Garrouane wine from Morroco. It all started with the theme song from the Love Boat. Of course.
I bought a bottle of wine last night, Dec 24th, at about 10 pm. First time for everything, J says. I think that it is not so much that there is this crack of opportunity between a Muslim, Christian, and neither/Wolof community, that space perhaps a foundation of possibility that has always been.
At 10:30 H and I went to the Catholic cathedral, reportedly the oldest in Africa. (This blog is not a repository of fact). J and I agreed that between Senegal and Mali, this place is more developed but it is more chaotic. Mass was no exception. A cat paid a visit to the alter, and a bird also swung by, none too intelligently. The French songs do no justice to the voices of the choir; the 3-4 songs of local flavour and djembe drumming rocked out in a proper way.
At midnight, the streets were packed with young'uns, and firecrackers. What I thought was koranic caterwauling that began when I got home, lasting until morning birdsong, was not; apparantly it's just a bunch of guys that go around with megaphones at night.
Proud reader of a Wolof dictionary. In the 'l's and 'm's.
- look (for): wut. Yow la alkaati biy wut. You are the one the police are looking for.
- lung: xeter gi. Man duma lekk xeter. I do not eat lungs.
- massage: damp. Damay damp sama ndigg ak karite. I am massaging my lower back with shea butter.
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