Circumcision ceremony!

Maybe a week before I needed to go to Kombos in March, I went to my husband's circumcision ceremony.



He doesn't usually cry when I hold him--honest!

I'd attended a couple of circumcision ceremonies while still in training village, but we always arrived and left too early for anything more than sitting awkwardly and eating a few handfuls of benichin. We also didn't know enough Pulaar to say anything besides, "Good afternoon, how are you? how is your family? how are the children?"

So I was super excited when I walked over to the compound with Fatou Bobo, Hawa and the kids and saw a huge crowd of people around a circle of sitting children dressed similarly to Saliou, but without the awesome hat. Then we moved to the back of the crowd.

Is "irony" the word I am looking for? In the previous ceremonies I'd attended I could clearly see that nothing was happening. This time, based on the sounds of music and dancing, stuff was obviously happening--but I couldn't see anything aside from the backs of the people in front of me. And then it got dark and I couldn't even see those. So if anyone wants to send me stilts and night-vision goggles...I'm kidding.

On the bright side, I did notice several women wearing my village's Tobaski asobi (the sea-foam green one), so it was asobi after all!

Note the woman towards the far left