Guinea Fowl, Chapter One "Life Goal: Acquired."

This post is dedicated to Julia, who is hopefully reading this.

As the kid had warned me, the guinea fowl came as a surprise. The afternoon I brought my first guinea fowl home, I had not even been thinking about guinea fowl. For the previous two hours, I’d been admiring a beautiful bride and photographing her as we paraded across the village to her in-laws’ compound (I’ll upload the photos in another post). The road home took me past Camara Kunda, where several of my students were sitting and brewing attaya. The kid reminds me that my guinea fowl has been caught. I had been told this a few days ago, but as the guinea fowl had never appeared at my doorstep, I thought the kid might be optimistically fibbing. I ask to see the guinea fowl. The kid brings it over.

“Could I bring it home now?”

I am told I may. I say I do not have the money now, but I can bring it the next time I am walking to the market, or even to school on Monday. I am told they will be at my compound this evening.

“300 dalasis.”
"But we agreed on 250."
“Okay, okay, make it 275.”
"But we agreed on 250."
"275."
"But I am your teacher, don't I get a special price?"
"275 is a good price! Look, this one is very big."
"Okay, make it 260."
"Okay. We will come to your compound this evening."

The guinea fowl is handed to me with a rope of cloth strips tied around one leg.

I'm holding a guinea fowl!!!

Pippi Isatou, who had been walking with me, asks me about some of the English words she had overheard in my conversation with the boys.

"I heard '300' and '250;' what does that mean?"

I explained we’d been haggling over the price. Then she wanted to know what I would do with my guinea fowl.

“I will put it in the compound and wait until the rainy season and before I go to America, I will eat him.”

“When you do that, call me over to eat.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t forget!”

Neene and Amadou both appear pleased (and less surprised than I’d expected) when I turn up with a guinea fowl. Neene asks how much I paid and gives a nod of “good, good” that it was only 260 dalasis. They want to know if it is a boy or a girl. I say a boy. Amadou Julde (a different Amadou, not my host brother), who is in the compound, says he will confirm. He plucks a feather and watches it fall. It lands face down. “Yes, it is a man.” He picks the feather up and drops it again. It lands the same way. He explains to Neene that the way the feather lands will tell you whether it is a male or a female.

Amadou (my host brother) tells me to bring the guinea fowl to my backyard. I ask if it will fly away. He says yes, I need to tie it to something. He tells me tomorrow he will build a house for it. He also tells me something along the lines of: "But you know, Binta, only one is useless. And he will always be trying to escape, trying to find a wife.”

Instead of explaining that I’d really only bought the guinea fowl to amuse myself for a few months and then to eat it I say that I will buy another one as soon as I go to Basse and get more money from the bank.