Wednesday was the day Tobaski was celebrated in Kerewan. It was celebrated on Tuesday in Brikama, though I have found out since that many families in Brikama celebrated on Wednesday too. The days off at college were Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to allow students a day to travel and a day to return, which meant I had to travel back Wednesday as well.
Tobaski day is very relaxed. I guess in a way it has the same feel as an Australian Christmas – everyone is busy catching up and the women are busy cooking. On the day everyone dresses up so the few days before you would see women getting their hair braided with extensions or slicked back at the hair dressers. The tailors were also busy making new sparkly or embroidered dresses for the women.
We started the day off very slowly due to the previous night and eventually everyone got up and filled the bucket for a bucket shower and dressed in special Gambian clothes for the day. It is here I would have to recommend that the day after is not so great when you have to use a pit latrine (it is a key hole shaped hole in a cement pad leading to a pit).
The people in the compound all went to pray and then they came back and slaughtered four rams for the Tobaski feast. I stayed and watched the rams getting slaughtered but I have seen a sheep being gutted and skinned many times so I didn’t go to watch (I also figured no one is really going to enjoy photos of that type either). We were invited to help the women cook, which really meant to watch and chip in a small amount, but I was so tired I didn’t end up joining in. They were cooking Benechin which is the dish Paul and I had a cooking lesson for.
Around 3pm we were brought a tray of Benechin as a present from one of Courtney’s neighbours. We were then invited to join in the food bowl with another family. That meant the boys sat outside on prayer mats and we joined the girls inside. It was lovely chatting to the girls in their beautiful dresses, they spoke very good English and were very funny.
After sharing food bowl unfortunately we had to head back to our bases to make sure we were back for work the next day. Pete, Bernie, Nick and Alice had organized a town trip in a taxi and left straight away. Tom rode on his motorbike and I had to wait by the side of the road for a Gelli to pick me up.
I waited about an hour when a Gelli dropped off all its passengers and picked up me, it’s lone passenger, and headed towards Barra. I was so nervous being stuck in the middle of a foreign country on a Gelli with three guys who could have been ok or not so ok, but it turned out ok in the end. We made a lot of detours on the way home so the people on the Gelli could greet family as it was Tobaski day. The roads were very quiet and we didn’t really pick up any passengers until the very last leg.
Eventually we arrived in Barra at around 6pm – I started waiting for the Gelli at around 3.30pm. When I jumped out of the Gelli I met Jagan, my neighbor straight away, by chance. He said he was dropping his father at the ferry and that the tall English man was on the ferry – though I would have to run to catch it. I ran and hit a queue for tickets but then ran with the other passengers and made it to the ferry. On the ferry were Tom, Pete, Bernie, Nick and Alice, showing there is no preferable mode of transport.
We got to Banjul and I had to then make the last leg to Brikama on my own in the dark, although I met some friends on the ferry who were going the same way. There were no cars so we split up as I took a town trip. The trip back was amazing as the sides of the road were literally packed with people all dressed in the most amazing clothing. I ended up catching three different cars but made it back to Brikama by around 8pm.
Tobaski day is very relaxed. I guess in a way it has the same feel as an Australian Christmas – everyone is busy catching up and the women are busy cooking. On the day everyone dresses up so the few days before you would see women getting their hair braided with extensions or slicked back at the hair dressers. The tailors were also busy making new sparkly or embroidered dresses for the women.
We started the day off very slowly due to the previous night and eventually everyone got up and filled the bucket for a bucket shower and dressed in special Gambian clothes for the day. It is here I would have to recommend that the day after is not so great when you have to use a pit latrine (it is a key hole shaped hole in a cement pad leading to a pit).
The people in the compound all went to pray and then they came back and slaughtered four rams for the Tobaski feast. I stayed and watched the rams getting slaughtered but I have seen a sheep being gutted and skinned many times so I didn’t go to watch (I also figured no one is really going to enjoy photos of that type either). We were invited to help the women cook, which really meant to watch and chip in a small amount, but I was so tired I didn’t end up joining in. They were cooking Benechin which is the dish Paul and I had a cooking lesson for.
Around 3pm we were brought a tray of Benechin as a present from one of Courtney’s neighbours. We were then invited to join in the food bowl with another family. That meant the boys sat outside on prayer mats and we joined the girls inside. It was lovely chatting to the girls in their beautiful dresses, they spoke very good English and were very funny.
After sharing food bowl unfortunately we had to head back to our bases to make sure we were back for work the next day. Pete, Bernie, Nick and Alice had organized a town trip in a taxi and left straight away. Tom rode on his motorbike and I had to wait by the side of the road for a Gelli to pick me up.
I waited about an hour when a Gelli dropped off all its passengers and picked up me, it’s lone passenger, and headed towards Barra. I was so nervous being stuck in the middle of a foreign country on a Gelli with three guys who could have been ok or not so ok, but it turned out ok in the end. We made a lot of detours on the way home so the people on the Gelli could greet family as it was Tobaski day. The roads were very quiet and we didn’t really pick up any passengers until the very last leg.
Eventually we arrived in Barra at around 6pm – I started waiting for the Gelli at around 3.30pm. When I jumped out of the Gelli I met Jagan, my neighbor straight away, by chance. He said he was dropping his father at the ferry and that the tall English man was on the ferry – though I would have to run to catch it. I ran and hit a queue for tickets but then ran with the other passengers and made it to the ferry. On the ferry were Tom, Pete, Bernie, Nick and Alice, showing there is no preferable mode of transport.
We got to Banjul and I had to then make the last leg to Brikama on my own in the dark, although I met some friends on the ferry who were going the same way. There were no cars so we split up as I took a town trip. The trip back was amazing as the sides of the road were literally packed with people all dressed in the most amazing clothing. I ended up catching three different cars but made it back to Brikama by around 8pm.
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