Indulge in dark.: A Story of Pictures: Thies and Ndiassane

We went to Thies... to have a little spice in our summer...

it was pretty much a fiesta ....

We stayed at an uncle's house with cousins enjoying tea ...

and went an unexpected baptism of a family friend's nephew where...

... before seeing the newborn I was inundated with children, introduced to many family members, served a second lunch, and handed a cute baby boy whom I held until my arms wanted to fall off.

The mother and baby in matching colors.

The little boy would not leave my earrings alone...

The husband with us.

After the baptism we went back to the neighborhood we were staying in and I spend some time with one of our grandmothers/MamBoi ...

... two of our little cousins are posing with her.

The little outfit we bought for newborn niece.

Then it was the wedding day! Here are Fily and me are in the car on the way to the hair salon where the bride was finishing her FIRST round of makeup to go with her FIRST dress of the day. The main event of our 2 week trip was a cousin's wedding. I was the photographer because the family wasn't able to book one. The wedding day begins....

The Bride was Moussa's cousin.

Family.

Badiane and Bride. (Badine simply means aunt, specifically the sister of the father.)

Makeup and dress two! The first dress was for the day and seeing the family, or older family, and then this dress was for the evening wedding party where after she greets the parent generation she goes to the evening ceremonies with more of the youth, friends, cousins, etc.

Bride and Moussa's younger sister Mamy

Brother Papi and me - I finally had small the time to get dressed!

Cousin Mamadou!

Me, Papi, Mamy Bu Mag (older sister Mamy)

Bride Eva, Me, Fily

The Bridal party.

Family photo!

Little sister Adama and cousin (I forgot her name : S)

Fanta, Me, Khadi, Adama

Little nieces and cousins ending the night with a lot of attitude

SO, after we spent time in Thies with all of the family, we went to Ndiassane, a small religious town where Moussa's family has a house, for relaxing. It was me, Moussa, two cousins, and a childhood friend. Although one of the days we visited a Marabout, ALL we did was cook, eat, converse, watch movies, listen to music, and sleep. No one wanted to leave after out 4 day stay.

The house has a large brick wall surrounding the premises.

The living room. Most of the time we put out mattresses and large carpets making it comfy.

There is a furnished master bedroom. It was sort of fun having a vanity in my room.

Moussa's brother in law kindly gave us 5 CHICKENS for meals!

JD is quite the cook. He was very helpful. Considering I had been a vegetarian for 6 years, even though I can cook meat, he knows the art of cooking meat.

I was mostly the onion chopper, potato peeler, and vegetable cleaner and made the sauces, onion stir-fry, and french fries with salad on the side. I only helped with the chicken AFTER is was plucked and cleaned.

Though we also sometimes but the chicken in a pot of hot water to finish cleaning it, we usually burned off the rest of the feathers etc.

On the first night, while JD and I were preparing dinner, the others stocked the house with water since we could not figure out how to turn the water in the house or something like that.

The first night we were EXTREMELY hungry and eating dinner at 2am after the drive, house preparation, and dinner preparation.

We ate it all.

We had bread with butter, eggs, or chocolate and milk and coffee each morning.

I made popcorn for an afternoon snack! One small batch for me of just the traditional salt and butter. One large batch for the others of powdered milk and sugar.

The last evening we butchered at goat in the rain.

After butchering we boiled and then barbequed the meat and ribs.

It was hot and my hair is always crazy in the humidity. ha. Since I was the head chef, I put together the dinner plates. When they were really hungry, sometimes the others sat around me trying to look helpful but really they were just watching and sneaking little bites of meat and fries =D

Cousin Ousmane was being silly. He wanted a photo next to our last feast to send to cousins abroad in hopes of making them envious to Senegalese dinners.