Imagine that... me holding a dead bat.



Me, Ginagones, John Baptist (Ginagones husband) Ilean (Their daughter) Awa and Ami (Neighborhood kids)

This fetish is called the blood of the innocent. Young girls are brought here and concecrated to/with the fetish preists.

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Matt and I sitting on a traditional drum.

Medicine

This is what they call medicine here. It is the horn of a ram sacrificed at a fetish. Then filled with herbs. Then its tied to this fruit tree. The purpose of this "medicine" is to scare people into not taking the fruit of off the tree. It is believed that if you take a fruit off of this tree you will be frozen to the tree unable to move until the person that tied the "medicine" to the tree comes and beats you. Only after that will you be able to move.

Ekonkone

Jerome and his new baby Paul

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Jerome and baby Paul



Mary teasing Joshua with a cookie



Joshua not handling the teasing so well. Jerome says that Joshua is very stressed out because of the new baby.



Baby Paul

Adventures in Kedougou

Audry and I about to eat pork. Audry lives in Kedougou. She took me around town.




Tina and I at a watering hole. We swam in it. it was a lot of fun



Audry and I hiking down stream



Oh thats right. Me and Tina sitting on the side of the road while the driver of our car fixes the tire.... gotta love Africa.

Small viallage on the edge of Kedougou

Sorry for the quality of the next 5 pix. I took them out of the car window as we were leaving town. People out East were weird about me taking pix

There are lots of horses out East.



Ahhh meat! if you look closely you can see millions of flies on the meat.... extra protein



Check out the pigs having a feast

Yes thats right your seeing a quicky mart...This was the most disappointing quicky mart I have ever been in. After 9 hrs folded up in the back of a setplass (a Setplass is a station wagon with 2 rows of back seats. No its not spacious like a minivan) we were walking the 4 blocks to our hotel when we stumbled upon this "My Mart" all we could think was nice ice cold sodas. we walk in and there is all kinds of junk food and NO freaken soda. none. talk about disappointments.



I don't have to explain my art to you



Restaurant we ate at in Tamba.




Train station



Art... enjoy it.

Kolda...This is the most chaotic place I have been so far. I was happy we only had to stop for break fluid here

Village Dance

After two villages wrestle each other there is always a dance. The two villages dance together

These are some of my cowboy friends.

Here is a sequence of pictures I took in the truck we rode home in.

There are a number of different things happening in this video. First there are 2 groups of guys wrestling. The men that you see walking from left to right are from Oussouye and are off to the other side to intimidate the other team and/or choose someone to wrestle with. The Men you see in the back ground walking from left to right are returning from running out into the field to show support because their village just scored a point.

Here are some pics of the starting procession

This women is slapping that giant stick at that boys feet to give him courage.

Here is a little bit of the intimidation. these guys are from Oussouye and have walked over to the other villages side and thrown an ax in the ground

This man is blowing a horn to announce the start of the adults wrestling.



This is the beginning of the procession.



These men proceed the rest of the village entering



And here comes the rest of the village.



Nothing like some machete banging.

Oussouye has just won a match and now the village is showing its support by running across the field.

Wrestling

Marcel and Astou's son Noilib (Noy Noy) is the one with the red tail.

My Birthday

In this culture if your a kid any adult at any point in time can tell you to do something and you have to get up and do it. They don't have to ask nicely, they don't have to say please, they don't really care if your in the middle of something. If they say go you just go. Here is CeCe telling Le Vieux to get up and help her.



And here is Le Vieux helping.

Me and Romoly at my weekly cooking lesson. We were cooking a dish called Moffy



Me and Romoly... yes we were both as happy as we looked.



ahh... video games

Me and the chameleon

Le Vieux teasing Joshua



Able explaining how the slinky works. (Able is the cool kid from Dakar that knows everything)



Able explaining the slinky to Joshua. Who could care less just wants to play with it because the older boys were playing with it.

Djeleck coloring in a new coloring book



Able playing with the paddle ball



Able chasing Joshua with the paddle ball.

Karabane

The view from my room



My Room

Dinner or a Sacrifice



I don't have to explain my art to you






Piqure (sounds like pick) the Pelican

This is an old prison



This is the boat ramp that is right in front of where we stayed.



The old church



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Elinkine while waiting for the boat to Karabane Island

This is a little idle that was set up in a restaurant we hung out at.

Tina and me in a fishing boat about 5 inches off the water

This is 'Piqure' the Pelican. His name is french for "bite" and yes thats what he did. he bit me. right around the waste. Hope you get a good laugh.