We experienced a whole different culture when we went to a wedding in Senegal last year. This is the guests dancing after the ceremony which took place in a marquee on the roof
Guests at the wedding dancing the night away
Category Archives: Senegal
Weekly Photo Challenge – Colour
Lovely challenge this one. My favourite colours are greens and blues but, looking through my collections, I decided that shades of pink and purple would be interesting! I hope you enjoy this selection taken over the last year at home and away. Click on any one for an enlargement.
Beautiful saris in India
Pink flower with dewdrops
Dancing at a Senagalese wedding
At Chitwan, Nepal
Confetti in the street in Barcelona
Winter dawn
In the market, Kathmandu
Bougainvillia in Kathmandu
In the gardens at Khajahuro
Anemones
Grand-baby and Lavatera
Earrings
Rhododendron in Trelissick gardens February 2013
Fuschia in the back garden
Different Birthdays for Twins, Fuchsia with Bee and Vegetable Ring
1 Our twins were born 35 years ago, Daniel on 16th September and Lucy on 17th September. It was always my plan that they should have their own birthdays and I managed it! Daniel arrived a few minutes before midnight on his Great Granny’s birthday which delighted me and my Mum; Lucy just nine minutes later. We Skyped this morning with Daniel and Ami in Barcelona to sing Happy Birthday!
Daniel and Ami
2 The fuchsias in the garden are really beautiful just now. I sent this photo to Ami as she loves the colour (as you will have seen from her Wedding dress if you’ve been following long) If you would like to see photos of the wedding in Senegal and the very beautiful Ami in her fuchsia wedding dress, have a look here
Fuchsia in the garden with a bee
3 We have been eating vegetarian meals since P arrived for his holiday. Tonight I made the Vegetable Ring as on my Recipe page. I added fried onions to the mixture as I said I would but it made the mixture rather damp and it splatted in the baking. It tasted even better though!
Vegetable Ring before baking
Vegetable Ring, baked
When I sent the photo of our supper to Ami, she asked that I teach her how to make it when we visit them in Barcelona next weekend. It will be my pleasure! I hope I’ll learn how to make Lakh, a Senegalese dish we enjoyed when in Dakar for the wedding.
Singing, Flowers and Skyping to Barcelona
1 I can’t tell you how much I love singing! At Suitcases this morning we sang through our gig list for the event on Sunday when all three of Claire’s choirs, about a hundred of us, will sing together in the amphitheatre at Carn Marth.
Kurt Vonnegut – Sing in the shower!
2 Before the rain started this afternoon, I managed to get this beautiful picture of a Daisy against the Crocosmia.
Daisy with Crocosmia
3 Daniel and Ami Skyped together from Barcelona! For those of you who haven’t followed their story, Daniel, our son, and Ami were married in Senegal in April, see Daniel and Ami’s Wedding and they are only now, more than four months later, able to live together as it has taken this long time to get Ami’s Visa.
It was so beautiful to see them together, smiling so much, laughing and delighting in the fact that they had just gone supermarket shopping together for a meal together in their own place! The very word ‘together’ is beautiful!
Smells of Senegal, London Underground and Khalil Gibran on Children
1 Such a lovely thing – when I use my hairdryer, it blows out the beautiful incensey smell that was in our apartment in Pikine in Senegal bringing back all those lovely memories.
2 We’ve just bought a new shower curtain with the Tube map on it! Click on it to make it big enough to read.
London Underground Map on our new shower curtain
3 I’ve just come back from the run-through of tomorrow’s Baby Naming Ceremony, firstly a beautiful drive down to Potager Garden though lanes lined by ancient trees and then the words of the Ceremony which contain the following from Kahlil Gibran, words that Mr S and I love and the philosophy which we tried to keep in mind while bringing up our own four children:
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.”
Senegal 11th April – The Civil Wedding, The Registrar and Goodbyes
1. In European dress we went to the Registry Office for the Civil Wedding. (Again, told mainly through photos – click on any to get the bigger picture) On the way there we were asked, “You do have your passports with you?” but we didn’t! The lovely Ousseynou took Lucy back to the apartment on his scooter and promised us he would look after her and drive carefully! The roads looked so precarious! They returned safely and the wedding could go ahead!
Pap and his son before the Civil Wedding
Me with Bebe Mgette before the Civil Wedding
Ami ready to go
Leaving the house
With Pap who is to be one of the witnesses
Walking up the road to get the taxi
- Daniel and Ami together in the front seat
Ami and her best friend, come to witness the Civil Wedding
Daniel making sure Ousseynou will drive carefully!
Off they go to get the passports!
2. The Registrar, who had a delightful sense of humour, made sure we were following the marriage ceremony. (We were allowed to take photos but my battery ran out! I’m waiting for Lucy’s photos to arrive and will post them later.)
3. Last meal with the family, goodbyes and tears but also much laughter, warmth and happiness at such a beautiful week having been shared together and our two families becoming one.
It has been such a privilege to be here in Senegal with the family, to experience real life in Senegal rather than being a ‘tourist’ looking on. We owe so much to this beautiful family for welcoming us in, in this totally open and loving manner and for sharing their lives with us.
Senegal 10th April – Certificate of No Impediment, Goree Island and Senegalese Art and Presents from Pap
1 We all went by taxi into noisy, crowded and hectic Dakar to the British Consulate for Daniel to pick up his ‘Certificate of No Impediment’ so that he and Ami can have their Civil Wedding on Wednesday. It wasn’t ready! Ten minutes later, the Consulate called to say that it now was!!
2 We met Ami’s lovely parents in town for a ferry trip to Ile la Goree, a beautiful place with a shocking and disturbing history, it being a transit point for slaves to Europe in the 1800’s. It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site and a museum of tremendous importance. The baobab trees had lovely art work for sale attached to them.
3. Pap came into supper with his arms full of traditional outfits for us all and asked that we wear them at dinner that night. Pap, so lovely and thoughtful, also bought presents for KJ and M, our other daughters who couldn’t be with us in Senegal.
Senegal 9th April – Resting, Senegalese Hospitality and Skyping Home
1. After a hectic few days, some resting time. I love the multi-coloured water containers, not kettles as I first thought as they could not stand heat underneath. I’ve brought two home to use for watering window boxes etc!
Multi-coloured kettle
2. Meals are served in one very big dish for all to share. Should anyone arrive while the family are eating, they will always be invited to join in the meal. Senegalese hospitality is all-embracing.
Rice and beans with fried fish
3. We Skyped home to KJ and family and Jake said ‘ Bonjour’ to Ndeye Marie and ‘You are my cousin!” That was a beautiful moment that was appreciated by all.
My Dear Sister, Lakh and the Sailors’ Barometer
1 Found a phone message, left at about midnight last night, from my dear sister, Deborah aka Daisy in Hawaii, telling me she loves me and that she is loving seeing the joy in my postings about Senegal – a beautiful moment indeed. Thank you!
2 Researching Lakh on the net to help with my Senegal postings, I came across this blog which is just so evocative of all we experienced. You might like to have a look. http://friendsfooddrinks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/thieboudienne-lakh-mafe.html
Lakh is a bit like green rice pudding but made with millet and on top there is the most scrumptious creamy mixture, not unlike condensed milk which some readers will know I have a sweet tooth for!
Lakh - a fabulously sweet and delicious pudding
3 We’ve had very sudden and very heavy April showers today (lovely for the garden) and one of the things I like when the weather is going to be stormy is to watch the blue water in our Sailors’ Barometer rising. Today, at the peak of the heavy rain, it overflowed. I took the photo a bit later on when I realised that it would be one of today’s beautiful things!
Sailors' Barometer
Senegal 8th April – Daniel and Ami’s Wedding Day
The morning of the wedding, Ami and her Mum
The family in the morning
Ami at the salon, hair started, no make-up yet
Ami in her Wedding Dress, having changed in the salon owner’s bedroom next door
Back in the Salon, hair done and being sprinkled with gold-dust
Make-up done
Leaving the Salon
Drummers welcome Ami to the house and alert the guests on the roof to her arrival
Drumming welcome
Daniel and Ami arrive for the Ceremony
Babacar very kindly translates from Wolof to English for us.
Traditionally, cola nuts and sweets are handed around once the couple are married
The party begins with dancing
Followed by traditional singing, telling stories and praising the couple
and more drumming…..
and more dancing…..
Family photo
Ami’s Mum with Daniel and his Twin Sister and our new Grandchild
Newly Married
Just beautiful!
More family
Lucy and Daniel with Mgatte (Pap)
Sisters
Lucy and Ndeye Marie at the Wedding
The morning of the wedding, Ami and her Mum
The family in the morning
Ami at the beauty salon, hair started, no make-up yet
Ami in her Wedding Dress, having changed in the salon owner’s bedroom next door
Back in the Salon, hair done and being sprinkled with gold-dust
Make-up done
Leaving the Salon
Drummers welcome Ami to the house and alert the guests on the roof to her arrival
Drumming welcome
Daniel and Ami arrive for the Ceremony
Babacar, very kindly, translates from Wolof to English for us
Traditionally, cola nuts and sweets are handed around once the couple are married
The party begins with drumming and dancing
Followed by traditional singing, telling stories and praising the couple
and more drumming…..
and more dancing…..
Lucy and Ndeye Marie at the Wedding
Family photo
Ami’s Mum with Daniel and his Twin Sister and our new Grandchild
Newly Married
Just beautiful!
More family
Lucy and Daniel with Mgatte (Pap)
Sisters
What a colourful and happy day!
And the Civil Wedding will be on Wednesday.
