JUNGLE LOVE

Welcome to the jungle, we've got fun and games.....

I live in a land where nature reigns without a throne, but a throne she does not need. She is the rain that turns bare land into a thinck jungle of vines and grass as tall as hills overnight. She's the swarm of flies that feed on the wounds of puppies and leave them to die or, even better, a troop of ants so nombre that to the uncautious eye is nothing but a shadow, until of course you step on that shadow and within seconds find yourself stripping in your family's yard screaming in defeat. How bizarre they are. So bizarre at how they can barracade you from entering your house, or even better, rapidly taking over your hut that all you can do is run. Could you imagine if she did have a throne?

However, there is something perhaps more powerful and cunning than nature-the hand of the man. My host father beat one of his two wives so hard that you could hear her from the tops of the mountain, according to other members of my family. Why, you ask? She was tired. Meanwhile, he spends all the day perched on his throne of bamboo. He is also giving his 14 year old daughter away in marriage to a man who lives in Kedougou. I'm sorry, but do we consider a girl at that age to be a woman,or WAIT, isn't that illegal? Yes, to all of the above. One of the brothers in my family has three different families scattered around Senegal. He hasn't returned to see his family in my village in a year, a year where he left them no money to put his son in school or pay for the delivery of his child, that the wife suffered from complications while trying to deliver her child on the floor of their hut. Not that she would go to the health post anyway, too stuck in her traditional ways. "Yes, the floor looks like a good place to have my child." Or even better, a woman who came to the health post, clearly having suffered from a beating because she refused to sleep with her husband.

In fact there are many things that strick me as completely insane and wilder than mother nature. Our water pump broke and needs of repair, but of course there is a problem with money. The mayor held a meeting and asked for each family and functionner to donate 2 mille CFA to help repair the project. There was so much huffing and puffing about the expense,you would think that a price of something related to a hundred thousand dollars was asked. But wait; do they huff and buff when they spend that on tea and cigarettes? Absolutely not. Still in the traditional mind state and yet at the same time aren't afraid to hold out a wanting hand to the white lady.

I've also discovered that when the lights go out at night, idle hands become busy. La vie c'est la nuite ("the night is the life," according to a neighbor) Everyone, man and woman has a lover on the side. They share everything-food, clothing, beds, SPOUSES! My neighbor's best friends came to me the other day and said, "Hey Fatou, Adramine is going away to Kedougou, guess who's going to be taking his place in the bed tonight next to Assatou?" Great. Thanks for the info.

I've realized that my little village, is in fact, is just like the rest of the world. There's more to that toothless, sing-songy, hello...mischief and a hidden story, or maybe not so hidden. My words of wisdom-walk cautiously, carry a big stick and don't be SO naiive-it's a jungle out there.