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i've hand-written 10 pages of my 12-page paper, so i feel comfortable using this time to add this entry. (kate's not procrastinating? what?)
i started a new project. which reminds me...how's everyone coming with those SCHOOL SUPPLIES?
i taught grade 6 yesterday afternoon...4 boys and one girl. i showed them my passport and taught them the star-spangled banner. then we did verbal for all of 15 minutes. then i gave them each a piece of paper and a topic to write about. this will give you an understanding of how they speak and write here, and why sometimes i feel a language barrier between my english and gambian english. my edits are in parentheses for clarification purposes. here is the topic and their responses:
Explain the customs and traditions of The Gambia to someone who has never traveled to The Gambia before.
Hello Samba,
I want you to tell you about customs and tradition in the Gambia. In our tradition family, woman use to call the horband (husband) nenjie or babou and when woman is giving her horband to drinking she use to nee down (when a woman gives her husband a drink, she kneels).
When we are eating women alway whole the bowl. In the morning we use to eat bread. In the Afternoon we eat rice and in the night we eat boom or some time rice.
In marry some men use to have 4 wife but 5 in islam. they call it haram. They dont alout (allow) a woman who is not marry sould (should) not sex. Sometime they dont like to rent men who is not marry.
In The Gambia we have different dress like Jola has it own dress and many other language.
-Omar Ndong
Dear Kate,
I hope you are fine? How is America is it cold or hot? The reason why I wrote this letter is that I want to share my thought on tradition and customs. We have so many types of local languages such as follows
a. Serere e. Serahuli
b. Bambara f. Mandinka
c. Fula g. Aku etc.
d. Jola
In Our Local traditions when eating you shouldn't be talking or playing, and you shouldn't be attend sex when you are not married. And if you committe rape you will be in a big trouble that you might be killed or Life in jail.
Our Customs are tradionally (traditionally) respected by every Gambian Citizens, the castoms (costumes ie. clothes) we are allowed to wear are cloth that passes our knee cap, and you shouldnt wear short skirts or short trousers.
Yours friend,
Aisha Sowe
This is the custom and traditions of The Gambia.
The custom of The Gambia is a very wonderful thing. In The Gambia we are polite to each other, and we are very honest. If someone has a food, he/she share the food with the others. They can share with more the (than) two peoples, eating in one plate. They childrens respect thier parents very much that, even, if the (they) see thier parents coming, they will be so quiet. In this country some people eat rice everyday, even rich peoples always eat rice. If somebody is rich he/she like to give charity to the poor peoples. In side of cooking, mother's use to be very exhausted, because everyday, In the morning, they will go to the maret, were (where) they whole town will go and buy their food to cook. Over 98% of Gambians use to cook with charcoal. The smoke disturb them very much. When finish cooking, they will put the food in a very big bowl, all the family will sit on (around) the bowl and eat together.
The tradition of the Gambia is also wonderful.
In the Gambia here, cousin's can marry each other. It is forbitten to have sex before marry. All ecnic (ethnic) group forbit that. That even make some people parents marry them early. They hate to see bastard on their compounds. If a man and woman love each other, they go to the parent and tell their parents that they want to marry, it depend if the parents agree, you marry, if they don't agree, they will never marry each other. Childrens never call their parent with the name. It depend the ecnic group you are. Sarrahule childrens call their Father Mbaba they call the mother Mma. We have so many ecnic group. Each group have the way to call their parents. If eating, the children hold the bowl with the left hand and eat with the right hand. We don't use spoon or forks when eating we always use our hands. Females always wear dreeses (dresses) that cover the whole body. It is impossible to see a female thigh, the (they) hate it. They hate to have boyfriend (?). Males also put on long cloths locally called haftan (it's pronounced haftan but spelled Kaftan). This is some of the custom and tradition of The Gambia.
-Basamba Drammeh
In the Gambia there are diffrent kind of Ethnic groups. The Fula, the Jola, the Wolof, the Sarahule, and the Mandinkas. We often put on diffrent customs (costumes ie. clothes). The Folas put on charya, the Mandinkas wear Kaftan. In the Gambia, we have two type of relegious, The Islam and Christianty. The other things in The Gambia I want to talk about is the way we behave. If we are with are (our) parents, we don't behave anyhow we want. If we marry in our country, we can live in our parents house. we can also marry our cousines and Our own sisters. Some poeple marry two or four. Four is the maxsimu (maximum) in Islamic relegious. In the Gambia Islamic is the most popular relegion in the Gambia.
we eat diffrently in our country. almost ninty five percent are useing their hands to eat. In my country diffrent ethnic group dance diffrently and use diffrent insturment. elderly people usually drink attay (attaya) that spoil there (their) teeth. In my country men and boys play football. In the rular (rural) aera (area) pupils used wood to build their houses. Diffrent ethnic eat diffrent food, like the Mandinkas eat domoda, the fulas eat lachira, and the Jolas eat caldo.
This is the few things we do in my country.
-Dawda Jallow
(Note: I added some periods to this one because he barely had any. periods i add are in parentheses)
The customs and traditions are important in the Gambia. And one of the important thing i want to talk about is about food because in Gambia we usually eat together in one bowl and we do not talk we eat silently with our hand and bend down to eat. In Gambia hear (here) mostly the mother alway go to the market and come home to cook not with gas but with firewood (.) we nomally (normally) us (use) gas but most Gambians use firewood and in Gambia here we eat any were (where) we like.
One thing I want to talk about is about dressing because in Gambia it is not allowed that young girls should be showing out their body wearing short dresses like dresses that do not cover your kenes and breast and sometimes Christmas, Easter, Tobaski, e.t.c they usually dress funny and start to play with small kinds looking for some money reacting (.)
I also want to talk about our musical instrument (.) we don't nomally us (normally use) guitar, trumpet, e.t.c (.) we use the kora, local drum e.t.c and in Gambia our major laguages are Mandinka, Jola, Fula, Wolof, e.t.c (.) people mostly speak Wolof and Mandinka (.)
In Gambia we are not allowed to be using drug (.) in Gambia we ahve one airport and our parent do not nomally allow their female daughter go out in the night because it might be too dangerous for her (.) bad guy might rape her and spoil her life and she might be pregnant. we mostly drink attaya everyday (.) sometimes in Gambia people brush their mouth with sticks and water (truth). Some poor family nomally make a garden and grow crops (.) when the crops grow they sell it to have to take care of their family or the (they) climb mango trees orange trees or any other trees takes it to the public selling it to have money (.) Some people in Gambia nomally were sposored with poeople from other countries (.) in Gambia your not allow to be chasing around with young girls (.) we usually go to the presdient zoo celebrating some programme.
-Frank Mary
so there you have it. ladies and gentlemen...grade 6. it can be really hard to correct their papers sometimes (can you see why?). i just had the morning with grade 2 which was one except for one girl names Sallimattou who i want to KILL because she won't shut up and gets in everyone's business. ERRGH. and then grade 7 this afternoon.
hope everyone's well!
Kate
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I somehow feel that you feel my pain! With Haley and Rory at 15 and 13, there are times when they won't shut up, times I want to kill them (someone is going to read this and report me and you will read about me in the newspaper), times when I can't hug them hard enough and times when I now want to send them to The Gambia so they can learn about "They childrens respect thier parents very much that, even, if the (they) see thier parents coming, they will be so quiet." Gambia sounds cool in that regard...not so much on the Moms going to get firewood and going to market every day. Ugh!