While in the Saafi villages Amanda and I got new names. We are now Sally and Ipooh Chandom. It is funny to imagine giving visitors to the USA new names. “Assan Entambe, you are now Paul House, and that makes you my brother-in-law! You are now in my family and you are his brother and his cousin!” This is pretty much how our naming went. It is fun knowing where you fit into the community. There are running jokes between different sets of families. If you meet someone from a specific family, you are expected to tease them about how much they like to eat rice and they they may eat too much. When you meet someone with the same name as you, you keep shaking each others hand and repeating each others name. “Joof” “Joof” “Joof” “Joof”.

Do you remember this picture from our scooter trip across the country? Check out Christine Sargent’s website to see it in it’s new form.

Colorful clothing is one thing that is not lacking around here! I feel quite dull next to these women… maybe their use of color will rub off on me.

One of my favorite things thus far about Senegal are the greetings and handshakes! I caught this shot of Peter as a line of men were filing past him and shaking his hand.

Headdresses!

Peter and I got a chance to take some pictures/video of people working out in the tomato fields. We were told that the farmers sell their tomatoes for about 11 cents per 1 kilo (2 pounds).

Whenever we are videoing, there are almost always a few people peering over our shoulders and laughing as they watch the LCD screen.

Catfish fishing in the mud!

Peter got this one out of the car window!

Filming at the Morgan’s picnic spot up on a plateau.

This afternoon we drove a half an hour to the Ndut village that the Morgans lived in for 6 years while learning the Ndut language.

We could tell that we were getting close because people started waving and smiling. Soon after arriving Dan and I joined the men sitting in the sand by the mosque. Before we could sit we had to shake hands and exchange greetings with each person. When I had finished I was asked what my last name was. They then said that I was to be called Joof, Pierre Joof, and pointed and said that my house was to be the one over there.
One of the men said “That must be Pierre Joof’s wife over there with the camera. I saw her go like this with the camera to pull us close.” Dan Morgan’s village name is Assan Ciss. Amanda “Joof” stayed with the women and had pulled tea and took pictures of the kids.

Yesterday we had an appointment to meet with Marcel Salem, a Ndut reggae artist.  We have enjoyed watching a few of his music videos on you tube and thought his music might work very well for our videos here in Senegal. His lyrics are all pretty uplifting. The best time for him to meet with us was just before a radio interview on “Planet Reggae”. We showed up at the radio station and had some really strong sweet mint tea and waited for him to show up. He came just before he was going to be on the air and insisted that we join him in the studio. Dan was even given a few minutes of air time to describe his work with the Ndut people! It was fun watching Marcel and his wife sing along to his songs while they were being aired! He is a really charismatic artist. After the radio program we bought a CD of his music and he gave us a copy of his older album as well as permission to use his work in our videos!