Dombondir

Greetings!
I'm back in Brikama after having spent five days in Casamance, which is the southern region of Senegal. Here, I attended the annual festival in the village of Dombondir, which sits not too far south of the Gambian border, but the road is not direct, unpaved, and loaded with dips and potholes. I believe it is about a two hour journey from Brikama. But it's literally within earshot of Gambia.
Last Wednesday, Peter came from his hotel in Kartong (in Gambia) to pick Moriba and I up. Along with him, he brought Fatou Njie, a local Kartong resident who has helped him out at past festivals in Kartong and Dombondir. He also brought Thomas, a 23 year old Australian who is here in Gambia for the first time. He is here for the experience itself, rather than for anything in particular.
The five of us headed out at about midday on Wednesday, and arrived in Abene (also in Casamance, prounounced Ah-ben-ay) at about 3pm. The border crossings here are really interesting. You have to stop and get out of the vehicle at one stop just so that the immigrations officer in the country that you are departing can look at your passport and wave you on without stamp. Then you have to drive about a quarter mile further to the immigration post of the country to which you are traveling to, and they stamp your passport. You then get back in the vehicle, head a little bit further up the road, get out of the vehicle, someone else looks at your newly stamped passport, and you're finally through. It's a three step process.
The vehicle was packed! And uncomfortably so. The bed mat that I slept on for five days was encroaching on the back of my head, forcing me to lean forward. Having the calabash of a Kora on my lap, with the neck streched over the laps of "Njie" and Thomas, there wasn't a whole lot of breathing room in the back seat. The window was broken, so I appreciated the breeze from Moriba's window at the co-pilot's seat. We arrived at Yahya's in Abene at 3 to a very warm welcome. I met Yahya in 2008, and stayed there a couple of days. He was very happy to see me, Peter, and Moriba. The day was spent relaxing under a mango tree, listening to Kora tunes or in my case, playing them. Everyone was very happy to listen, and Yahya, Moriba, and Peter all were very pleased at how much I have progressed since my last visit. We had dinner, and then took a trip to the neighboring village of Kaffountine, which is on the ocean, and took a short visit to the beach. Very nice.....
The next day, the five of us plus Yahya headed up to Dombondir. Yes, believe it or not, we crammed one more person into Peter's Jeep. Just when I thought it was already crammed, it got more crammed! Fortunately, the ride wasn't that long, but it wasn't a main road by any means, which meant that the dips and potholes were more extreme....quite wonderful eh? We survived! We arrived in Dombondir around 2 or 3 on Thursday, at the compound belonging to a man named Malang and his family. They have hosted Peter since the festivals first year in 2007. This year, Peter was saying that he has had the least involvement in the preparation, which is quite nice. I guess this isn't so much the case in Kartong...but in Dombondir, they seem to have the organization down for the most part. There were many people here at the compound, many very friendly, and provided warm hospitality. Lunch was enough to fill me up for 24 hours. It consisted of fish that Peter and I purchased in Kaffountine, served with some cooked vegetables (eggplant, casava {a delicious root, potato like vegetable}) over rice with some sauce and oils. Quite delicious.....Sometimes I would get bread at the festival in the evening, served with cooked lentils and onions for about 15 dalasi (50 cents). I've had no problem staying well nourished thus far....
The Dombondir Festival was awesome. Unfortunately, I missed Friday's event because I was sick. My stomach wasn't feeling all that great, and my sinuses were all plugged up from the blowing dust. Dombondir is a dust bowl, and even the smallest winds were enough to irritate my sinuses that day. I think they were extra sensitive too as I had just recovered from a 2 week sinus infection just prior to arriving in Gambia last Tuesday. On Friday, I missed Tata Dindin's Salaam Band, which is made up of some folks from Jobarteh Kunda, including Moriba. I could hear them over the sound system as I rested in the tent at the compound where I stayed though. The highlight of the festival was seeing a group called Caramala from Kaffountine, which is in Casamance not too far from Abene. They feature a traditional arrangement of percussion instruments- djembes, dundun, sangban, and dancers. The tightness of their sound was phenomenal- I've rarely heard such from groups at home.....They played both Saturday and Sunday night....They played better on Saturday, but were still enjoyable on Sunday. The group had a man on stilts in a costume come walking out to do a variety of dances while the group performed. On Sunday, this man on stilts in the costume walked up to Thomas, who was standing directly behind the group at ground level, took his hand, and paraded him around the festival grounds in front of the audience! Needless to say, everyone around me was quite amused as they laughed hysterically.
Moriba got me on stage for a solo Kora performance on Saturday night. It wasn't on the schedule. He told me to bring my Kora on Saturday because "Sean, I want all to see how good this white man is who play Kora!". I got pulled up between acts for a couple of tunes, lasting only about 5 minutes. I received many compliments throughout the rest of the evening and the next night. People were in disbelief that a toubab could play so well.....
We arrived back in Brikama at about 5pm today, and I was exhausted. I felt like taking a nap, but it didn't happen. When I arrived, I found out that my room had been broken into during the night, which has caused quite an uproar within the compound. Fortunately, I had no valuables in my room, and they have been on high alert ever since. I'll be picking up a lock box tomorrow, which I will chain to the bed in my room. All thing considered, I feel safe.

I feel like I've been meeting my goals for this trip up to this point. I've learned a couple of new songs, and I've been learning singing to some of the pieces that I'm familiar with. This is one of the main objectives of the trip...more so than learning new songs. The lessons are quite informal. I'll be playing Kora with Moriba sitting next to me, singing. Or in the case of learning a new piece, he'll play the piece for a few minutes, and then hand me the Kora...


I'll be in Brikama for the next week it sounds like... I'll provide an update again in a few days.


I hope all is well back home.

All the best,
Sean