Successful recordings, Jambanjelly again

I'm back in Jambanjelly with my friend Lamin.....I first met Lamin in the summer of 2005 when I was in Maine for a month. I'm repeating this again from a previous post for those who are unfamiliar....I exchanged emails with Lamin upon leaving Maine. We had exchanged emails maybe a couple of times before I found out that the Kora came from his homeland here in Gambia. I saw him briefly for a day during my first trip in 2008, and I spent one night with him a few weeks back. I will be spending the rest of my time in Gambia here with his family.

I was successful in getting a couple of recordings that I was hoping would happen over the past couple of days. The first was of my other Kora teacher, Malamini Jobarteh- Moriba's father. We had to travel to his second compound, which is about 30 minutes away from Brikama. He lives here with one of his wives. The other three live in Brikama, where I was staying. I believe that he comes to this compound once every couple of weeks for two nights. It was quite a surprise walking into this compound, which had a large open space leading up to the building. Only Malamini, his wife Sali, and a few children occupied the area. Thomas the Australian tagged along with Moriba and I, as Thomas' temporary home in Lamin village was not too far away. I set up my recording equipment, and witnessed a sweet recording of Malamini playing his Kora solo. He played some of his favorite pieces, and admitted to being a bit rusty, which I could easily tell. He says he hasn't played Kora consistently for 10 years. I believe this, as I have heard past recordings, which are much more fluent than what I witnessed yesterday. This doesn't take away from the fact that it was wonderful, just sitting, listening to a deep tradition being brought to life once again.

There was a bit of a frantic period that followed on the ride home. I placed the memory card from the pocket video recorder in a secure place in my safety pouch. I was reaching for it only a few minutes after departing, and I couldn't find it. We came to a junction and let Thomas out near his village, and the search began. The driver provided a bit of light with his flashlight, but not much. We dug through each of the plastic sacks in my small backpack....no luck. I KNEW that I put it my wallet, but I didn't see it in any of the zipped pockets. We drove 5 minutes back to Malamini's. Retraced our steps...no luck....Malamini came out with a flashlight.....no luck....back to Brikama....at this point, I had pretty much accepted the fact that it was gone. This memory card not only had video from my recording with Malamini, but also my recordings with Moriba, and Jali Mady Susso. I was pretty calm about the idea, as I had two audio recordings in addition to the video of each performance. Honestly, yes, I was extremely bummed, but I wasn't interested in wasting my energy any further, as I was already exhausted from a 98 degree day. We got back to the compound in Brikama. No electricity was on yet...it usually comes on around nightfall, and falls out early in the morning. I went into my room...turned on my head lamp, and emptied my bag. Did a thorough search, no luck...Did one more thorough chech of all my pockets, no luck. Back to the wallet for a last ditch effort...I just realized that I hadn't yet checked the pocket containing my passport and yellow vaccination card...BINGO!!!! My luck had come....whew...I will have video to take home after all!

That brings us to today. I will leave it for another time, as Lamin is waiting patiently to have dinner. Stay tuned for another post. Today was quite a day...