Life in my village becomes boring when I have the same
questions, play the same games and eat the same food every day. So I try to mix
it up by having specific questions that I ask everyone each week, to learn more
about the culture, gender differences and to keep my brain stimulated. Some of
these themes have consisted of heaven and hell, Djinn, people that transform
into animals, and proverbs! So today, I am giving you a list of some of the
proverbs I learn. Some of them I decided to explain, some I just translated.
Kilaalay se moxo
esingo la sumea bari
Asking cools peoples legs but it does not cool the heart.
-A common occurrence in Senegal is for older people to send
children on errands to the boutik to buy things like tea, salt, an onion or a
pack of cigarettes. This proverb is saying that running these errands may tire
your legs but it is good for your heart.
Meenimeenoo xa samo
wuli
Small ant births an elephant.
-The example men used for this was that Obama’s mother did
not know she was having a world leader when she had him.
Kendo boo ta fureto,
fureboota kendo to.
Health comes out of a corpse, a corpse comes out of health.
Keebaa sigiring se
dula doo jee, dinding looring me a jee.
Old person sitting sees a place, child standing does not
see.
Atu! Basso le mu
Stop! Is the medicine
Feetoto wo le doney a
xa dii kungo tooti.
Giving to a person without clothing is sweeter than a hungry
person.
-When someone comes to your home without clothing, you give
them clothing once and it is over. When someone comes hungry you feed them but
they get hungry again and again. Therefore, it is better to have little
clothing but money for food rather than have nice clothing but no money for
food.
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| View from my back yard |
Nii ma kee sisee
koto, I se taxa kee woolo koto.
When you don’t put it in the chicken, you go and put it in
the field.
-Basically, if you have money and you don’t buy one thing
than you will use it to buy something else.
Fendo xa bung jail
soma a mang bono la sila fando sii.
(This direct translation is funky so I will just explain
it).
A griot comes to your home, asks for money and you do not
give it. Than you put the money in your pocket, your pocket has a hole and you
lose the money.
The last 3 proverbs are all money related and really
emphasize an aspect of the culture that makes it very hard to relate and fully
integrate in the culture. If you have money here, you are expected to spend it,
either by buying others things, giving loans to family and friends that you dont except to be paid back, or purchasing items for yourself.
Saving money is not culturally acceptable when other members of your family
could use the funds themselves.
Which brings me to the last proverb that is translatable
into every Senegalese language here:
Yiri calo be sigiring
giyoto, me wo me kee bamboo ti.
A tree branch, no matter how long it sits in the water will
not become an alligator.
So don’t worry mom, Im coming home because I can never
become an alligator.
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| Another good thing about rainy season- beautiful skies |
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Senegal? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Senegal in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez