I have a husband. His name is Abdou Diagne. He is shorter than me by a good 3 or 4 inches, but as I say to everyone in my village who mentions it (and everyone mentions it) “Amul solo” (It’s not important). We’re going to move to the US after my Peace Corps service ends and there he is going to do all the cooking and cleaning and laundry and I’ll work for money. Life will be just grand. :)
[Disclaimer (for those who can’t tell the hint of sarcasm and/or don’t know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t actually have a husband already): This is a joke. Abdou and I really aren’t married, but we are friends. This joke is funnier in Senegal because the men (in general – especially in smaller villages/rural areas) do not cook, clean, or do the laundry, so I’m quite scandalous by insisting that Abdou do all these things for me while I work for money. It’s also really funny because Abdou is shorter than me and there is the same stigma in Senegal as there is in the US that the husband must be taller than the wife. One of the reasons why Abdou and I “got married” in the first place was because at the same time Cora and my brother “got married” – and Cora is really short and my brother, Demba, is really tall, so the four of us caused quite a hilarious ruckus (in a good way) in the village with our marriages. Cora and Demba agreed to a mutual divorce within a week or so of their marriage, and Abdou and I have decided that it would be too hard to joke about being married while I’m living in Kaymore, so we’re back to being friends.] :)
[Disclaimer (for those who can’t tell the hint of sarcasm and/or don’t know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t actually have a husband already): This is a joke. Abdou and I really aren’t married, but we are friends. This joke is funnier in Senegal because the men (in general – especially in smaller villages/rural areas) do not cook, clean, or do the laundry, so I’m quite scandalous by insisting that Abdou do all these things for me while I work for money. It’s also really funny because Abdou is shorter than me and there is the same stigma in Senegal as there is in the US that the husband must be taller than the wife. One of the reasons why Abdou and I “got married” in the first place was because at the same time Cora and my brother “got married” – and Cora is really short and my brother, Demba, is really tall, so the four of us caused quite a hilarious ruckus (in a good way) in the village with our marriages. Cora and Demba agreed to a mutual divorce within a week or so of their marriage, and Abdou and I have decided that it would be too hard to joke about being married while I’m living in Kaymore, so we’re back to being friends.] :)
Abdou and I on Korite (see later post about Korite) - I'm all dressed up in my new Senegalese clothes and he just subbed out of the soccer game (he's on my village's soccer team).
Cora and Demba - aren't they cute?!?!? They're pretty goofy together. :)
So. Reading the first lines of this, I doubted you were serious, but my mind couldn't help picturing you as Leah when she married Anatole in the Poisonwood Bible! - the authentic and moral couple in the book. Fortunately your disclaimer squashed this image :P
ReplyDelete