What is an ngente?

Well, we are busy preparing for Mariama's ngente. What is an ngente you say? It is what the people here in Senegal call a naming ceremony. It is typically held on the eightth day after a child is born. Until that time, the child's name is not spoken by the parents to anyone. Typically the ceremony takes place about ten in the morning which includes a prayer of sorts, shaving the head as part of their tradition, and the announcing of the name. At about this time is when the sheep is killed, out of sacrifice or celebration, it is unclear. Before the ceermony takes place though, they begin to serve the laax. Laax is a grain that is made into powder and then formed into the consistency of oatmeal and then served with a sweet milky yogurt over it. It is really delicious! After the sheep has been killed, cooking of lunch begins, which is always "ceebu yap" (rice and meat), which is a signature Senegalese dish. This is generally served about 2:00, since they will serve the laax to anyone who comes until about noon. The lunch is served on large platters around which about 6 people will eat, in Senegalese fashion. (See our website for pictures of this.) After lunch, guests are served some drink, generally cokes, frozen juice from a store, or one of the homemade Senegalese jus, which are not like anything we drink in the states, but they are delicious. This is finished about three or four o'clock. Often for the Senegalese, the day does not end here. They may serve leftovers of lunch to those who come around 5:00, and then will serve a dinner around 8:00. But also around 6:00, there is the exchanging of gifts between the families. The family of the mother of the baby and the family of the father of the baby essentially compete to outgive gifts to the other side of the family. If good enough gifts are not given by one side, not only does it insult the other side of the family, but it also causes the side who gives inadequately to be looked down on by all the neighbors because everyone is watching this event. Yeah, no pressure here!!! However, for our ngente, things will be a bit different! We will serve the laax, because I love it. As someone put it, it is like the wedding cake at a wedding; you would really wonder if you went to a wedding and there was no cake. We will also have another version of it that we had at one ngente. It is the same as the regular laax, but the sauce also includes peanut butter, the Senegalese version. Rich loves this one. Instead of killing a sheep that day, we will buy already butchered meat the day before, that way there is no suspicion of a sacrifice. We will have one of the local pstors come to pray for Mariama and Rich will do a welcome and talk about the importance of neighbors. We may do an imitation of the shaving of the baby's head, but we will not actually do it. Among other reasons,they shave the head because the first hair a baby has is too soft. The shaving of the head causes the next hair that comes out to be stronger and better for braiding, which is very important for girls here. Obviously, we have already announced her name to everyone, since we are doing this 2 months after her birth! We will then serve lunch followed by the Senegalese jus. After that we will be done. We will not do the gift exchange, because it practically sends everyone in debt. We will also not do dinner. Oh, one part I forgot is me! The mother of the baby is called the "boroom ngente", meaning lord of the ngente. The boroom generally wears a different outfit for every meal, getting more expensive as the day goes on. I will wear a nice outfit I already have for the morning but am getting a new outfit for the afternoon lunch time. Her hair and makeup are very fixed and very heavy generally. I have not yet decided how I will do those, but that will be decided this week. I hope that this gives you all a good idea of what we are getting ready for here. As someone has said, this is really a party for them, our guests, and a show of us wanting to be a prt of their culture, though we are not of their culture. Please pray that things will go smoothly and that no feelings will get hurt, long story, and that this will be an opportunity to deepen the relationships we already have in this community. Thank you!