DANCING & DRUMS

The next morning, Janko drove us to over to Saffi’s school.

On the way, we stopped to find a luggage scale for Thomas, whom, after a string of shopping sprees in Serekunda and Kartung, was rightfully concerned about his luggage being over-limit on his flight home.

At Saffi’s school, I recorded her with her dance students. Saffi’s talent as a teacher was evident, as they were a joyful group that danced with astounding skill and beauty.

After the dance show, we met the school’s director, a Gambian man, and the project’s founder, a gentleman from Norway.

At the end of the visit, Buba, in an all-white daishiki and dark glasses, appeared in his sleek, black SUV to shuttle us home.

We went the beach to relax but accomplished very little of it, as Kaddy and little Boboi decided they would be our companions for the balance of the afternoon.

That evening, drummers from Karamba’s village, Berending, arrived. Karamba built a bonfire in the palm grove and they performed several songs for Antje, Luis, Thomas, Tor and I under the moonlight. Eventually, the solo drummer, a loquacious man with a penchant for storytelling, began to tell folktales—one about a tortoise and a vulture who were best friends and the tortoise wanted to fly, so the vulture gathered his friends and they each gave him a feather so that he could make wings. A second one was about a rabbit outwitting a wolf. Both were excessively long with elaborate, theatrical displays but in truth—we preferred the drumming to the stories.

The drumming was incredibly lovely.