The Flying Tambrinis: A True Mauritanian Evening

We were very honored to be invited to a Mauritanian home yesterday. Aaron's assistant, Thioub, and his wife, welcomed a new baby a week ago, and the party was to celebrate her naming ceremony. The religious ceremony was done in the morning, and the party for family and friends was that evening. It was good for us (and the kids) to see how real Mauritanians live. When we walked into the house, all the women were seated inside, on the floor. The men were outside and the kids running around like kids do. I went to sit on the floor with the women but our host said no, no, no....and our family was ushered into a very nice room with matlas (sofas) and soft rugs. We felt really strange sitting in that nice room while everyone else was on the floor, but Thioub insisted this was for us to be comfortable, because he was so happy that we came. He proceeded to hook up a fan to cool the room, since we were already sweating - it was 100 degrees outside and there was no air moving. We were joined by a group of men - Thioub's closest friends and brothers - all wearing a boubou, the traditional Mauritanian robe. Tea was served. One of the men let Aaron try on his boubou, and then Thioub's wife decided I really needed to be dressed like an African, too. The next thing I know, 2 women are wrapping a skirt over my skirt, putting a VERY voluminous top on me, taking out my hair pins and tying a wrap on my head! Then out came the hand-washing bowl, followed by platters of dates and roasted goat, which you eat with your hands, sitting on the floor. More hand-washing, more tea, more pictures, and that was pretty much it. We had brought gifts for the new baby (whose name I can't pronounce, or spell!), which the women seemed excited about. Very few of them even spoke French, so there was not a lot of sparkling conversation, but instead, meaningful smiles and head nodding and so on. We got back into our big SUV (no one else had a car there), and drove back to our huge, brightly-lit, air-conditioned house full of furniture and gadgets and food, and realized we live in a different world - and that most of the world lives more like the people we had just said goodbye to.

with Mrs. Thoiub and her new baby

with our host, our favorite Mauritanian!

The kids drinking the sweet, minty tea

Aaron's just one of the boubou guys!

You can't even believe how huge these things are!!

The women gathered in the front room

This is money collected from friends and family to help pay for the party

And, here we are as a Mauritanian couple! Some women here wear the mulafa, a one-piece garment that covers their head, and the rest wear some kind of African top/skirt/scarf combo.