So, I went to a concert last night. I had heard about some Malian music being played in Velingara from charlene earlier in the day but didn't really think anything of it. I didn't know I was going to a concert until I was actually there. my evening started off pretty simple. I went over to Fatou's house (at around 8:00) to tell her that she needed to stir her compost the next day, and I tried to time it out right so that I could perhaps get some free dinner out of my visit. Neither of those things happened. as soon as I got there she takes me by the hand and tells me that we are going to a carnival. because of the accent and stuff it sounded like carnival like in brazil. this made me excited for a moment but then realized I was in West Africa not Brazil. I kept asking her if it was really a carnival that we were going to (my mind now on corn dogs funnel cakes and pie eating contests) and she insisted that it was a carnival, although I remain skeptical. we go through some dark alleys and end up at the basketball courts which are pretty far form my home.
So, we arrive at the "Carnival" which is really a concert set up by World Vision (an NGO) and UNICEF to educate people about like sexual abuse and domestic violence and stuff like that which is set to start at 9:00. So I sit down and remember that I am very hungry now (8:30). I get up and go eat an egg sandwich with some hunks of meat in it (I think that some of the meat might have actually been organ meat, but in an egg sandwich who cares?) and sit back down to find that Fatou is gone. I sit down by myself and call Pam. She says she is going to come. Thirty minutes later she arrives, and the concert has not yet started. By this time I have met a very strange man that works for World Vision. He made very strange noises and really freaked me out. Pam and I sit down and talk and wait. Then suddenly some soldiers show up. this is not surprising, there are a lot of people all around, the show has not started and there might need to be some crowd control. what struck me as odd about the soldiers (besides there only being two for a crowd of 2000) was that instead of wearing riot gear, or carrying tear gas and pepper spray was that they were carrying M16 semi-automatic rifles. Then some guy got on stage and started speaking in Wolof and French (two languages I can't speak) and then he tries to say something in English which didn't really work out for him. he started by saying good morning when it was obviously night time, and then something about canada and UNICEF that I didn't quite understand. I also didn't quite understand why he wasnt speaking Pulaar to a large group of Pulaars. The man kept going on stage and eventually Pam told me that the concert had not yet started (10:15) because the Prefect (like the vice mayor or something) hadn't arrived and that the show was not going to start until he arrived. at 10:30 I try to call charlene to see if she has made it yet, she had not. then at about 11:00 the sous prefect (like vice prefect) showed up and was apparently good enough for the concert promoters to get the concert started. At this moment in time Charlene and Geoff and some others had showed up.
The concert began around 11:00 with the three worst lip syncing rappers I had ever witnessed. The speakers were waay too loud, and they didnt even hold their microphones up to their mouths. Being at a rap concert is very awkward for me. Firstly, I am white. Second the N word is used very often**. when the first rapper went on stage he kind of just repeated it becuase that is what he hears in american rap music. Does he know the origin or meaning of the N word, no probably not, and so uses it very inappropriately and way too often. Geoff and I made jokes about milli vanilli. After a few songs a new rap group would get on stage slightly better at lip syncing than the last group. The lip syncing was like classic Ashley Simpson. I got very excited for one rapper because they MC called up Cysco (sp?) I was expecting the Thong Song. It was not the Cysco I know and love though. It was instead some skinny lip syncing pulaar man. Another rapper got on stage and claimed to be a "hustlah". He was so proud of his "hustling" abilities that he had it screen printed on the back of his shirt. However his shirt did not say "Hustlah" like it would in America it instead read "Heusleu" as it would be pronounced/written in french, thoroughly providing the proof that he has no idea what a hustlah is or does but that it is just a word he has heard in American rap music.
Throughout the concert not one person was looking very happy nor excited. There was little dancing involved and most people were not smiling (I suspect that it was in part because of the lack of beers). It made me very frusterated and decided that if no one else was going to dance and be happy to be at a concert then I would make up for all the other people that were not having such a good time. Yes I became that annoying American causing a rucus in the back. I started whooping and hollaring and causing a scene (not too much of a scene I didn't want to get shot). Then the best lip syncer showed up. MC Ballejjo (MC Black) So MC Black gets up and does his lipsyncing act. I get bored and I walk pam home (12:30).
-Mike
**I would like to point out that people around town have indeed been calling me white, and they have also been calling me the "N" word. it makes me very uncomfortable and I tell them that it is not a good word for them to be calling me, or anyone else for that matter. they merely laugh at me when I tell them this, and ignore the fact that it is a terrible word for them to be calling me.
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