Funeral

Turns out the scary goat-killing beast was a baboon. Unfortunately it moved on without me getting too see it. Maybe next time.

So this morning was a bit particular. My next door neighbor committed suicide. It’s not at all common here and I have no idea why he did it. Well, I woke up this morning to some screaming and crying when he was found. Then as the morning and afternoon continued, I witnessed the funeral process. Around 8am people started gathering at the house to pay respects to the family. At around 9:30 a crowd of people came walking up carrying the body and placed it in the house. After that people just kept coming and coming. The women sat on the ground under a huge tree and sang while the men sat under another tree in chairs and watched as one man made the casket. This continued until about 4pm when the singing calmed down and it got quiet. Then the body was placed in the back of a truck and everyone (about 60 people) followed behind the truck singing as they went to the cemetery. It’s currently 5:05pm and it’s surprising quiet around here. A huge part of me wanted to see more of what was going on today, learn a bit more about the funeral process, but because I wasn’t invited to participate I didn’t feel it was my place. I will say I’m amazed at the singing that took place all this afternoon- at least 6 hours of constant chanting and singing. It was quite beautiful. Also I was somewhat surprised by the male female separation all day. Only when they were placing the body in the house and as they were driving to the cemetery did I see any men and women interacting together. This is a very gender-separated culture, and I guess traditional ceremonies only accentuate that separation.