The next day we found out that when we got to Tea Village, we really needed to go over to a different compound for a baby-naming ceremony. We've been to many of these before and knew that we could literally be there for hours, sitting on a mat...in other words: not testing Stories.
Well we got all shawled up and went. We were kind of ushered in to the room where the mother and the baby were...along with about a dozen of her closest friends & family. We were instructed to sit on the bed with them. So we did.
It turns out that the baby being named was the granddaughter of Woman 2 from the previous day. She was one of the very oldest ones there, and she was who we had already pegged as the most strict and conservative of Musl-ms. She was fully covered, all in black. She'd been very hard to read the day before...not much animation on her face or in her voice. When we told her the next Story was about Jesus, she let Woman 1 do all the talking. She stayed and listened, but she kept pretty quiet. We had even wondered how she felt about us being there. Well...we got to find out.
A few young women, about the age of the mother of the baby, entered the room and immediately spotted Abby and me. We saw the usual face that says, "What in the world are these white girls doing here?!?!" They greeted us in a super friendly manner and then looked around and asked the rest of the room who we were.
That's when Grandma piped up. She said, "These white girls are OUR white girls. They have come to us, all the way from America, to play us these Stories and they need our help. The Stories are very good to us. We really like the Stories." The young women asked what the Stories were about...and Grandma answered matter-of-factly, "Jesus. From the Bible."
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