Visiting N'na Marietou

The pictures below all come from a visit to Aly's mom's house (N'na Marietou) with Carl (Yaya), Jennie (Ata) and Brad (Abou).

This is N'na Marietou, holding her namesake, Yetou.

 Here is Aly with Bountou in her Scooby Doo shirt

Here's Alice, N'na Marietou and Yetou

 Sophie, Alice, N'na Marietou, Yetou

 Alice, N'na Marietou, Yetou, Fatim

A child whose name I don't know, Alice, N'na Marietou, Yetou, Mohammed, Mam, and Fatim

Jennie, Sophie and Carl, sitting across from our great spread of fresh fruit, banana chips and water!

N'na Marietou after receiving a necklace and earrings that was made by a friend of Carl & Jennie's in Auburn, AL - Aly and Alice on the right.

N'na Marietou sporting her new necklace with great pleasure!

N'na Marietou and her long lost son!

N'na Marie - feeling a little better and looking beautiful. Aly's mom's youngest sister, who helped with a lot of the cooking for us.

Sophie with Papa Cisse

Papa Cisse with Fatim, crazy Fatim

Alice

Brad "Abou"!

Our little taxi surrounded by sheep

Sape's Children visit

I'm back in the U.S. now and still have a bunch of pictures and some videos to post, so here goes. Here are Marietou Cisse's boys who came to visit us.

Here's Marietou Cisse's sons with Jennie "Ata"

Here is Aly's older brother/cousin Salifou and Sophie.

Sophie and Merveilles Spectacle

Here's a clip of the performance that Merveilles did for us, and this is the section where Sophie danced with the ballet!  She is in the middle at the back when they are facing forward, with another young girl.

Busy days - culture, classes, market, music

We have had a busy couple of days. Sunday was the Merveilles performance, then yesterday there was dance class and drum class in the morning, then we headed to the market in Taouyah. After we came home and had lunch, another drum class, a very late dinner, and then a relaxing evening of balafon and gongoma.

Here's a couple of shots of our Saturday night cultural discussion with Mme. Diallo, a sociologist who works on development efforts in Guinea.

UPDATE

And here's a number of shots of Merveilles - when I get access to the pictures from Carl and Jenny, I will post those, because those are better!

And, when we returned home we hung out for a while with fome family members from Matoto. Here is me with Alice, Yetou, Bountou and little Mohamed.

Hana, the tailor, and Lowe, the chauffeur,

Alice and Hana

And here are some pictures of the Taouyah Market

This is the peanut butter lady, a little bit blurry

 Cloth!

And a couple of shots of drum class

And here's Carl and Jennie and then Brad listening to our Balafon/Gongoma music last night

Here's shots of our musicians - first Alia, Tozo and Seydouba. I will get some video posted tonight. Alia's balofon playing is fantastic.

Alia, Tozo and Seydouba

 Here's Mohamed, Sorrel and Seydouba

Sorrel and Seydou

Mohamed

Alia, Tozo and Mohamed

Tozo, Mohamed, Seydou, Sorrel

Alia, Tozo, Mohamed, Seydou, Sorrel

Seydouba and Sorrel

Alia, Tozo, Mohamed

More to come!!!