Biki Takeover

Children getting too friendly with the food

Last week we got to drive our closest neighbors, who live directly across the street from us, to the birthing hospital in the middle of the night for a special delivery. This week they had a “biki” to celebrate the birth and give the child a name, “Abubakar.” It was quite an experience for us because we became part of the support crew for putting on this big shindig. The husband is currently working as our night guard while we search for something more permanent, so the whole family was already becoming much more at home inside our gate. But because of all the family members and friends who were coming in to town a few days before the party, some started to sleep in the guard house as well. Then the husband brought me into his “compound” to show me another problem, the expensive fattened sheep they bought for the feast was pretty much right on top of the visitors trying to sleep on mats in the yard. When we agreed to host the sheep in our fairly open yard, we discovered that sheep (especially when they’re alone) do a lot of bleating throughout the night... Lots of other things started to spill over into our “yard” as well, from getting the water they needed, the electricity to play the stereo all night before the big naming ceremony, slaughtering the sheep on the spot, and the place for the most respected guests to eat! Probably the most shocking thing for us was when the visiting kids emptied our garbage bag out on the porch and then proceeded to go through it to find fun and useful things to play with. We did ask them to go elsewhere, but it is a quite humbling experience to see others so happy to have what you’ve discarded as useless, and to remember that people are constantly doing this out of our sight as well.

Holding the new one day old baby

Overall the biki reminded me the most of an extended graduation party, with some loud music, and people sitting around all day waiting for food and having some small conversations. The biggest difference being that all the men sat together out along the road and all the women gathered together inside the compound. Despite the strangeness, it was satisfying to know that we helped our neighbors in the worthy task of bring together their extended community for a good celebration.