Tad's Life

Saturday morning Jane and I were witnesses at a wedding. Well, a sort of wedding. In the French system that Senegal adopted, a wedding has two components: the legal and the religious. The legal one occurs at the town hall and requires two witnesses for each party.

Oddly enough, the happy couple are older than we are and have 7 kids, the youngest of whom is older than Jony! In fact, the motivation for getting married is that the man has retired and doesn't want to apply for his pension until he can claim the woman as his wife.

Recognize that woman? Yep, that's Antoinette, Jane's partner in working with the talibe boys, with her husband, Laurent!

Of course, they were married in the village 30+ years ago and have been through a lot of lifes ups and downs together. So it was a bit strange to be there in front of the judge as they registered and listened to his reading of the civil code and congratulated them and all!

Afterwards we went back to their house for a quiet moment together over lunch! Well, OK. Things are rarely quiet in a house with 7 kids!