Mariam (Mom/Ma) Ba

People simply call Mariam, "Mom." Not because of what Mom means in English, but as a shortened word for Mariam. It is mere coincidence that a mom is exactly what Mariam is to me.

As a health agent for the village, Mariam works at the dispensary. She lives in the same building as me, just one room over. She cooks me meals, threatens the kids when they are bothering me, and teaches me Pulaar. If it weren't for me already having the best mother ever (mom, that's a shout out to you, in case you missed it) then I would have acquired that in Garly.

In this picture she is dressed up in classic Pulaar fashion. This is due to a little something I call the "jombaajo intrigue." If a woman's husband live outside of the village, when the husband returns for vacation, the woman is referred to as a newly wedded woman, or a "jombaajo." This means they dress up often, cook nice meals for their hubby, and get this: they don't leave the house.

I had an important latrine meeting while Ma Ba (what I call her) was serving her jombaajo duties and she didn't come. No one even questioned her absence at this crucial crossroads in the project- heck, she was jombaajoing it up.