Before i ever thought of going to Gambia one area of concerni had .... which upset me an awful lot to read about was female circumcision. When i visited Gambia it never entered my mind that it is a part of their culture and that the ritual is still performed. We were handing sweets out on one of the compounds when a very small pretty girl stood quietly in the background. She had small sweets fastened into her hair along with her pretty bobbles. As i approached her i was told that the sweets signified that she had recently undergone circumcision. I struggled at the orphanage and at the poorer compounds and villages over run with shoe less children grateful for one small sweet. I also struggle with the knowledge that out of the tourist season they are lucky if they have food to live on and hoe grateful they are for one rice meal in a day....but the site of this child has left me numb, at the time i managed to supress my tears as the girl would not have understood. The boys are also circumcised with nothing for the pain. At the orphanage the boys are circumcised in the hospital and the girls are not circumcised. It is something that is now against the law but of course very difficult to educate about....beliefs are very hard to change.
Above is a photo of what is worn as part of the ceremony to drive away evil spirits.
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