THE GAMBIA

READ

Dayo Forster’s Reading the Ceiling opens with a young woman named Ayodele lying in bed on her eighteenth birthday and deciding that this is the day she will lose her virginity. Having been warned by her mother for years that men only want one thing, Ayodele thinks, “I want to get this sex thing over and done with so my life can move on.” She doesn’t have a boyfriend, so the question becomes who she will find to do the deed with. She thinks about her choices – Reuben, a guy who likes her but whom she doesn’t particularly fancy; Yuan, a classmate that she likes, and who likes her, but their relationship hasn’t yet taken on a romantic aspect; Frederick, the father of one of her friends, who seems like he’d be willing; and Osman, her mother’s servant, as a last resort.

Ayodele goes to a party at a disco that night, and she does indeed lose her virginity. The next third of the book tells the story of her life after that incident. But just when I started wondering how there could possibly be enough left to say to carry the plot through the remaining two-thirds of the book, the author shifts the narrative. She starts over again, telling the story from the perspective of Ayodele’s life if she had lost her virginity to one of the other men. That fills the next third of the book, and then she begins again, offering yet another scenario in the last third of the book. It’s kind of a choose-your-own-adventure book, built on Ayodele’s decision to lose her virginity when she turned eighteen.

I found it interesting that, regardless of which scenario was in play, the one constant was that Ayodele was successful in whatever work she ended up doing. Her circumstances may have changed from story to story, but she was strong and generally able to call the shots, no matter what life threw at her. Her relationship with her no-nonsense mother was a key factor throughout the book. Ayodele grew up in a female-only household, her father having deserted her mother many years earlier. He came back for a short time, but then died. In addition to Ayodele and her mother, Ayodele’s younger twin sisters also live in the home. The book is filled with strong women, and those relationships offset, or even eclipse, the relationships Ayodele has with men in each of the different scenarios.

Near the end of Reading the Ceiling, Ayodele thinks back to a story that her mother’s friend, Aunt K, used to tell her and her sisters. It’s about a mermaid who has to make a decision about where to live, but she procrastinates and the decision is taken out of her hands. She gets caught in a fisherman’s net, and then the fisherman and the mermaid both have to make choices. According to Ayodele, “The story did not always end the same way.” Likewise, the author gives the reader three different endings about Ayodele’s life following her eighteenth birthday. I found it gratifying that in each scenario, Ayodele took responsibility for her actions and never let life keep her down for very long.

COOK

A dish that’s mentioned several times in Reading the Ceiling is benachin, a word that means “one pot.” It’s a vegetable and rice dish that usually contains meat or fish, and in the book, it seemed to be a staple of family gatherings. I found a recipe for a vegetarian version on the “Around the world in 80 vegetarian recipes” blog. For the Maggi cube, I substituted a vegetable bouillon cube. This was a healthy and hearty dish. If I had it to do over again, I'd cook the vegetables and rice (separately) a little longer.

GIVE

I found only one project listed for The Gambia on the GlobalGiving.com website, but it sounded like a good one, helping street children in Basori Village. The plan is “to re-integrate fifty (50) street children in to homes, prevent those at risk of entering the street, provide them with health care, reliable and relevant education, and enhance their participation in community and national development.” The project is expected to go from September 2018 to August 2023. More information is available at https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/basori-village-gambia-west-africa-children-empo/.

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