What’s in a Name…

So apparently Meghan McCormick is a pretty difficult name for Guinean’s to pronounce. For my first name I get Maggot or Meg-Hat. Both are entertaining, but not quite there. McCormick, on the other hand, sounds like someone put a skipping CD and a 1980’s style boom box and threw it off a building. The noise it would make when it hits the pavement- That’s McCormick. As soon as I arrived at site, my host father decided that it was absolutely crucial for me to get a new name tout de suite. For my last name, he chose ‘Sylla’ which is his last name and for my first name he gave me three choices. I chose ‘Salimatou’ because it was the easiest to say. He read my new name out loud and proclaimed me baptized as Salimatou Sylla (pronounced Sally-mah-two C-la). When I showed up at AGUIDEP (my partner organization in case you have not memorized all previous posts) the next day, I introduced myself by my new name. There were two problems with it. One my director thought that it was his job to name me and had already organized a baptism for later in the week with our organization and two, 90% of the people I work with are Camara’s. Why is that a problem? In Guinea, Sylla’s and Camara’s are like Montague’s & Capulet’s or Hatfield’s & McCoys minus the violence and plus a good bit of joking. Whenever I introduce myself to a Camara they start with – ohh that’s a terrible name why would you pick such a name. Or if they see you eating they will come by and say, “Ich, are you eating cat?” or just simply tell you that you and all members of your family are crooks. This, like all other Guinean jokes, seems to never get old for them. The only good news is that I can dish it right back and they love it when the Fote can play their games. We still had my ‘baptism’ with my director giving a speech about how he did not pick my name, but we had to deal with it and I am unfortunately going to be a Sylla while and Guinea and then re-baptised me as Salimatou Sylla. So I got through my first culture clash with only a tinge of resentment and a lot of laughs and now am able to refuse food from most of my colleagues by telling them simply that I do not eat dogs.