Dunno What To Say

September 27, 2008

My host family is at a funeral for their uncle today. This is about the 5th family funeral they’ve had since I came here in January, not to mention the other numerous funerals they’ve attended of other loved ones and acquaintances. I don’t even know what to say anymore when they tell me of a family member who has passed. “I’m sorry” seems so inadequate and it does not express the depth of what I feel at another absent loved one.
Funerals here are no small affair. They last from morning until night with mourners gathered at the family homestead. Women are dressed in their finest traditional clothes and sing a welcome to all who arrive. Some will go into the mourning house w/the casket and weep. People congregate outside under the trees- men with men and women with women. That is also where they will eat the meat and porridge that is served. It will be late when they finally begin to travel home.
Death is such a part of life that it is difficult to be surprised when someone says they are going to a funeral. Even now, I don’t know what to say.