A weird occurrence

So a bit of background here- I am taking a short break to go see the initiation ceremony of an ethnic group called the Bassari which takes place in the Kedougou area. It is essentially a two day journey from my village to Kedougou, so I plan my travels so that I am spending nights at the Peace Corps run transit houses. I was relaxing in the transit house closest to my village when the doorbell rang. One of the other people in the house at the time, a new volunteer, went and answered the door. After a couple of minutes she came to me, saying, "Rithvik, I'm not sure what's going on. Could you check it out?" So I go outside and the guard points me to the outer door. There was a group of fairly well dressed people standing there, with a woman standing in the front carrying a bag. She asked me if I spoke Wolof. I said yes. Then she started to talk to me a bit about Christ. I called the girl volunteer over and said, "It's almost like the Jehovah's Witnesses."

At the sound of the words Jehovah's Witnesses, the woman said to me, "Oh you know the Jehovah's Witnesses? We are part of them."

Pause for a moment. We are in Senegal, a country that is primarily Muslim, and the few Christians that exist here are confined to specific ethnic groups, most prominantly the Sereres and the Diolas. At this point, though Jehovah's Witnesses have come to my home in the US, I was never there to personally witness it. Senegal is the LAST place that I would've thought I'd encounter the Jehovah's Witnesses. Unfortunately for me, having found out what I was dealing with, I was faced with a conundrum. I had mentioned the Jehovah's Witnesses unprompted, which caused the group of Witnesses at the door to think (or at least to look as if they felt) that I was interested in what they have to say. I am not a particularly religious person in the states; my primary attitude is "live and let live." In Senegal I have had to deflect questions such as am I a Muslim, why am I not a Muslim, are my parents Muslims, will I convert to Islam, and so on. To have to deal with something similar from another faith, in this country, was somewhat ridiculous.

And yet, there they were, the Jehovah's Witnesses, who thought that I might be receptive to their message. I said, "no thanks, have a nice day," and walked back into the house.

I have to say that among the list of strange things that have happened to me here, this ranks up there.

Be safe.