holidays in burkina

So, a little late but I thought it would be fun to write about how I spent my holidays here.

It definitely didn't quite seem like Christmas time when I looked around me and saw all the dust and felt the sun beating down, but it turned out to be a fantastic time.

While Burkina is a majority Muslim country, Bilanga has a majority Christian population and have basically been talking up Christmas for the couple months leading up.

The celebration started some the night before mostly with people hanging out even later than normal, kids singing at the church, a few going out for a drink.

Next morning, get up and everyone heads over to a church. So for big celebrations here, Christmas, marriages, March 8^th (women's day), independence day, you get matching pagnes (material) and make an outfit. For Christmas you get one through your church. Even if you don't get the pagne, you are going to get all decked out in your fanciest clothes. All the girls, from age 2 to 50, the week before get their hair done and then cover it up with a scarf until Christmas morning. Some friends were joking that you need to wait to pick a girl to marry until a few months after Christmas, because at Christmas, every girl is pretty.

Church was a blast. All the choirs were decked out and had been practicing for a while for the day. The kids choir, young adults, and 2 women choirs (it was combined service) all took their turns. The best of when the women started singing and others started dancing. People just seemed more alive and excited this particular morning. While I generally didn't understand what was going on (local language) I felt the energy all around.

Now that church is over, it is time to start cooking and eating and eating and eating. I spent most of the day with my “family” of 2 brothers (my neighbor boys), a friend of theirs, and one of my favorite girls Awa. Kassiom (one brother) brought me a chicken so I cooked the first round of food for us, and the others that were constantly stopping by.

I made a stop by a friend's house whose son got baptized, so it was an even bigger party, and enjoyed some more food and dancing and singing. Came back to find more people and more food that was brought over (you don't give gifts, you give food).

The going out and visiting or receiving friends continued for a while. Each time I left and went into village I was greeted by more people wishing me a “bonne fete” and smiles.

While eating spaghetti, macaroni and having a coke or beer might not seem like a big deal for us, for my brothers, it's something they never do, like never. Yet for Christmas my brothers and friend all put in some money went out a bought lots of pasta and sauce and all sorts of goodies. Kassiom went out and got the 5 of us drinks and then I realized how serious they all were about making the day special, making it a real celebration.

It all continued into the night and ended with me and Awa biking around trying to find dancing, didn't find any, but laughed the whole way around as I sat on the back of the bike rack and she pedaled us all over Bilanga under the moon light sky.

It wasn't quite Christmas like I expected, but it was a day full of friends and joy and I really enjoyed it.

I spent New Year's in Ouagadougou, the capital, with almost everyone from my training group. It including some good food, crazy fireworks that were exploding everywhere, and lots of dancing. Another successful holiday to say the least.

Came back to village the 2^nd and school started back up the 5^th. I've got a few programs up and running which are going fairly well, depends on the day, but so far so good.

Hope you all are well and have begun 2010 well.