Thursday, May 1, 2014

Celebrating Easter


The standard operating procedure for a Burkinabe holiday:

1) Find a big shady tree
2) Invite all your friends.
3) Get the women cooking.  They are only to approach the men with prepared food or questions about how the men would like their food prepared.  (I'm being a little harsh here, it's not a strict rule, it's just the accepted rule)
4) Crank up the music so conversation is nearly impossible
5) Leap frog the chairs in time with the movement of the sun. So the receding edge of the shade is always moving to the leading edge.
6) Leap frog, eat, drink, nap, repeat (10am to 10pm)



Usual fare includes rice with various sauces, popcorn and these fishy tasting chip things, palm wine, sodas and maybe some meat of some mysterious species.


 That big yellow jug in the center is full of palm wine (banjii).  Straight out of the palm tree it is a sweet juice.  Left alone for a few hours it ferments into a beer level alcohol strength.  Left over night and out in the sun all afternoon it's about as strong as moonshine.


 Look out!!!  The sun is touching him!  Get that man some shade!  But seriously, a square inch of sun hits you and the whole group is clucking about moving out of the heat.


These festivities are fun for an hour or two.  Like American holidays, you get bored if there's not a football game on.

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