Mayor's Festival

My village recently built a new office for the Mayor. The building was finished several months ago, but the official opening ceremony was last weekend. Officials came from Ouaga, masks danced, and the soccer and wrestling tournaments held their championship matches. Quite the weekend.

Saturday started off with a big ceremony at the Mayor’s new office. There was a tent set up for the officials and village functionnaires, and the rest of the village gathered around the perimeter of the field. All sorts of important people from Ouaga were there- ministers, members of Parliament, and the Mayor’s extended family. Speeches were given by the ministers, our village Chief, and the Mayor. All the ethnic groups in the region also sent performers, and the interesting part of the ceremony was seeing the traditional masks and dancers. The ceremony ended with the presentation of a goat and pottery (my village is famous for its pottery, which lines the side of the road and is sold to every passing bus, car and white person) to the Ouaga officials to thank them for coming.

After a short break for lunch, the entire village re-convened for the championships of the wrestling tournament. A few months ago the first few rounds were held, and probably 100 wrestlers were whittled down to the top 16 who wrestled in the championships. This is Greco-Roman style wrestling, very similar to wrestling I remember from high school, with one important exception. There are no fancy systems for scoring points, special holds, or positions. The only rules (demonstrated at the beginning of the match) are that you can’t bend the other person’s hands backwards and you can’t grab the other person’s crotch. Other than that, last man standing wins. It’s pretty cool to watch, and everyone is totally into it. Men, women, kids, everyone in village was there. To no one’s surprise, the winner turned out to be the biggest guy in the tournament. His prize: a moto. Not a dinky little scooter like the “B list” functionnaires drive; this was a real Yamaha full-size motorcycle. I’m not sure where they got the money to pay for it (or why that money couldn’t be used for something like books at school), but it was a pretty sweet prize nonetheless.

Check out pictures from the day.
And a video of the masked dancers. (Coolest)
And a video of the traditional hunters.
Video of more dancers.
And a video of the wrestling match. (Very cool)

On my way out of town the other day I swung past the elementary school to check on our Moringa plants. They’re doing really well. The school has build an awning to keep the trees out of the sun until they are big enough to plant, and almost all of the seeds have sprouted. The bank’s internet connection was down the last time I tried to withdraw our project money from my account, so we haven’t started building the kitchen yet, but we should be able to start when I get back to village next week. Thank you again to everyone who donated!

PS To Ms King’s class in Oakland- We got your letters last week! Thank you so much. The students were able to read them on the last day of school (perfect timing!), and they’ll reply in the fall. Everyone really liked looking at the photos and seeing the American money.