Christmas party West African style

Here they really get into their religious holidays.  Just as Ramadan was a big deal, Christmas seems to be shaping up that way too.  This week we had the Sector West HQ end of year party at camp, next to the restaurant called Welfare where I eat most workdays, on a little football field.  It's a really nice spot, with lots of shade trees and a very pleasant breeze.

That's the same dance face I make!

As well as a buffet, drinks and a few speeches, we were treated to a performance by a group of traditional Bété dancers.  Bété is the main ethnic group in the area around Daloa, and they were from a village not far from here, which happens to be the hometown of one of the plumbers in my team.  We tried to get him to dance too, but he didn't have the outfit with him.

This was my first live African traditional dance experience.  They were all men, four dancing and a few more on drums.  One of the dancers is actually Burkinabé (from Burkina Faso, our neighboring country to the northeast where they had a coup d'état a few weeks back).  The Bété and Burkinabé were on opposite sides of the recent civil war, so the fact that he has integrated into the local society well enough to join a Bété dance troop is kind of a big deal.

Normally after the Christmas party I would expect to do nothing at work for the rest of the year, but we're building a new camp in a northern town called Touba, so next week I'll spend a couple of days up there supervising the septic tank connection.  Since I head out for the holidays on Friday, it may end up being one of my busier weeks.