Pt 2

So I was woken the next morning very early by the man at the mosque .... Singing. I'm not a

Sure of the proper name for it, worship? Anyway it was loud and did not stop .. It wasn't a beautiful sound,I'm afraid. It actually woke me the first few nights, but since then I haven't even been aware it was happening! Anyway, the first day .. I can't really remember what we did! We went to the market, bought material for making some African clothes! Bought some vegetables for cooking. Some of the market stalls were quite similar to that of Bali, but it was completely a different feel, I can't quite describe it, maybe I willbe able to by the time I leave. We then went to the coffee shop- it is a little place run by a lovely guy, and well, low and behold it has wifi. I could not believe my luck, I was so happy, I got to skype brynley, send lots of snap chats, yay! Some awesome good pineapple juice there, too:)) Jwan and I were then going to find a place to eat ( in squares, where the coffee shop was, a short motorbike ride or a 15 minute walk up and down hills away ) but we really had no avail. We went to a little shop were we invested in a large jar of Nutella, then headed home. We arrived back to no electricity, so sat in our room wih Nutella on bread and tea hahah as my first night in!! For lunch Charlotte took us to one of her favourite rice and bean places, for, well, rice and beans. It's just unbelievable at 150 or 200 francs, if you were feeling ravenous, so tasty and just crazy good value! That's like 20p haha. Crazy, crazy. Then on Sunday, I'm not sure what we did in the morning but we went to the palace in the afternoon as there was a ceremony; the shufer, or something, was being given his title. This was the second highest title in the town/palace, underneath the fon, and it really was an incredible event. Charlotte introduced us to a lovely African woman, Margaret, who looked after us the whole day. But she was actually a really important person, so we ended up right in the action!! We started off by picking up 2 pieces of firewood, long sticks, each, and walking down to join the line of people leading into the palace. There were men and women in groups with different fabric'd outfits, from different areas /tribes apparently, and after a little while the line started moving into the palace. We had to give away one of our two firewood sticks, and move into ine of the courtyards ,,, where we threw the sticks onto a pile. I think they were burned but not in front of us. Then we were shepherded into the very main bit of the palace, where all the big guys were! Margaret wanted us to see everything, we felt very honoured to be in there watching the ceremony I think. There was some spectacular costumes, of people of stature and names. Anyway after that we were led out, singing and dancing with the particular tribe that Margaret and her family were in. There was, in true African style, confusion and disorganisation as things started and stopped haha but we danced outside in front of most of the town with the queen and all of the women in the incredible outfits. There was, in the commotion, the theatre of the juju who is quite hard to explain, it's a guy who apparently betrayed the palace or something who has a big black bunch of netting on his head; there are topless men controlling him, and brown jujus controlling the crowd or something, we had seen a bit of it before. You have to crouch down when they are near, or they do something haha. it was definitely an afternoon of tradition!! 

But it wasn't even half done yet. We followed Margaret and the ladies, singing the songs, to Margaret's house where we danced and danced with the queen!! She gave people gifts, by putting coins on our heads (felt such an honour!) it was truly spectacular. Jwan and I felt the laughs of amusement as the only white people there, trying to dance like them, but because we were together we could laugh between us and enjoy it. Margaret then led us into her house, and we truly experienced African hospitality. We were treated as special guests, and she piled our plates high with rice and meat (we were the only ones given meat) and crystal glasses along with a bottle of booster (whiskey and coke) and grenadine. It was truly amazing! We got to ask our questions to the ladies who we we're sitting with, they were all from a nearby village jakiri, about 14km away. We then followed them to the hall,where, we discovered, the big guns were eating. The place was decorated like a wedding, no word of a lie- it was incredible! On the high table the important people sat, and we listened to some speeches, but really wanted to dance with the women waiting outside to dance down the aisle. It did feel strange, there were people from the town desperate to get in ... And we just walked right in without hassle, because we were white. And also a guest if Margaret maybe, but still, it was odd. It was an incredible occasion, though!! One we wil never forget. It topped off a crazy weekend, and we slept well after dancing our bums off all afternoon.