Voodoo on the Mountaintop

Have been in Ouaga the past week for the yearly pcv's meetings. We have been very busy and really haven't had much time for anything. The last day of the meetings we scheduled a big Mardi Gras masquerade. We made Ouagajitos (mojitos with bissap) and a concoctition with orange juice, bissap and vodka which is tentatively names Bottom - Up Burkina (we will accept suggestions). My neighbors and I dressed up in our special mardi gras costumes that we had made when we were in Koudougou. Last Friday my two nearest neighbors came to my village and we had a mask making party.

The most exciting news is that we FINALLY got to climb the mountain. After talking about it since we first visited villages, the stars finally aligned for us (l'heure africain and all).I had mentioned the expedition to one of my village friends, fully expecting him to laugh me out of village, but instead he asked to come with me. It was then turned into a huge event and three other friends decided to come along as well. I half-jokingly tell people that I have a posse who follows me around everywhere (these four guys from my theater troop).

We decided to leave really early in the morning. Even though we said 6 a.m. we wound up leaving at 7:30 and still not everyone had made it. Abdul, Nebilbie (my cousin who lives in my family's compound)and I headed out hoping the others would catch up. Amazingly Souley caught up with us (amazing because the Burkinabes peddle at an impossibly slow rate). He told us Hamidou was in the village over visiting his sister and wound met us on the road. We met up with him in Tenado. The bike ride to the village at the bottom of the mountain is 22 km from me. We were meeting my peace corp neighbor from Reo there who was bringing a local friend with her as well.

We met up in Kyon only to have the Burkinabes decide that they needed to eat breakfast before they climbed the mountain. After they ate we had to head to an uncle's house so they could get a jug and water. Then we had to go visit the chief of the village to gain his permission as he is the keeper of the animist tradition and the locals believe they descended from the mountain. The chef said we could climb the mountain but his son would go with us to act as a guide.

We biked about 5 km to the foothills of the mountain. The area looked a lot like going into Carsbad Caverns. We started heading up the mountain. There was a trail which was a lot more than Amanda and I were expecting but the trail was staight up all the way. At the top of the foothills there were two rocks on the side of the path. We had to stop while the locals explained that we had to jump through them. If we didn't, we would get bit by a scorpion.

Before we made the final ascent to the summit we were stopped a second time by a pile of rocks. Each of us had to pick a rock up from the ground and place it on the pile. Then we are had to dance in a circle around the pile of rocks three times. At first Amanda and I thought they were all just joking but no, we actually had to do it. There were huge rocks of the top of the mountain and you could see for miles. Amanda is a huge yoga buff and we commented on how fun it would be to do yoga on the rocks. I wound up taking a picture of her doing the tree pose. The Burkinabes were totally thrown and I explained it was yoga. One of the guys said, "Oh, I know about that. It is like magic. You can move things with your mind." Of all the random things to know about in Africa! They then made us take a picture of all of them doing the yoga pose. Amanda said, "Oh great. You know if the crops fail this year it is because the witchy nacarras (white people) were doing voodoo on the sacred mountain." It was a joke and we laughed, but then checked ourselves because, remembering the dancing around the rock pile, we figured it could possibly the true.

On the way down I fell, of course, and got harassed about it for quite a while. On the whole it was a lot of fun.