happy holidays and new beginnings

well the season is over and time to start working again. The 30th of December was Tabaski, a Muslim holiday traditionally though in my village everyone parties. I still am not sure what it's all about but I did eat goat that day. With new year's eve and day, I had another volunteer as a visitor and did we eat well! we ate meat (the same meat you see in the pics) and rice both days as well as other Beninese food. The pictures of me dancing with people are some neighbors. The husband is the director of an elementary school and his wife is a fabulous cook! we ate and drank our fill three times over with them then they turned on the Christmas lights (powered by generator) and we danced for a good 40 minutes. what did we do after that? we went next door and did the very same thing. needless to say, i am even more impressed with Guinagourou than before and it was great to feel like a part of my community! in case anyone is wondering (like the ruggers) what we drink during fetes (said fet) is a lot of everything but my favorite is a local brew called tchukutu. it's a fermented millet beer that is flat and you drink it from a gourd. the yeast content is really high and it can do horrible things to your stomach if one were to consume it in mass quantities but it tastes amazing. i have found this to be the best way to learn the local language, Bariba; is by sharing some conversation over a gourd of tchuke.
A sad defeat was realized yesterday. We built a water tower, originally to better irrigate our garden so we didn't have to schlep water from the dam with is a good 100 meters away. It almost filled completely with water (well over 200 liters) piped in from the pump but alas, a wall gave way. It was really discouraging! We are continuing the garden as planned and perhaps a water tower is in the plan for next year. The pictures posted show the before and after.