During the holiday season here, we decided to visit some of our local friends, since most people go to their home village where they grew up to celebrate with family. We had an incredible 24 hours filled with strange and unique experiences.
Imagine being possibly the first white people to ever enter this village. That was us! It didn’t take long until hundreds of chocolate faces appeared to get a good look at the white people. We instantly had “circus-animal syndrome”, feeling quite out of the ordinary and uncomfortable at first. We did not quite know how to break the ice, and communicate to them that while we are far richer than they are, far more educated, of a different religion and lifestyle, we still wanted to just be their friends. Let’s just say that by the end of the 24 hours, we were called not just their friends, but part of their family.
Here are some highlights of what we experienced in this 24-hour period:
- Participated in 3 traditional ceremonies. This included seeing a goat sacrificed and eating the goat.
- We ate tons of their traditional meals, all of which we had to finish or it would have been offensive to them. This including gulping down a whole fish (including the head and tail), eating a spicy sauce that cleared our sinuses, and drinking fresh coconut milk from a palm tree.
- Sat on the floor in our friend’s house for hours at a time. You have to sit a certain way at all times or else it’s offensive. As a result, we experienced sore knees, stiff joints, and at one point my limbs were numb!
- Spent a morning “rock sliding” at a local waterfall.
The best part about visiting our friends was that we made friends not only with his family members, but the entire village. The difficult part about visiting the village was realizing the level of poverty they were experiencing, and have experienced for generations. But many of them despite hardships, were very hospitable and joyful to receive us as their guests, giving us the best rooms to sleep in and prepared the best meals for us to eat. We learned a lot about the way they display love and treat guests, despite how different we were from them.
