I done chop Christmas for dey.

This was our last stop on Christmas night. Shey Dennis bought us a good amount of beer. It was cold and dark and people were dancing with this aluminum casted Jesus.




This was the second or third finisher in the Nseh footrace. The hill was very slippery with dry grass... I fell repeatedly. Some of the runners don't have shoes. It's almost a marathon... with this mountain as the finish.




This is one of many children that painted themselves and put together ragamuffin flags and cheered for every runner that topped the mountain. It made me want to run up a mountain.




Sort of reminded me of Mad Max or Lord of the Flies. They made fun of me while i slipped down the hill in my skirt and flip flops.




Reese was a bit unhappy with these new jujus. He said they just didn't seem angry enough. They wiggled their hips a lot. I liked them.





This was a juju that apparently had to crawl from the palace (far). Old Pas pretend to kill it.




A member of the palace approached Reese with a spear and me with a cutlass during their dance. You have to dance. The Nsehites went wild with my around the world cutlass swing.





They wrapped the Fon's new Rav4 in banana leaves and then shot guns over it. When I finance my first car back in the states, I hope the dealership will do the same... especially since I am Mother of the People of Bafut.



translation... I ate the Christmas there. People like to ask how you ate Christmas.

Had a fun(ny) Christmas with Reese in his village of Nseh. We celebrated the "EX MAAS" by making pumpkin bread and egg strata in the morning, then walking up and down the village. You couldn't walk 20 yards without someone demanding you come in and eat and take a beer. Full is the word I would use to explain the day. Someone gave Reese some yams and I got an orange pop from his toothy neighbor, Mr. Wome Wilfred. I was really hoping the lights in Reese's house would be magically turned on on Christmas morning... but it really would have had to been magical. The wires aren't attached yet.

The 26th ("Madame? How do you see the 26th???") was the Nseh Annual Festival. Lots of sitting and eating fried things (no scotch eggs, much to my dismay) and watching dances and jujus and a football match and more eating and lots of Fon talking. It was really nice (only dat cold be too much for dey). They gave the Fon a car, I danced ridiculously with a cutlass and there was a 30 kilometer foot race that was quite amazing. The annual meeting of Nseh's development committee the next day was a little long winded, but it was worth it to see 400 people fight over fufu corn, njama njama and palm wine upon its completion.