Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Tengrela and Then Some

We had our first of three weeks of In-Service Training in Banfora. Mayhem ensued.
The gang and I went to see the sacred hippos of Tengrela. Some of these pictures brought to you by Hayley. Thanks, Hayley. Here we are shoving off in the sacred boat.


Here we are on the lake overlook, lording over the sacred kingdom.


Behold this videographic proof of our fateful lakefaring exploits.



Here the hippos are either sacredly kissing or sacredly brawling:


Here's a sacred excerpt about the hippos taken from Anne's blog:
We were told, that despite the fact that hippos kill more humans than any other animal a year (apparently?), the hippos at Tengela have never attacked humans. How come, you may ask? Well, simply put, the hippos have an agreement with the Burkinabe villagers nearby that neither one will kill the others. Yes, I thought it seemed a bit far-fetched too, but when I was in a roughly-hewn canoe with six other people, rowing towards the hippos fighting in the water, I believed it, if only to diminish my fear! However, when a very old chief of the village dies, apparently it is acceptable to kill a hippo for the grand funeral. When I asked why the hippos don't get mad that the Burkinabe kill them when a chief dies, the response I got was that the hippos "just know" that the chief died.

Here's a picture of a pink chicken. Or maybe a baby flamingo. Not sure. It's not in any way sacred, but it was scared of me.


An American missionary family invited the gang and me over for a Mexican dinner in their beautiful home. Here is Anne reading bedtime stories to the little guys and gal.


I ate horse meat with a fried egg. You know what's next: I'm talkin bout you, dog meat.

1 comments:

Chase said...

think of poor blind old max when you get around to eating dog.

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