Lamekka'ah

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Lamekka'ah, something I told my host-family I wanted to do since the first week I moved in with them. Lamekka'ah is the village of my family, where my host-dad grew up. Its only about a 30 minute drive from Korhogo. As far as villages go, it's pretty big, but it is certainly not a town: most of the people farm for a living, there is a village chief, and a precious few people can speak French.
So after nearly 6 months of hinting/asking to go to 'my' village, my host dad, mom, sister Marie and I headed out on Saturday afternoon and returned Monday. The weekend consisted of visiting different family members and friends in the village, going to church Sunday morning, visiting more villagers, preparing our meals (which I was able to help with a lot more than usual, there weren't so many helping hands around!), and walking around the village with my host-mom playing tourguide.
Here are a few pics to give you an idea of how I spent my time there, or at least what I saw:

These bright (really neon) yellow birds were everywhere!

Their nests hung off the trees like ornaments. I spent a lot of time sitting under one tree in particular, listening to them chatter and watching them fly around.

Courtyard: visiting villagers as the sun went down

Papa heading to church.

Senoufo-style-worship: everybody dances

L'Eglise de Lamekka'ah

Everyday chore: taking water back to the house

My host grandmothers tomb, the door claims she was born in 1901 and died in 2007. Pretty impressive!

This little member of my family was brave compared to other village kids. He even let the white girl pick him up without shedding a single tear!

Chickens climb trees here, maybe they do this in the states too, but I've certainly never seen it!!

Another courtyard: Marie and Ouanna 'piler' (I guess the english equivalent is 'pound')

Helping 'piler' the rice with Ouanna, who lived in Korhogo with us for the first two months of my stay, but has since moved back to Lamekka'ah. So good to see her again. She's doing pretty well for an 'old lady' (a term of respect here) too!

Marie displaying one of the beautiful flowers surrounding the house.