A visit to the Chief

I took a ride to go see the Provincial Chief yesterday. It was the first time many of the villagers had see a 'mendele', white person, so I drew a bit of a crowd...and scared some of the kids. We sat in his hut for 2 hours talking while waiting for the afternoon deluge to pass. I was courted by several ladies, though they were either 13 or 80 (see the picture). One of the older ladies started yelling at a young man and I asked what she was going on about. My translator told me that she was saying "See, you make fun of me for wearing a tank top when this big man from America is wearing one!" Not sure how I felt about that! This picture was taken about 20 minutes before I drove my bike off of an 8 foot washout after getting a face full of mud. I made out better than the bike with only a few scrapes. We hauled the bike out and continued home, a little beat up and a lot dirtier....