Talent Show.

Last night, Abdu invited me to go to a “party”. I said sure since I’ve never been to a party with teenagers around here. He said it was hosted by the school so I figured it was a much different party than what I’m used to at home. It actually ended up being a talent show. Abdu and I took a taxi into town around 6:45pm to go Salamoun Voyage to get some soya. They didn’t have any meat so we walked across the street to another chop house called Mayo Banyo. We had some soya, bread and coke.

Then we walked to a grocery store and I got a Mambo Bar which is a chocolate bar. It was pretty good, definitely better than Hershey’s. Then we walked to “Mairie de Banyo” which is the mayor’s administrative office where the talent show was being held. We got there around 8:20 and there were a lot of students and other people to watch standing around a roped off area in the center. In the roped off area there were a bunch of seats for teachers and administrators at the school to sit. In front of the seats was the stage for the performers and curtains to close off the stage in between acts.

Shortly after we got there Abdu told me he could find me a seat. I said no thanks. I didn’t mind standing around with everyone else. But he insisted. Well, he went up and talked to someone, and sure enough, they opened the roped off area to me and motioned for me to sit down in a seat. I felt REALLY AWKWARD being able to sit down. I felt like I was fulfilling the stereotype of a privileged white person as all of these Africans are standing together, crowding around, initially staring at me sitting down in my seat. I sat down next to an American girl in the Peace Corps that I had met at the Lokkers home about a week ago. Her name is Anna and I believe she’s somewhere in her mid-twenties. Sitting on the other side of her was a young American man named Lee who teaches at one of the three high schools here in Banyo. It was nice to be able to chat with Anna and learn a little more about the area, the schools and the talent show.

The show started around 8:40 or so with a group of girls singing. Most of the acts were either dancing, singing, a combination of the two, or a skit. I didn’t really understand the skits since they were either done in French or in Pigeon but I really enjoyed the show. If someone liked a certain skit, they could come up and put money in a box right in front of the stage. The audience would go wild and start to clap and cheer when people would put money in. I believe the money was split between the school, as a fundraiser, and to the skit performers themselves. The show had about 20 acts and lasted around two hours. Afterwards, Abdu and I went back into town for a little more soya, and then walked home. All in all, it was a pretty good night.