welcoming committee

this weekend, we had a peace corps meeting in a nearby village.
because none of us volunteers live in this village, it was decided we should go and greet the chief and explain our purpose in coming.
after we did this, we went to take some pito. pito is a locally brewed alcohol, fermented yeast something, that tastes vaguely of hard cider but awful. to me, at least.
anyway, the group of 15 white people walked over to the pito stand, but the party had already started long before. a group of old women had apparently been drinking for quite some time, and they were thrilled to see us. they formed a dance circle with us and sang and shrieked. soon enough, benches were pulled up for us all to sit and take the pito.
next thing we knew, these drunk old ladies had formed a line and danced their way over to us, still singing and shrieking. each one of them shook each one of our hands and welcomed us.
then they danced away.