# 377 Niger, Gerewol cz.2: Gerewol cz.1

Gerewol, Niger 🇳🇪 The Gerewol Festival is a beauty pageant and... fun with a capital "F." Young men up to 40 years old dance, enter a trance under the influence of a local drug, roll their eyes (some can roll one eye in one direction and the other in the opposite direction!), and grin. All to show their health and strength. Before entering the competition, they apply makeup to emphasize their long faces and other features, and shave their foreheads. Each day, one or two young women, after dancing the yankee and gerewol (at night it's rumee), select the best men to spend the night with them with a gentle touch ⛺️. Those who weren't selected have a chance at a consolation prize, as a crowd of other women also want to... These women have husbands, and the men have wives—but it's a week of debauchery, which Allah himself turns a blind eye to, and everyone is a Muslim. The idea is for genetic mixing, so that in nine months, a strong man will be born (because a weak one won't be able to handle the dancing and partying in such conditions), who will be useful in the future working with cattle. The Wodaabe ethnic group, because that's who we're talking about, really knows how to party... #gerewol #niger #travelrecipe