What always surprised me about the people in the ceremony was their frivolity. Their whimsical attitudes and child like happiness betrayed the solemnity of the occasion and the formality of their ornate colourful robes. To an outsider, this scene may have conjured up feelings normally associated with a funeral or a some other equally grim event, but for me however having returned here for many years during the festival of continuation, I had now come to see this as the indigenous people did; a time of contemplation, celebration of glorious life, and rebirth.

The naked burning woman screaming in the centre of the circle did little to alter my opinions, nor the several spears directed at my Adam’s Apple.

How do I get into these situations I wondered..