Sunday was Labour Day here, as in many parts of the world. For us it was a
special day with a parade planned for Sunday morning in town. Clarisse's
daughter was supposed to be in the parade along with the kids from the
private school. Clarisse and us walked downtown Sunday morning, (3km) and
when we arrived Clarisse told us to wait a minute. She promptly went to the
director of the festivities and told them that we white people had arrived.
Well, that did it and before we could say anything we found ourselves
standing in line along the edge of the road flanked by 30 other important
people of the village and surrounding area, including the police and
military. Some important lady came down the line and shook hands with all
of us and then the military troop of 8 paraded in front of us with their big
guns to raise the flag and we all sung the national anthem. I didn't quite
know what was going on but even though I felt quite out of place I know
Clarisse put us there because she felt it showed us respect. All I could do
was thank her, after all she feels as though she is my older sister and
therefore responsible for me. After standing in the line we were invited to
sit up in this grandstand thing with 4 others, including the important lady,
to watch the parade. Only thing was, there was no parade. The military
paraded back and forth like a bunch of ducks, not quite knowing where they
were going. When they finally marched off the scene there was a bit of
confusion and then it was finally announced that in fact, there was no
parade. It was all very disorganized, not really all that surprising
really.
Later that afternoon there was a soccer match in town that ended up being
between downtown and a team from around the mission. Darren didn't play as
he was still getting his strength back after having been sick all week. We
went down and watched Roy and BJ play. Neither team scored so we are having
a rematch in 2 weeks. Monday we had a match on the mission's field between
the hospital and agroforestry. The hospital team won with two goals and
they were good. I think our agro team only had 4 actual agro guys on it.
Was lots of fun to watch though. A couple creative kids walked up and down
the side lines carry pieces of wood that they pretended were video cameras,
filming the match. Now where did they see that before? Made for good
entertainment anyway. We also discovered that there is a definite lack of
soccer balls around here and we may have to help rectify the situation.
So, even though there was no parade, it was a nice adventure and now the
heads of all the military and government people know who we are. Oh yeah,
the important lady ended up being the secretary of the sous-prefet, the
governor or premier depending on where you are from. The real guy himself
went to a much bigger party in Berberati. I guess our party wasn't quite
big enough for his liking!
Sunday is the second presidential election and is run-off between the top
two candidates, including the big man himself. The results usually take a
week or two to come in so we would appreciate pray as the country votes and
waits, peacefully we hope, for the results. We can't predict who will win
but we are praying for change in the country no matter what.
