A bit too much adventure

So after my "bonus" day, things got rather busy!

Since I was convinced on Saturday that the literacy celebration wasn't actually going to happen, I followed through on a different commitment that I had made - bringing a group of Americans who have come to help us with some manual labour on a little tourist outing to the market.

Of course, not too long after we got to the market, indulging ourselves in the beautiful colours and patterns of fabric, my colleague who was organizing the literacy day celebration called me to tell me that O was going to be at the compound to collect me for the celebration.

Great.  So I tried to herd everyone back to the truck a little faster than I normally would have (which was a bit like herding cats!) and got myself back to the compound.  I found O waiting for me to take me to the celebration site.  Our Hilux truck was gone with someone else to a different market, and I wasn't about to drive our enormous LandCruiser through the village ('cause I had a feeling we'd be going on some pretty tiny roads), so I was stuck driving the old Nissan pick up.  This poor truck has been through a few rough roads and has already lost the bumper a few times.   I was already completely high centered in it once when I tried to cross a ditch, but thankfully, Sean had been with me to coach me through driving it out of the ditch (in 4WD, of course).

But, I didn't have much choice, so off we went to the village.  Now, the place was only about 5 km away from our compound... but it took me over 30 minutes to drive there!  I'm always a bit wary of getting in a truck and taking directions from people who have never in their whole lives driven a vehicle.  Often, non-drivers aren't quite aware of some of the unique challenges that come with a big metal box on four wheels, as opposed to their own two nimble feet!

But, anyway, off we went.  I must say, I was surprised at what that truck could handle!  And I actually ended up having a bit of fun splashing through these enourmous mud puddles, crawling up and down through ditches and ravines and squeezing the truck through the grass-thatched mud huts.  I was not as confident as some drivers obviously are, though, and I have to admit that once I actually got out of the car and walked out to look to find the best "line" through a ditch (a very deep ditch with a very steep up hill on the other side), and once to find out just how deep the mud pool actually was.  My poor colleague was a bit surprised at my lack of confidence, he was like, "Don't you have roads like this at home?".  So I explained to him the fact that people don't NORMALLY drive on these sorts of roads - they only drive on them when they want to go out for a bit of fun in their 4WDs and boast to their buddies about what their truck could do!  Seriously, though, after living in this CAPITAL CITY, I feel like I could keep up with the best of those 4WD enthusiasts :)

Anyway, thankfully, we didn't get stuck, and I managed to arrive at the literacy day celebration just in time to see some of the traditional dancing.

Well, so the microphone isn't exactly traditional, but the singing and the dancing and the drumming (of which I don't seem to have a photo!) were very traditional.  It was really great to see- I don't see much of the traditional dancing and singing since I live in the "big city"!  Of course, most of their songs centre around cows.  They were singing about their cows.  While the young people danced back and forth together, the old people were prancing around with their arms held above their heads, representative of the big horns that all their cows have.

At certain points in the dance, the men come racing through the line and do this really aggressive cow horn pose thing, which was really quite shocking at first.  Again, no picture, but this chap in the toque did a rather frightening bull imitation!

Following the dancing and singing, it was already my turn to give the speech (since I came, well, rather late!).  I got to give a little motivational speech about how wonderful literacy is, and how I've seen their literacy classes and how wonderful it is for them to be celebrating their language and culture.  You know, all the usuals :)  I've become rather adept at giving these little speeches, and am actually starting to enjoy the chance to get a microphone in my hands and get up on my soap box!

Following my speech, some of the women from the community got up to read some stories from the literacy books that have recently been produced.  How cool was that, to see everyone sitting there with a copy of their books, which we just worked so hard to get produced a few weeks ago!  And already, in the hands of the people who were reading them.  It was very, very encouraging to see some of the fruits of our labour.

And then another woman stood up and made a very stirring speech about how she's just a mother, but she knows how to read in her language, and how she has sent her children to school.  Now her daughter is one of the few young women from this community who is attending University!  She encouraged others to send their kids to school and to go to the literacy classes themselves.

I think she's a pretty fiesty woman, and one that people just might listen to :)

There were a few more speeches, and some more dancing.  There was a pretty popular pop singer who's from this particular language committee, so he was there to "close" the program, and had a song to share about literacy and education.  It was really actually quite good - not something that I often say about pop music from this part of the world!  Maybe it was just the sight of all the people dancing around with the books that we've worked on in their hands that made the music sound sweet :)

By this time, though, it was starting to get dark, and since I knew it might take me some time to get back through the "village" to the main road, I was a bit anxious to get out of there.  Thankfully, someone was sent to accompany me out to the main road - someone who knew a better road this time :)  He's one of the young men from the community who I know a bit from some teacher training that I've done with them. I also know that he doesn't speak much English, so it was a good chance to also practice my Arabic with him.  At least I know enough Arabic to get directions and figure out the way to go!  Thankfully, the road he directed me on was much, much better than the way I had come in, and I was out at the main road in no time.  Don't ask me to find the place again, though, even with my good sense of direction, I don't think I could find my way back to that exact spot in the "village"!

But all in all, it was a great day!  I really enjoyed the time with that community.  I've been working with them for quite some time now, and am starting to know more and more of the church members and people involved in the work.  So it's encouraging to have had that growing relationship with them, and to see how literacy and the materials that we're producing actually are getting used and are benefitting the community.  I guess that's why I'm here, isn't it?!