The end of Ramdan is marked by a three-day fete. Everyone gets new clothes made and walks around the village to celebrate. I had gotten a new outfit back in June, made of a different fabric than the normal bright prints that I wear, with fancy embroidery, that I had been saving for the fete. I also got “nah-lay” (henna) on my feet and ankles, which is what a lot of women and girls do as well. It was fun to be part of the fete and celebrate with everyone, even if I feel like I didn’t “deserve” to celebrate, since I only fasted for three days

In a previous post, I described Ramadan as being sort of like Halloween, but it turned out that the fete actually was Halloween. People go from house to house to “greet” people and get treats like “gateau” (cake, but basically little fried balls of dough), popcorn, and candy. A few kids on the street kept asking me for candy, so I finally bought a bag of lollipops to share, with a few kids I knew and with the families that I visited, since I figured that no one would be stopping at my house. I only went to a few houses, and still got tired of the gateau pretty quickly, but it was fun hanging out with people.

On the second day, the Vice Prime Minister held a celebration in his compound, and I went with one of the nurses to watch the performances and to also say hello to the Vice PM. Afterwards, I also finally got to greet our traditional chief, and he told me to go inside his house to say hello to his wife. I thought that it was going to be a quick hello, but she sat me down on their comfy couches and brought out more gateau and crackers. We chatted about our families, and she asked me what I thought about Kolofata, since she’s from Garoua and spends a lot of her time in Ndjamena, in Chad. I said that I enjoyed it, but that I really missed eating all of the fruit like I did when I was in the South for training. A few minutes later, someone set out a plastic bag next to me, and she said, “C’est un pasteck!” I thought that she was saying “plastic!” but then I opened it and it was a watermelon! Wowzers. Just another reason to love the fete.

I shared it with Jess and Martin when they came in to help me with the girls camp. While you can find sometimes watermelon in Maroua, I don’t really know how to choose a good one. It was so delicious.