I know, I know. It's been over a week this time. Sorry. This blog is going to be all about last Wednesday, September 15th. Here, this is like the equivalent of July 4th. Except, they make a much bigger deal out of it. For the past few weeks, it has been kind of annoying to hear the school band practicing their drums right outside our windows all afternoon. But Wednesday, they got to play for everyone in the parade! There is a big parade, and every school walks in it. Most schools let every student march in it, too, whether they're playing instruments:

Or maybe dancing in the traditional style dresses:

Or maybe just walking along with your school, whether in "traditional" clothing, or uniforms:


Our school was one of the very first that we saw come by. Here are several pics of them coming by:


After the parade was over, nearly the whole town and then some gathers at the park. There is a big basketball court in the middle (which we often see being used not for basketball but for soccer...) which they kept cleared out as a stage. Otherwise, the whole place was packed. Here's an idea of how many people there were:

There was a speech and prayer and stuff at the beginning. After that, though, the music started back up and dancing began! There were dances in the long, flowy, traditional dresses where the girls twirl their skirts out so far, and it's really cool to watch. I got a picture with one of the girls in her amazing dress :)

I also got a picture of me having food from a street vendor! There are almost always some kind of vendors in the park. But often, we can't trust the food from them, not knowing how it's cooked and washed and stuff. This time, though, we watched the woman pull these fries out of the hot oil and pour the normal stuff on them. The normal stuff here? Ketchup, mayonnaise, and parmesan. I was adventurous and had all three toppings. Nathan passed on the mayonnaise, and I'm pretty sure Teresa just had ketchup. But they turned out to be pretty good! Even if I couldn't finish all of mine and ended up passing the rest to a little boy from the school ;)

We had a great time at the park with all the festivities. It's one independence day I won't forget, anyway!
More to be posted later!
su amiga,
Erin