The Day of Eid

Wearing Kaftan's for Eid and Fila (hat)

​Today is Eid which meant I got a thirty-minute sleep in, I woke up to a text from Charles (one of the Nigerian counterparts) saying that the tailor had finished my clothes for today meaning I could wear it for the festival. So, after waking up, I went out of our room and once again was swamped by kids. As it was a special day I decided to get the pipe cleaners out, all multicoloured and started making brackets for the kids. There were 14 Children I gave up after about 5 and showed the oldest girl how to make them for the rest. After this when walking around the village, you can now tell which children I live with as they all have brightly coloured pipe cleaner bracelets. 

​I then left with Cosmas and one of my host brothers (Adams) to collect my new clothes. On returning home, I had a bucket shower and freshened up, putting on the kaftan and went to the "Mosque". It wasn't hard to find, we just followed the 17 thousand locals along the road. Packed is an understatement the road was crammed, and it leads to a field outside of town. Here at 10am, everyone began to pray.  After it finished, lasting around 6 minutes, everyone rushed back towards the town, as the fast had broken and everyone wants to celebrate Eid by now eating meat. It is pretty the Muslim version of Christmas on the scale of its importance and the level it is celebrated. 

​After this we waited for the food to be cooked around Ayan and Samirah’s host home and brought the food to the office where we met the rest of the VSO team, we shared out the food together. I tried a variety of different foods and drinks, and we spent the rest of the day together. One of the guys from Nigeria called Charles had Malaria and is resistant to as he seemed to have a cold but didn't look too threatening. I think if I got it I would have been a lot worse off. Today I was stopped constantly for photos as I am wearing the traditional dress, it gets tiresome and, in the end, I just said no to everyone!   

​After this, I and a few of the others went back is Isla's house and played Uno, sad to say I came pretty much last, the night was ended by coming home and giving all the children a lollipop as it was their day of celebration. As there are so many children (14 living at home) they use this to their advantage, and once one grabs a lollipop, they dash off and then come back pretending they didn't get one, this trick is pretty effective. However, one little girl made an error. She dashed off, and while I was giving out another lolly she joined the crowd to get another, her mistake was that the lolly I had previously given her was in her mouth. I pointed at it, and she looked shocked she had been caught out. And covered her mouth as if that would fall me into giving her another one.