Multiple Holidays

    The week of the 11th, this year, resulted in three holidays within one week.  Sunday was the second largest holiday of the year.  This holiday consists of the majority population taking part in killing a cow or goat in remembrance of a prophet's sacrifice.  We expected the visiting of neighbors to be similar to the larger holiday this past June.  In preparation, I made food the day before and made sure all was ready early that morning.  We decided to serve an American menu of hotdogs and watermelon.
    This holiday turned out to much different than we expected.  To begin with, we didn't have any visitors first thing in the morning.  We quickly found out the animal killing and butchering took priority in the morning.  Secondly, the visitors we did have turned out to be about 20 children and only two of our adult neighbors.  We ended up eating hotdogs for the rest of the day!

View from our back porch.

The killing, and butchering, of four goats and one cow took place right behind our house!

      The following Tuesday was a city wide parade highlighting local culture and individual neighborhoods.  We were invited to take part in the parade with The Labor Office, which has direct involvement in John's work visa.  The parade turned out to be about 200 yards long and a quick appearance in front of the Mayor.  We are pretty sure the parade was in celebration of Independence day, which was the following Saturday.

The Labor Office group preparing for the parade.

We waited at least an hour to get started, then took at least another hour to walk the 200 yds to the Mayor's viewing section.  

Our group waiting and lining up.  

We walked to the big red roof in the upper right.

     Thursday was the anniversary of the founding of the city we live in.  So this day also brought additional festivities.  In various neighborhoods, ours included, there was a small parade of women marching and giving small performances.

Marching

Performing before judges

     Saturday was Independence day.  The largest festivities took place down town.  As we keep Saturday as a family day, we stayed at home enjoying each other's company and didn't catch any of the celebrations.