It’s Never Exactly What You Expect

Waiting at stadium for things to start

Our friend was about to leave when she mentioned, “This afternoon is a fête for kids up at the stadium.” She was speaking the local language but she used the French word fête (even though she’s not a French speaker). In French we might expect a party of some kind, but the way islanders use it can be different. After a couple more questions, it seemed that it would be more of a performance. Apparently some foreigners had been involved in organizing it, the kids had practiced throughout the month of fasting and they would be doing a dance. We knew three girls who were going to perform. “It’s at two o’clock for the kids and then adults will do something at three o’clock.” We told her we’d try to make it.

Now we knew enough to take 2 o’clock with a grain of salt. It is the islands after all. But with foreigners involved, you never know it might be more punctual. We didn’t want to miss the kids dancing. So around 2:15 we leisurely left the house, arriving at the stadium about 2:30.

Procession of everyone onto the field

This was the first time that we’ve been to the stadium as a family. It was built by a foreign country as a gift to the island a number of years ago. Except for the plastic seats directly in the sun (everyone here knows plastic degrades quickly in the sun), the rest of the stadium has held up well. It is much nicer than the other sporting venues on the island and the covered seats have a great view of the green island hills.

As soon as we pulled up to the stadium, we knew we were way early. Some of the performers were getting ready but the spectators were few. Still they let us in and we found seats.

Fast forward two hours. Yes, TWO HOURS. Nothing had really started. We hadn’t come prepared with snacks or books, so our kids were bored and antsy. For the last hour a group of adults had been doing a slow monotonous militaristic dance-march, apparently to kill time while the crowd waited for some honored guests to arrive. It wasn’t very entertaining.

Just after 4:30pm, things started going. But not in the way we hoped. Instead of the kids coming, dancing and us making our exit. There was a large procession of various groups into the stadium and onto the field. The honored guests in the stands with us included the country president, vice president and two former presidents! Not to mention the current island governor and former governor. For island bigwigs you don’t get any bigger than that! It turned out that this was no kids dance performance, this was the opening ceremony for the annual inter-island sports competition!

Getting ready to dance

Of course, everyone had to give speeches, long, flowery speeches, sometimes in more than one language—after all, this is Africa.   We sang the national anthem at two different points (that might have been a mistake). Finally most of the groups on the field processed out, leaving the kids to dance. The kids danced for about 15 minutes before they left the field. There were various adult music groups left to perform, but we made our way out. It was after 5:30, the sun was going down and we had other things to do.

It wasn’t what we expected, but on the islands it is often better to curb expectations completely.  If you’re wondering how the sports competition is going, we couldn’t tell you.  We haven’t heard one bit of information about it.  Not what you’d expect?  Welcome to the islands…

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We had several different wedding events this past week. We’re thankful that they went well and that that we had the chance to attend. We’re feeling better now. After a few painful days, Megan’s back seems to be doing better again. We were able to give our pregnant friend a gift of some things for the baby— she seemed encouraged. Things continue to progress to have two more ladies join our team in November— we’re excited to see our team grow.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Tom had the chance to share more fully with someone who he’s studied with before— pray for an open heart and mind as he thinks about the things they discussed. We’ve had a chance to give away some good books and movies, pray that they would be watched/read and passed along by many islanders. Our youngest had a fall and has a big scrape across his face, pray that it heals quickly. We’ve noticed that our kids have a couple cavities but island dentists only seem to pull teeth. Pray that we’d have wisdom about how, when and where to get dental care.