Day 7 - Parades, football and music
Thursday 27th
Wandered back for lunch, hoping for a siesta, but Mohammed the youngest child was going to play football so we went to watch. Lovely AstroTurf pitch and the boys had decent kit in the IITIHAD “ stadium”, but we only got to see a training session!
Mohammed’s big sister (Howla) was taking us back to the ”fiesta” but got lost so commandeered a car to take us! She wanted to get home to see her daughter Saffia who is not well so we persuaded her we would be safe on our own.
Noticeable how few men there are, apart from police, officials and musicians. Later on went to the cultural centre to see a “fashion show” of traditional costume and then much later there was music and lots of cheering, clapping and shouting Sarawi slogans.
I felt I could risk a boiled egg and banana for breakfast which was most welcome before we went over to Fatemalu’s to collect the others. Today is the 49th anniversary of the Sarawi Arab Democratic Republic, when the camps were first created - almost 50 years of exile in the desert from their homeland! Apparently a whole day of activities are planned with speeches, parades and other cultural events so we were keen to not miss it. We arrived to find masses of mainly women and children watching the army band, then speeches and a huge parade with school groups, football teams, young dancers etc from the different camps. Noisy, chaotic and massively colourful.
Headed into the mêlée of large tents, with women singing, clapping and generally having fun together. Got ushered into one tent where music playing and we were “encouraged” to dance - to much amusement!
Going home was interesting as Fatamatu came for us in cars as there had been a security concern!!