The second night of celebrations is the craziest day. Everyone gets drunk. They beat on drums and dance and race around on drunk horses. The third, and last, night is about the same, but not as wild. By this point everyone has gotten as drunk as possible on the second day and is mellowing out on day three. So all the SMs, including me, decided that is was best to go the festival on day three. We wanted to experience the culture, but stay safe as well.
Just as a little side note. Things were crazy, but not too over the top. The drunk horses were racing in a circle around the crowd. Their track was marked out and everyone was smart enough to stay out the way. The most dangerous moments were when a rider would fall off of his horse, or when a horse would run toward the crowd. I guess crossing the track to get to the middle of the circle was pretty dangerous too but as long as you weren't front and center, you were fine.
We arrived just as the celebration was starting. The guys refused to have good party etiquette. I told them it was best to get there fashionably late, but no one listened to me. It was only 3 o'clock and we had three hours before it got dark and more sketchy. At first, there were about 300 people there. The horses were racing around the main group of people and there were five people dancing around the drummers in the center of the horse track. We were just standing there awkwardly and staring. I don't know what we were expecting, but it wasn't what we were seeing.
As usual, us nasaras drew a crowd. Zach finally had enough and broke away from the group. He said that the big group of nasaras huddled together drew to much attention. The rest of us debated who which of us were the main people drawing attention. Both Charis and I said it was Josh and Daniel thinking that least Charis and I were black and didn't stick out as much. We were dead wrong.
Josh and Daniel left us to prove that it was the nasara girls everyone was looking at. They were spot on. As soon as they stepped aside a crowd of children quickly took their place. They were watching us stare right back at them. We would walk out of the circle that had formed around us, but another circle would quickly form as soon as we stopped walking. Let's be real, I hated all that attention.
Besides our circle of children, nothing happened for a long time. Daniel was on quinine again and wanted to leave so Josh walked back with him while Zach, Charis, and I decided to stay and watch the horses a little longer. That is when we saw Naomi across the track. That is when the real fun began.
**Quick side note: Naomi is the Project 21 translator. We are very dependent on her for EVERYTHING. She is a hard working single mother with 6 children to feed. Being a Tchadian woman is hard, but to be a single Tchadian woman is amazing! Naomi is persistent, strong willed, and a Godly person. I am so glad she is working with us for Project 21.**
Naomi knows everyone and they all respect her and that is how we were able to ride the horses. She called out to one of the riders she trusted and asked them to give us a ride. I jumped on the horse first. (I don't know what convicted me to ride the horse because I had just seen a little boy fall off the horse). It was scary and thrilling at the same time. He told me to hold on to him really tight and started very slow.
I could hear how shocked everyone was because a nasara was riding the horse. Even the other riders slowed down to get a good look at me once they realized that, not only was I a girl, but a nasara was riding the horse. We were riding bare back and bouncing all over the place. It took me awhile to get into the rhythm of riding. (Bare back is so different when compared to a saddle. I have never ridden with someone else either, so that was weird as well). Once I got the rhythm he started going faster and faster. All the children kept running across the circle to see me go round and round.
There came a point when we were going so fast that I almost fell off! The rider had to grab me and push me back on the horse. The horse staggered a bit and the rider started to fall in the opposite direction. I looked up to see how I could help our situation and realize we were headed straight for a tree. My heart stopped. I just tightened my grip around his waist and prepared for impact.
We didn't crash. Praise God. My guess is the rider and I were counterbalanced. The rider must have been secure enough to pull the reins and turn the horse in the right direction. After we cleared the tree we readjusted our seating.
After my wild ride, Zach didn't want to ride the horse, but Charis still did. She rode with a different rider and it was hilarious. Her rider started slow, like mine. However, he quickly started riding really fast (I don't know if it was the same speed I went or faster, but it looked really fast as I watched her). You could see the fear in Charis' eyes as they whipped by us. She was very tense and had a vise grip on the rider's waist and around the horses back. Naomi freaked out and started yelling for the rider to slow down. He slowed down so much they were barely walking for the rest of the circle. It was cool to see how much they respect Naomi.
Next, we made our way to the center of the circle and started to dance with everyone. The traditional Nangjere dance is to shrug your shoulders and do some fancy foot work. Apparently, I was really good at it. (Or, everyone was lying to me). I faced off with one of the guys and then went around in a circle for a whole song. (When I say I faced off with a guy I mean both he and I were shrugging our shoulders and facing each other. He would move further and closer to me as we moved in a small circle. I didn't do it 100% correct. I kept moving away from him because I didn't want anyone getting too excited. It was already a tight circle, I didn't want to get any closer).
It's good to point out that Charis is darker then me, making things very confusing for Tchadians. They don't know if she is nasara or Tchadian. So they would give her candy (candy or money is given to make the women happy if you like their dancing) and realize that she's American. On the other hand, all the guys were running to dance with me. I was obviously nasara. However, the guy that I faced off kept pushing the other guys away. He hooked his arm around my waist and batted everyone away. (I felt bad for Charis though. They would push her out of the way to get to me because they didn't realize she was nasara too). I followed the woman in front of me doing what she did as my guardian kept all the invaders away. The women were every encouraging. Everyone was. People were yelling bon danse (good dancing) and giving me thumbs up. It was so much fun, but very crazy!!
I laughed the whole time. Dust was stuck in my teeth and all over my body. I was starting to cough and choke on the dust. It was like I was standing in the desert during a sand storm. Regardless, I had a blast! We left before it got dark so nothing dangerous could take place. I was adventurous, but safe at the same time. I am so glad that I was able to experience everything at the festival. The locals said it was good that we came. They didn't think nasaras would come to the festival, let alone dance and ride the horses. Once again we were able to have fun and show a few people that nasaras aren't always that bad.
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