Ramadhan Celebration (pt 2)

As the night began falling all you could hear outside were chants of children running up and down the street, and the speakers from the bar and restaurant on either side of the apartment. Music just screeching. There were even sounds of those maybe a few doors up. So how many times do you think you could listen to Sisqo’s “Thong Song?”

If you’ve ever been to a “Block Party” in New York City, you know exactly what I’m referring to. On the one hand it was exciting and good, and on the other it was nerve wrecking. Eventually we figured it would be a good idea to turn off the radio in the apartment and listen to the music coming from outside.

So we’re relaxing in the front room, and Akilah mentions that she’s not feeling well; her stomach was really feeling bad. Then somewhere she got this bright idea of having me go up the street to one of the stands and pick up a loaf of bread.

Here I’m thinking, she’s gotta be kidding. Me. Go out there. By myself?! Now just because I took a few what now seems like ceremonial tutorial sessions, that in no way certified me as able to go out there on my own, and to communicate with other folks? Ha.

So after she gives me thorough instructions on how to go about asking for the bread, and what the two scenarios were I should be cognizant of, I tried to stall as long as possible before finally heading out. I told her I’d be back in like twenty minutes, although the stand was literally a two-minute walk up the street.

As I was walking down the stairs, I thought to myself, “Well, maybe I’ll just stand in front of the building and kind of feel my way out the door.” Yeah right. Who told that group of older gentlemen they could sit there? and at this moment? So I had to suck it up and just head over to the stand.

Of course all the while telling myself, “you’re a grown man, why are you afraid? Suck it up!”

I made it up to the designated stand. Looked at the bread, looked at the woman, and remembered that I just totally forgot everything Akilah instructed me to say. (Smile) But being the flexible person that I am, I of course just pointed to the bread and handed the young lady the money. They bagged it and off I was back to the house. Okay, I wasn’t that flexible, especially considering that I’d already been told if I had problems communicating, just point and nod.

It felt good to be able to walk away from my first “SOLO” purchase in Cameroon. Phew.

For dinner we had rice with string bean sauce (made by Akilah); and it was really good. In case you’ve never made it you need a little vegetable oil, about a half of an onion, about three cloves of garlic and a few (four or five) tomatoes; mix the onion and garlic with the vegetable oil, add the tomatoes after a few and then the string beans (of course, these should have been cooked already). Put the sauce over the rice, and voila!

So we ate dinner, had some dessert; oh yeah, remember the one too many bags I said I’d brought with me? Well one of them was filled with different gifts for Akilah (mostly from me of course), which included chewy chocolate chip cookies, Lorne Doone’s, lemon ginger cookies, tea biscuits and power bars. We opted for the Lorne Doone with a cup of tea.

We’d actually decided to watch a movie; tonight’s selection was X-Men. Everything was set up, the tea was good, the cookies were good, and all of a sudden we realized, “hey, this music is a little louder than we thought.” I mean, you couldn’t hear anything. . .and the laptop was right in front of us. So we had to finish our tea and move to a back room where the sound could be muffled out a little more.

And that was basically the night. Turns out the festivities for the celebration actually went on until just before the morning call for prayer. WOW! And I thought we in the states knew how to had a good time!