Women's Day Celebration

 

I did not so much forget, as was unable to, write a post about International Women's Day last week. On March 8th the world celebrates International Women's Day. Now in the US I have never really seen a celebration of International Women's Day. I see things on the news and different promotions on various networks for it, but I have never been to a full fledge celebration.

Here in South Sudan, it is a different story. It is a holiday here. South Sudan takes the day off to celebrate its women. This surprised me. South Sudan is not the most progressive on women's rights and the women movement overall, but there are moments where you can see the society does have value for the women. It is also a day that lets society take note of the issues that women still face.

I met my colleagues at the CMMB office here in Yambio and then we piled, squished, and crammed ourselves into the vehicles that would take us the hour drive to Gangura. Initially, the office had thought that only 7 people would go to the celebration but many more than that joined. We barely fit in the two vehicles we had for transport. But we did.

            We took the "shorter" route to get to Gangura, a smaller village in WES. This route takes about an hour less than the normal route but the road is not in the best shape. However, I loved the route and the road. You need a vehicle that handle the rough roads and the constant shifting of gears but we were truly in the bush, passing small villages and huts along the way. The road is barely passable in a few areas, and would be much harder in the rain season, but this was the route that the convoy for the celebration chose to take.

We arrived in Gangura late. No shock as I think we are late a lot. But the good thing was, everyone else was late and we were not ready to start the celebration yet anyways. While several people set up booths for immunizations, GBV information, and other services offered by the NGOs represented during the celebration, I wandered through the stands of foods and different wares. There was clothing, reusable feminine pads, and sheets and clothes with decorative patters sewn in them. I made a few purchases and headed back to the celebration area.

There were chairs for the NGO partners, military, government, and other officials on one side. On the other side there were chairs and places for the women, men, and children that came to participate in the celebration. There were over 100 women there. There were lots of children, especially younger girls, among the crowd as well. It is good to see the younger crowd, and even better that they had a voice and representation for the celebration.

The celebration started with cheering and shouts, and a parade while the officials and the guest of honor paraded in with many women. There were opening remarks, discussions in both Zande and English, requests for a better road, and for other support, a speech by a teenage female against child brides, dancing, and singing.

The celebration lasted 4 hours. It was long and it was hot but it was good to be a part of. After the celebration I walked for a while around the different vendors and chatted with a few people. I also looked around a bit at the different parts of the village that were nearby to where the celebration was.

After we all piled back into our vehicles. The ride home we took the longer route, which took about 2 hours to drive home on. It is much smoother but it was long. We stopped along the road which I was grateful for, so I could stretch my legs and un-squish from the car. It rained along the way and was interesting to see how driving changes when it rains.

All-in-all it was an interesting day. It was good to get out and see what the celebration was like here. I also enjoyed getting to see another part of WES. It was a very good day and one I am glad I got to be a part of.