International Day of the Woman, March 8, 2012

Here in Burkina, the International Day of the Woman, is a national holiday. There is a special fabric created every year for this day and all of the women want outfits made out of this fabric. It is said here. . . that a ‘good wife’ always buys enough of this fabric to have a shirt made for her husband as well as a dress for herself!

There is an annual celebration in each province for the Day of the Woman. The celebration includes a parade, special speakers, special musicians, and gifts given by the government to local women’s groups. This celebration is often held in Yako but this year it was held in another village a bit outside of Yako.

Since we were not able to attend the celebration, we decided to have our own little International Woman’s Day party at the orphanage.

Amy organized games which were a huge success. Some of the women were laughing so hard, they were crying. All of our children came from the 4 corners of the courtyard to see what all of the excitement was about.

We played a modified version of hot potato which we called ‘pass the balloon baby’ and when the beat of the drum stopped, the lady holding the ‘baby’ had to answer questions about herself.

Then we divided the group into two teams and each team competed to see how many balloons they could stuff under the shirts of our two nurses. I think that you can see how much fun everyone was having.

A party here in Burkina always includes something to eat and to drink and our party was no exception. We ordered meat sandwiches from a local restaurant and everyone had her choice of coffee or tea to drink.

The goal of our party was to let each of our women know that they are so very special and that they are loved by God and loved by us. By the smiles on their beautiful faces, I think that the message was received.