A cause for celebration!

Life here is always presenting opportunities to learn more and have unique experiences! A few weeks ago we were at home one night when all of a sudden we started hearing a bunch of commotion outside. I looked out our back window and from there I could see that there were fireworks going off to the east of our house. After hearing it get louder and hearing tons of honking and booms going on Scott and I headed up to the roof to have a better look. The funny thing about heading up to our roof is that it is what everybody does when something is going on, whether it’s a car accident, a fist fight on the street or helicopter training exercises (yes, all of these things we’ve observed from the safety of our rooftop!). From being up high you can have a great view of what is happening down below! When we reached the top we had an amazing sight awaiting us: 360 degrees of firework action! Everywhere we looked there were fireworks going off from rooftops and even what looked like flare guns being shot off. It was quite exciting! Although, we had no idea what all of the ruckus was about!

So I quickly called up a friend of mine and asked what was happening. She told me that their beloved president had been reelected by parliament to once again represent their people as a whole throughout the country. So basically what we were seeing was a city wide victory party! There is a big bridge near our house where traffic had completely stopped while people watched the fireworks and honked their horns in support. Politics is something here that everyone from the very young to the very old gets involved in; everyone has an opinion and cares deeply about who represents them and how! The only part I don’t like about these celebrations is that many take out their guns and shoot them up into the air, so the sound of gunfire is also fairly common here, but not in the way that most people would imagine! This whole scene went on for a couple of hours and Scott and I fell asleep to all the booms and rat-tat-tats. I can tell you it definitely makes for interesting dreams when that is what you are hearing while you slumber!