~🇯🇵M A T S U R I~
About three months after I talked with Taro-san about how 'we should try holding a Japanese festival,'...
The two from Ankazobe reached out to us, and after several meetings with the members who gathered,
it actually came to fruition!!!
The two Ankazobe team members who hosted this event
prepared everything so thoroughly
that we were able to make it happen. ☺️ Gratitude 🙏
The name of this festival is NAKAMA 🇯🇵
By the way, 'AKAMA' means 'friend' in Malagasy,
so it was named
in honor of that. 😊
I woke up at 4:00 AM 🌞 and instead of our usual driver Dina,
we departed from our post with Dina's son driving,
and met up at a hotel with various other
volunteers who had come up to the capital the day before. 🚌
After driving for about four hours, we arrived in Ankazobe. 😊
The guests of honor didn't arrive on time, so
the start was delayed by an hour (lol),
but that's just a typical Madagascar occurrence. 🇲🇬
We opened various booths early on. 🌟
My assignment was the yukata dressing booth!
It was a spot where people could wear a yukata
and take photos at a photo booth. 📸 It was unexpectedly a huge success. 👘
Other booths included...
Everyone worked hard at their respective booths
with the cooperation of the
Cisco members in Ankazobe. 🏃♀️
From the afternoon, it was the performance section!
With various things happening, as it neared the end,
the excitement at the venue kept heating up!!🔥
The festival ended at 2 o'clock as planned🕑
It ended on a very happy note🌟
Thank you all so much for your hard work🙇♀️
(Especially the two members of the Zurube team)
Wanting to do some cleanup and have a wrap-up party
with the highly active Zurube team,
Mizuki-san and I decided to stay over
at Anzu-Zurube on this day!
To think that these two exhausted people
would end up hosting us even more😱
Until about 9 PM, while snacking on the beer🍻
and snacks the two of them bought,
we played cards, played Word Wolf,
practiced Paprika, and had a serious debriefing of the Japan Festival,
It was just like a school trip night😂
The two of them's house was so clean and comfortable,
we ended up having about two more hours of girl talk,
and went to sleep feeling cozy.😪
The next day, we visited the festival held at the
elementary school where Anzu-Zurube's Taro-san
works🏃♀️
We also reunited with the only Madagascan friend
of Anzu-Zurube that we became friends with at the festival👭
The principal even treated us to a meal,
and once we were full,
and the two of us headed to the capital, Tana!
Arrived in the capital around evening🚌
I had an elegant dinner at my recommended galette restaurant,
and
Saying things like, "Wouldn't it be amazing to live a relaxed life abroad in the future, wandering around places like this with my husband?"
we enjoyed our galettes,
and so on.
On this day, I was allowed to stay at the incredibly beautiful home
of a JICA staff member🙇♀️
It's going to get long, so I'll stop here, but
after this, for the first time since coming to Madagascar,
I got a haircut and returned to my post😉
Ah, it was such a fun three days~😘
Next, we are planning to hold a Japan Festival at Mizuki-san's post!!
And after that, it's my post, Ambovombe!!
I'm so looking forward to it~✨✨