Sunday, April 24, 2011

Beach road festivities...

Lumley beach is apparently the happening place this week. Last night they had a massive party there. When I went to the beach this morning at 6 am for an Easter sunrise service there were hundreds of people walking from the beach towards Aberdeen. I guess a lot of people didn’t sleep last night!

This evening, after dropping off my colleague’s parents at the water taxi, we headed to Lumley beach. I was curious as to what the atmosphere would be like. We went to Roy’s for a drink. Initially the beach wasn’t too busy. However, the road was blocked off just past the helicopter road turn off and no vehicles were allowed onto the main part of beach road. That is, no vehicles except for the occasional VIP, or ‘someone who knows someone’ type of vehicle and of course the Ambulance. The ambulance drove up and down the road with siren on for no apparent reason. Patrolling? Driving around VIPs? Picking up people who have fainted? Who knows? It seemed like ‘a lot of noise, but little action’. And I almost hate to say it, but that sometimes seems like a common theme. Anyway, it was great to have a whole road to walk on, except for dodging the occasional okada (motorcycle).

After Roy’s we decided we would venture a little further to see what was happening at Montana’s- where we had seen a pretty big stage the day before. Sure enough there was a bigger crowd there. And actually, the road was much busier with people too. I have to admit that there was a great atmosphere there. Everyone seemed happy and friendly. There were many stalls on the side of the road selling drinks, biscuits, street meat etc. It really resembles a street festival at home. I ran into a former patient and his mom, as well as a former lab technician of mine. It’s fun to run into familiar faces. When we reached the stage there was again a lot of noise from the stage and little action – Airtel; one of the mobile networks was doing some kind of promotion talk. People seemed fine with it though. We stayed for a bit and then headed back. We took a fabulous taxi from beach road to Congo Cross with a built in DVD player/screen and watched Michael Jackson video clips during our journey home. We changed taxis at Congo Cross and then walked the last bit up Cemetery Road to our house. It was an enjoyable evening.

Rumor has it that Tuesday’s events will include live bands and fireworks. That’s Independence Eve folks and I think we’ll try to be there. Of course, there will be hundreds of people there, and so to the concerned ones out there, don’t worry; we’ll do our best to stay safe. If the crowd gets out of control, we’ll head home. It’s just hard to pass up the 50th Anniversary celebrations.

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~ Act Justly. Love Mercy. Walk Humbly. micah 6:8 ~