Chad continues to foster a traditional view
of male and female roles. However for Woman’s Day, woman are celebrated for all
their hard work. Woman’s Day is celebrated in Chad for a
full week leading up to March 8th. Starting March 1st,
there was a festival with food vendors and places to have a drink as well as
booths selling clothes, soap and meat. There was also at tent in the middle of
the festival where different speeches were spoken on woman’s rights. I had the
privilege of going a couple times with my co-workers from work. We sat at one
of the booths which was also a restaurant and ordered drinks. I had Fruit
cocktail Fanta, and Pineapple Top, which are soft drinks popular in Chad. We
casually chatted and as vendors passed we purchased hard-boiled eggs, grilled
meat and even grasshoppers!
On March 8th I woke up early
because it was supposed to be the day of the Woman’s Day march that I was planning
on participating in. As soon as I exited my room, my cousin told me that on the
radio she had heard that the march was postponed until Monday. I dutifully
called the head of our group and asked her. She believed that we were marching
but later called back to say that it was indeed Monday that the march would
take place.
So I decided that I would go to church and
sing in the choir, which I had not planned to do. The choir sang a Woman’s Day
tribute and the pastor spoke about woman’s roles. Then there was a question and
answer period where people posed questions and the pastor answered. Questions
included: Why are woman not preachers? If you don’t get married will you go to
heaven? What do you think of an elder who does not love his wife?
After the service the ‘Femmes de Charité’
as well as woman from my choir had prepared a massive amount of food that they
were selling. There was boule, a variety of sauces, peanut butter, cakes, fish
fried dough, chicken, and fish. It felt a little like a potluck after church!
On March 9th, I went to CENTRAM
to meet with the woman of the agriculture school ISETAER. ISETAER runs in the
mornings in the same building as CENTRAM which happens in the evening. The
female students invited me to march with them, and so we bought and tailored
the same dress.
When we arrived at the starting place for
the march there were many different groups all sporting matching uniforms.
There were schools, universities, hospitals, phone companies, organizations and
even a soccer team! There were over 100 groups present ready to march.
When I think of march I think of a parade
and walking for a couple kilometers past people. This was not the case, as when
it was our turn we walked a total of 500 m. The main event was stopping in
front of the governor to give our present of fruits and vegetables as well as a
chicken and a rooster. There were many people watching the march and after
dropping off our gifts, we continued on our way, stopping at a restaurant to
eat chicken, bread, French fries and salad. Happy Belated Woman’s Day to all
you hard working woman!
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