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I have been so excited for the past few months for Jr. Junkanoo! This is the first time that Micah has had the chance to be a part of the festivities! His school always does an AWESOME job! They won first prize last year, and I’m sure they won or came close this year too!
Parents and teachers work hard on floats, costumes, music, and rallying kids for weeks in preparation. This year Micah’s school did a Sesame Street theme. They went all out too! They started with the little girls dressed up singing the theme song and then following them was a float, more dancers in big flashy costumes (at one point I got hit in the head by part of a “Big Bird”), and more floats followed, then all the boys brought the traditional Junkanoo drums, whistles, bells, and horns.
The boys were dressed as the “Count”. Micah had his little heart set on being a drummer, but the drums went to the bigger boys, so Micah settled for ringing the bells. He did a great job, even though it took much convincing to get him to give up the dream of drumming this time around. I think he may get a Junkanoo drum for his birthday.
The day lasted longer than I had planned, as most things here do. Micah and I arrived at 2:30, and Micah pretty much ran, and ran, and ran, until 10:00 that night. Junkanoo lasted 20 minutes for his school and before and after that he played and ran.
His school was scheduled to rush again (the parade part is called “rushing”) later, which ended up not being until 10:30p.m. Micah lost it about 10:15, and we ended up just leaving, which turned into Micah sleeping in the car while I sat in the car because someone blocked me in.
So….I sat there while person after person came and peed beside our van because there were no bathrooms that worked. Needless to say that was not my favorite part of the day. My favorite part was obviously when Micah’s school rushed, but the rest of the nine hours I pretty much ran after Micah. It was a tiring and long day for sure. Next year hopefully I will prepare better for the long day.
I am proud of Micah. He is fitting into the culture well here. More than that though, he has a good heart and he loves the Lord. I pray that as he grows the Lord will continue to lead Micah’s heart to His own. Please with us that Micah will be a light in his school, and that he will hold firmly to the Lord through the trying times of growing up, and growing up in a different culture.