Christmas Cheer and New Year Cattle

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve were very similar in several ways...drums could be heard until the wee hours of the morning throughout the village; there were children singing and dancing at the churches; groups of 'carolers' roaming up and down the streets signing "Bonne Annee" (Happy New Year); drinking and partying in the village bars; etc...however, perhaps the most unusual similarity is that they were both Mondays.

Why unusual? Because Monday is Ngong's market day! Ngong is about 45 kilometers south of us and has one of the largest cattle markets for the area. Everyone goes there to buy their cattle, especially for the holiday meals. At the end of the day, they round up all the cattle bought by people in Djalingo and smaller surrounding villages and herd them home. (I'm sure they do this for other villages too going in different directions.) Once in Djalingo, they bring them to the marketplace and wait for their new owners to come and pick them up.

Chris and I were walking through the village on Christmas Eve and came across the cows in the marketplace. There were four young boys keeping them in one place while they fed them straw. They told us they were resting for a bit before continuing on to deliver the ones bought for people in Garoua, another 15 kilometers.

It was about 9:30 p.m. so it took them about 4-5 hours to make the walk from Ngong, if my guess is correct on when they left the market. There were more than 30 cattle. We watched them for awhile and then continued on to listen to the next group of singers and dancers, following the sound in the night.


New Year's Day we were greeted with drummers and dancers in our compound. They came to spread the New Year cheer and we gladly accepted and encouraged them on! After about 15 minutes or so, they continued on to the next house. Bonne Annee 2008!