Aso Ebi

This year AISL is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary, and we are also celebrating 100 years of a unified Nigeria.  As part of the celebration, students were invited to design a fabric to highlight these two important occasions.  In April, a middle schooler’s design was chosen and the fabric was printed.  When school opened this fall, the entire school was encouraged to purchase the fabric and have an outfit made for Nigerian Culture Day.  The Yoruba tradition of everyone wearing the same fabric is called Aso Ebi, and it signifies unity.  Aso Ebi (pronounced ASHOW EYBEE) is defined by Urban Dictionary as:

Nigerian outfits made from matching fabric to be worn by a group of people to a party, wedding, or funeral as a uniform. Wearing a certain aso ebi identifies the group of wearers. For instance, at a wedding, all the bride’s friends might wear blue and gold, the bride’s family might wear white and gold, and the groom’s friends might wear black and pink, and so on.

Our Nigerian Culture Day is traditionally held on September 30, the day before Nigerian Independence Day.  This year, because of our Ebola setbacks, it was postponed until November.  So, we celebrated our Nigerian Culture Day on Friday November 14.

We assembled on the field for a school photo to commemorate our 50th anniversary.

It was a glorious day for the event.  As per usual, the PTO moms outdid themselves with the decorations around the campus.  Nigerian music greeted us each morning as we arrived on campus… you couldn’t help but get excited about the big day!  On Friday morning, the entire AISL community (students, teachers, admin., custodial staff and many parents) arrived at school in their Aso Ebi.  We were awash in a sea of blue!  It was quite something to see.  Though we all wore the same fabric, the range of costume design was quite incredible!

We held our Opening Ceremony in the gym (thank heavens for A/C).  We had some special guests of honor to help us celebrate: music legend King Sunny Adae and the Honorable Justice Kudirat M.O. Kekere-Ekun.   We were entertained with musical pieces  by the high school and middle school bands, who worked so hard and sounded fantastic!  Our elementary music teacher, Tracy, and her assistant Kinglsey, worked with the elementary students and they learned three songs for the special day.  One of the songs was sung in 4 languages (English, Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo). They sang King Sunny Ade’s song Ja Funmi (meaning- fight for me) in Yoruba, and we were all delighted when he got up and sang with the children.  We then went into break-out sessions which included drama for elementary students (way to go, Mr. Patton’s class!), food tasting, beading, hair braiding, yam pounding, headscarf tying, tie-dye, etc.  We then returned to the gym for the closing ceremony, were we were treated to dances by our high school dance group, and the elementary Nigerian Dance Troupe.  Laryssa was a part of that one… we were so proud of our little oyibo!  We were also joined by another music legend, Dr. Victor Olaiya. The middle school band played and sang one of his songs and he got up and sang with them a little bit.  The elementary students sang his song, Ishe Oluwa, in the Yoruba language.

All in all, it was a great day at AISL.  We love Nigerian Culture Day!

 King Sunny Ada is on the left, in black.  The Honorable Justice Kudirat M.O. Kekere-Ekun is in pink, and our Superintendent, Mr. Rayl, is the tribal chief on the end!

Laryssa and her dance troupe!

 Dr. Victor Olaiya and his wife.

Random shots from the day:

…here in Lagos!

Last weekend was extremely busy.  We took the Flat Brats trick-or-treating on Friday evening.  We had 23 teachers volunteer to hand out candy from their homes, so the children had a great old time!  It’s so nice that they can participate in activities like this that their parents used to do back home when they were young.  Once back from trick-or-treating, kids were bathed and put into pajamas, and then they went to a movie night across the hall from us.  They had snacks and played some tricks on unsuspecting adults!  Meanwhile, across the hall in our flat, adults came dressed in their finest costumes to our Halloween Party.  Many people put a lot of effort into their costumes and some were quite impressive!  Chris and I had a ghoulish time creating Halloween food to serve!  The fun continued on to the next day, when Laryssa celebrated her 8th birthday with some friends by the pool.  We played all sorts of games and the kids had lots of fun.

 The watermelon jack’o’lantern!

Trick-or-treating

Hallowe’en Party

The ghoulish food

When an adult wandered into the wrong party, they were mummified by the kids!

Laryssa’s Birthday Party

This past Friday the AISL Indian Community treated the teachers and their families to a special Diwali Celebration.  Diwali is the celebration of good over evil and is often referred to as the Festival of Light.  The ladies decorated the gym and arranged an entire evening of entertainment and delicious food!  As we entered the gym we were greeted by beautiful young women handing out bindis and sweets. Then the women guests were whisked off to the side where we were wrapped in saris.  After that, it was one huge photo op!  Children danced and sang and entertained, while waiters strolled amongst the crowd with delicious appetizers.  The evening ended with a delicious meal and then some dancing.  The children were all given a packet of sparklers, so we went home and did that on our balcony!

Diwali

Yesterday, my good friend Susan invited a bunch of us over for a Ladies’ Lunch.  It was a lovely afternoon of good food and laughter.  We also had the chance to celebrate Susan and Annemarie’s birthdays.  I am so thankful to have these ladies as part of my life… we truly are blessed with a great community here at AISL!

Ladies’ Lunch

The birthday girls

Today, finally, we rest!  It is very, very hot outside, so after a few crafts, we may just kick back and watch a movie.  I think we’ve earned some down time!