2019年5月4日、ご寄附者のひとりで府中市在住の中野一孝さんにご招待いただき、ロドリグはシュクルとゴドフリー?ハンプワイエ博士と共に府中市のくらやみ祭に参加しました。お祭り体験に関する詳しい記事はこちらをご覧ください。

いつも日本での生活や人々と交流することを全力で楽しんでくれるロドリグは、今回の体験にも大興奮し、これまでに学んだ日本語を使って出会った子どもたちに優しく話しかけながら、心からお祭りに参加してくれていました。本人による体験記をご覧ください。

山車を引きながら子どもたちに話しかけるロドリグ

Last Saturday, May 4th, together with Dr. Hampaye, Ms. Shukulu, and Ms. Midorikawa, I attended and participated in the Kurayami Festival. It was held near Fuchu City Hall. With no background in Japanese festivals, I was eager to see what constitutes one of them. In this short article, I am going to maintain some facts that amazed me the most.

First, I was happy to hear that the big drum which is played for the purification of the road for gods came from Africa. I mean, its tree was imported from Cameroun according to what I heard from there. As a student from Africa, I get, once again, to see how, directly or indirectly, connected we are.

Second, I liked the traditional music made of flute and drum which was performed. The flute is one of my favorite musical instruments. Moreover, I was surprised to see kids dancing on the melody of the music. After more than 7 months since I came to Japan, I haven't seen kids dancing. In fact, I was not even expecting to see kids taking part in such kind of event aside with adults. On my great surprise, they did.

Last, together with his sister, I got an opportunity to meet Mr. Nakano, another person who donated for my stay in Japan. I thought, at the welcome party, I did see all of them but, in fact, I didn't. Mr. Nakano prepared specific clothes for us and we were able to join his group. I could see the amazement in the eyes of everyone who looked on us wearing the clothes and pulling out the high wheeled festival float. After the festival, Mr. Nakano offered the clothes to us as souvenirs. Actually, I was planning to buy a Japanese traditional cloth as a souvenir. Now, I have one already. That was good.

As a sum up, with less than 3 months left before going back to my country and taking into consideration my participation in Kurayami Festival, I can now confirm that I've experienced Japanese lifestyle in general.