Hey everyone,
This is the second part where I speak of the festival. As unfortunate as it may be, due to unavoidable complications I do not have any personal pictures of the events but I will leave links to videos of the performances and other pictures however.
Solo singer Melissa
The second day was not just confined to the square between the church and the park. This time we opened up to another park, “Square Léon,” a block away from the concert stage.
(Zé Samba et Banda’ê-tribal Bande)
Since there was free food served throughout the three days we also helped in the preparation and even the serving of it. One of the fruits we worked with were apples where we took would take out the centers and the seedless apples were then cooked and filled with a strawberry jam to make a dessert called “Merguéz” if my memory serves me right. There were official cooks so we did mostly preparation which included a lot of chopping. They even lets some of the younger kids help. We were working most of the time even when the event started still with food since a lot of it had to be handed out or sold from several little stands stationed out during the events.
(Stage being set up. At that moment I was over with two others gather the lighting equipment and they were waiting on us)
There were several food tents which took charge of selling typical festival foods like hot dogs, cotton candy, chili cheese fries, burgers, and beer. Where I was helping was in the free food. These were mainly finger foods and there was one station that gave out free drinks of two kinds: the first was a kiwi blended mix and the second was an orange juice which could be taken with or without alcohol. The trays that we passed out had many different foods ranging from different simple food types of cookies, muffins, cheeses, etc., to more complex ones like tuna salads, quiches, and tortillas. Since the first thing that people ask was “C’est quoi ça?,” “Qu’est-ce que c’est?,” ou “C’est à quoi?,” I made sure I knew exactly what I was giving before I went oçut there. What I handed out were cheese based muffins, chocolate chip cookies, raisin cookies, and a sample chicken salad dish with tomatoes, cucumbers, and a sauce. Where this was going on was at the “Village Festif” at “Square Léon.” The surrounding decorations were Afro-Euro-Amer-Asian influence in every location to create a unifying ambiance for everyone.
(The opening inauguration/ceremony. You can actually see me with my hand in front of my face in a blue shirt around the center of the picture)
A couple other little activities in which I was not deeply involved but I did oversee was face painting for the kids and the little kid-friend train for families. And having a very music based theme to bring together everything and everyone, there were more open stage shows and appearances where any artist could sing, dance, play an instrument, etc.
Sunday I was only there for a couple hrs at the beginning and to help clean-up at the end. Sunday was very focused on the foods and cooking aspects of many different regions and country titled as “Cuisine en Fête” or, Cooking Party instead of neighborhood party. Another mini theme was the “Repas de Quartier” or, Neighborhood Meals. Being a very culturally mixed neighborhood the idea was that people would bring small things that were typical to their origins or houses and share in a pique-nique style manner letting others tastes flavors possible foreign to them.
I want to end this post on something that I’ve noted about the neighborhood where I work. It is like a community in itself where people know each other and will stop several times when walking down the street to give a handshake or a kiss between each other. People have their own little hangout spots which could be something as small as a street corner where some stand on the sidewalk while others will sit on the fence that separates the road from the sidewalk and they will just chat and laugh all day. I am starting to actually recognize certain people since they are always in the same spot and even around where I live in my neighborhood there are people that I will start a light conversation with just because I see them so often. This happens so much, with good reason, to the boss of the NGO where I work since she has worked there in the same neighborhood for so long. 
Well I hope you enjoyed reading. I’ll admit this wasn't one of my greatest posts but I have many more things to mention in later posts.
Until next post!
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