May First

I thought the first day of May was just an excuse to dance around a maypole or place flowers outside your neighbor’s front door very early in the morning. When they go outside to get their newspaper, they’ll see the gift from an anonymous giver and feel loved.

Not the case in Nigeria (and most other places in the world, it seems!). Daniel tells me that May 1 is International Workers' Day (much like our September Labor Day). Some quick online research says that this day commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the Canada, South Africa, and the United States (despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States with the fight for an eight-hour work day!).

Because May 1 fell on a Saturday this year, it was celebrated yesterday, and I think only the emergency and on-call staff worked at Faith Alive. Daniel, whose job is to manage the storeroom, celebrated that rainy day by watching an Arsenal game at a neighborhood television.