It had just gotten dark and Tana and I heard a loud racket approaching our courtyard. All varieties of pots and pans and bottles being beaten as percussion instruments. Fifty kids from all across our village had formed a marching band drumline and were parading through every courtyard.

Like an ever-expanding conga line, more and more kids dropped their dinners, grabbed the nearest kitchen utensil, and joined in the noise-making rabble. The lady and I stood on our bed to see over the courtyard wall, confused as always about what was going on. Were they celebrating the end of the school year? No way, these kids weren't just having some fun. They were saving the world...



According to Burkina lore, the sun is a cat (jakmani in Jula) and the moon is like a mouse who is forever chased around our planet. But sometimes the moon wanders off the path, loses her way, and the cat catches her! Whenever jakmani catches her, you can observe the moon slowly being devoured. This is a lunar eclipse. So once the moon begins to be devoured, it's the duty of all village children to scare the cat into releasing the lost moon.

A villager about our age named Ibrahim told some elderly women that the story is not true. He said it was announced on the radio that morning that there would be a lunar eclipse. He went on to say that scientists can predict these phenomena years in advance. The old ladies were skeptical to believe this hogwash but realized Ibrahim was a huge liar when he said that it even happens to the sun sometimes.

Anyway, it was a close one this time. We trembled in fear, watching the cat swallow the moon. Then apparently after an hour jakmani was too much a scaredy cat to digest the moon, so he regurgitated her. All the while the village youth chanted and raised a ruckus. I don't know how they did it, but they pulled it off. Here's to you, kids. You saviors of the world, you.