New Year's Day—The Reunion

On this day, we always had our excitement peaked. Different meals are cooked, and different kinds of drinks are displayed, especially sweet palm wine for my grandparents.

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During the last New Year's Day, I was in the villa. After eating and drinking at home, my little sister and my cousins demanded that I take them to the carnival. It had been a long time since I went to the carnival, mainly because I don't like crowded places. Also, I could always watch the videos of the whole event the next day. But I'm now a big sister, I couldn't refuse their humble requests, so I had to do what big sisters do .
My elder brother volunteered to drive all of us to the place, saving us from a lot of stress that comes with walking the street on such a bustling and dusty day.

At the town hall, I realized how tricky it could be to keep an eye on three kids. One is a teenager, and the other two are below the age of ten. They were very excited, they wanted to see the masquerades, watch the traditional dancers and other shows and games that were going on. I spent about two hours showing them around, I was amused by their unending giggles and laughter.
For some seconds, I was happy to be there.

Due to this excitement, I wished to see my two nursery school friends. Our relationship could have passed for childhood friends, but I wasn't that of a social type while growing up. I had just one friend, and we stopped talking since she and her family traveled to Germany and then got their London citizenship.

I took my siblings to a canopy where one of our church members was selling local eggs, local cakes, and many other local things.
"You people should wait here for me. Nobody should leave until I come back. Am I understood?"
"Yes, aunty," they chorused.
Something made me believe they would wait. One of my neighbors was sitting there with her 12-year-old son.

I began looking for my two friends. I knew two of them would be together because they attended the same secondary school. A few minutes into the search, I found their relatives, who I didn't even want to meet. They gave me clues and described what they wore. All the clues were dead ends. At some point, I began to get pissed. I asked myself why I was searching for people who might not be eager to see me too. Because if they were, they'd be searching for me too. I felt like I was the only one missing them. After searching all nooks and crannies, I decided to go back to my little people.

"Please, do you know where they went?" I asked my neighbor.
"No," she responded.
I remembered she agreed to keep an eye on them for me, but I couldn't blame her. How stupid of me to ask an elderly person to babysit my siblings while I go out to have fun as she must have thought.

I began searching for my siblings. There was no network to call the eldest of them, so I had to do the search manually. I knew how difficult it would be to find them if they got mixed up in the crowd. That was the reason I had them sit beside a good neighbor in a canopy.

After about 10 minutes of searching, I met an acquaintance who told me she saw them with my uncle. I was relieved because I knew exactly where they would be. While pushing my way through the crowd to get to my uncle, I met the friends I was looking for.

"OMG! Desire, we've been combing the whole field searching for you," they said as we hugged each other.
"Same here. I even thought the search was one-sided," I said.

"No. We saw your uncle and he told us you came. Since then we've been looking for you."
Beside them were two other guys from the same villa. I know them very well because their parents are deeply rooted in grassroots politics.

I was excited. I took them all to see my siblings. I felt relieved and guilty when I saw my siblings. It was dangerous leaving them all by themselves in such a crowded place where finding someone was like searching for two tiny diamonds mixed up in a bowl of beans.

After watching the cultural dance by a certain family, we all went to a popular spot outside the town hall to eat bush meat with malts. We had a nice time talking about our childhood, how the villa was, and how it is now. The tone of our discussion sounded mature. I realized how much we have grown in a few years, and how none of them have changed in terms of character and personality. Grace was still talkative, the type that lies about many things.
However, meeting them was one of the good things that happened to me on a new year's day. From their countenance, I was able to tell that they also enjoyed every moment we spent together.

It was a really good way to start a new year.