Mummy, it's our cultural day tomorrow my daughter said to me, as I picked her up from school after they closed for the day, oh no! I exclaimed in despair, it must have skipped my mind, her younger sister and I had been ill for some days now, which had my mind engulfed with so much worry that I forgot about my daughter's cultural day at school, I felt bad because I was reminded two weeks ago by her class teacher when I visited their school, it was an Open day, when parent are allowed to come and check the well being of their child, how they have been fairing so far in their studies and also re-strategize with their class teacher on how they can be of help as parents to make them do better in their studies. I was impressed with my daughter's report from her class teacher and from accessing her classwork also, studying with her at home when she does her homework already proved the claim. To reward her hard work, I bought her a new school bag and a lunch bag of her favourite anime character to encourage her to keep being her best.
Back to the present, I quickly put a call across to her teacher and she told me there was no costume left as all had been sold out, I felt double bad, then I asked her what was the chosen style, she told me and I quickly went to work on the design when we arrived home, this is one of the moments I'm grateful to be a fashion designer, I already had African print fabric I planned to use in making a dress for her, and also thankfully I had two local beads I bought for an occasion some years back, my mind calmed after I was done arranging her costumes late at night and by morning,
she shined in her traditional attire, I took few shots, ok scratch that, many shots of her, her cousin came right on time at that moment and joined in the picture taking contest, we arrived at her school and saw other children dressed in other tribes attire in Nigeria, we are so blessed with our culture and they look so radiant adorned in our native attire.
My sister later expressed her displeasure in the costume the school gave her son, she didn't forget like me, but still didn't remind me because she thought I had paid. Apparently, the school played a fast one on the parents by giving the children costumes made out of fake prints at an expensive rate, that was so bad.
At the end of the day I was happy the occasion ended on a good note as the children enjoyed themselves learning about out diverse culture and traditions and the teachers apologized to the parents and promised to do better next time.
All images used in this post are mine