Halloween in Namibia

Halloween is not a holiday that is normally celebrated in Africa. But, as we are big Halloween fans, we made the most of it. The kids first went to a Halloween party at the U.S. Embassy, where they trick or treated in the offices. Even though the U.S. Embassy has not received any threats in Namibia, it is like a fortress! Even though I’ve been there a ton of times, I have to have a guard follow me around at all times when I’m in there. However, for Halloween they did let in a pirate (Ruby), a ninja (Alice) and Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt (Maxine). I also was allowed to bring a camera in, as I told the guards that it was a U.S. custom to take photos on Halloween (then after I went to all that trouble, I hardly took any photos). The kids also got to wear their costumes at their international school, which was experimenting with celebrating Halloween this year for I believe the first time. Finally, we had a Halloween party at our house. Our Namibian friends and friends from other parts of Africa were very curious about Halloween, and I think they had a good time at our party. I kept getting text messages before the party: “what is Halloween?” “why do you wear costumes?” “what do you do at a Halloween party?” They seem to like the concept of Halloween, and we had fun trying to explain the whole thing to them. We’ll have to leave them our meager decorations when we go. At the witching hour, the kids all took off their costumes and jumped in the pool.