Nigerian parade!

Yesterday I went to a Nigerian parade in my neighborhood.

It was to start at noon according to posters, but it was nowhere near starting, so I stopped by an African goods shop, and the guy told me to stop by an African restaurant, and the girl there said the parade was going to begin 12-12:30-1pm (at that time it was 12:15pm), so I went to the local grocery store and got groceries and went home and unpacked them, then I strolled back and it was like 12:45pm, and still no parade, so I started walking up the advertised parade route.

There were a few traffic cops working at an intersection, so I asked them about the parade and they looked at their info sheets, but there was no listed starting time, but the one (hispanic) (female) one said that it should be starting by 1pm or so.

"I hate these gloves," she was like, as she pulled them off to unfold her info sheet better.

So, I started walking further up the parade route, and at the starting point at 1pm, all I could see was Nigerians and frustrated cops looking at each other, as well as Nigerians in full African garb going around looking at like the 6 floats (2 of which were from money-wiring companies), and a ton of cars lined up full of Nigerians and Nigerian flags sticking out the windows.

So, I went into a store and got some cheesey-popcorn, and strolled around the starting point and then down back...

The parade finally started going like 1:50pm, and at that time a downpour started, after misting and cold winds all afternoon.

And, after going for 2 seconds, this really fat Nigerian woman who was on the second float took a microphone and called out into it that someone should go stop the 1st police car, they had 2 hours of time left for reserved traffic redirection and he was going too fast, he should slow down so the parade lasts.

"And it is raining!", she was like, "But the rain is a blessing!"

Like 2 people were watching, and she invited them to come jump on the float... 1 other float did that as well, it was very nice.

The very very last float was some old Nigerian guys, and when one of them clapped his hands out towards the 2 spectators and was like, "Happy birthday, Nigeria!", he saw me smile, and he and the other guys nodded and clapped.