A national holiday?

Even though less than ten percent of the population is Muslim, Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, is a national holiday in Rwanda. However, the date of the holiday apparently depends on an interpretation of the moon, so it cannot be set ahead of time. Instead, an approximate date is set and an announcement is made on the radio on the morning of the holiday. So we knew the holiday would be either Friday or Saturday (making the holiday from work either Friday or Monday), but we had to wait for a radio announcement to find out which it would be. Now, the thing to note is that (1) I don’t have a radio, and (2), even if I did, the announcement would be made in Kinyarwanda. Thankfully, our medical director offered to send text messages to all of the expats when the announcement was made, and the announcement was made early, so on Thursday night we found out that Friday would be a holiday. Even though we had scheduled approximately forty clinic visits and planned a full day at the counseling and testing centers, there would be no work. Instead we would post a notice on the gate at each site and take a vacation.