Once a year the local community gather together taking an active role in the mosque’s maintenance via a unique annual festival.

This includes music and food, but has the primary objective of repairing the damage inflicted on the mosque in the past year (mostly erosion caused by the annual rains and cracks caused by changes in temperature and humidity).

In the days leading up to the festival, the plaster is prepared in pits. It requires several days to cure but needs to be periodically stirred, a task usually falling to young boys who play in the mixture, thus stirring up the contents.

Men climb onto the mosque’s built-in scaffolding and ladders made of palm wood and smear the plaster over the face of the mosque.