july 8th, 2006

I hope I am not boring you. I know of like... three of you... who are probably enjoying this because you have been to Mozambique as well. Everyone else... well, I am going to pretend you enjoy it since I haven't had feedback either way. Warning. This one will be a long one. It was a Saturday, so we crammed a lot of things in. And, because of dear Stacy (who is a saint), there will be a lot of pictures and a couple videos. SMILE on my face.

July 8th, 2006
"After breakfast, we walked over to ASEM to see them perform for us... The guys set up [drums] along one edge of the wall while the rest of our group sat in chairs and benches along the outer edges of the ramada. Out of no where, several of the orphans began dancing... Words cannot describe how these kids moved their body! They were amazing!... Every time the drum beat changed, their dance style changed as well. When the dancing stopped, we thought it was over. The leader explained that what they had just done was a warm up! They began dancing again, but now the moves were much more intense and extreme... The dancers were near the point of dripping with sweat when they finished. The drummers continued to drum a simple beat while a few of the girls danced across the floor. They came and pulled us girl volunteers up with them to do cross-floor work. The movements started simple, but progressed rapidly to more difficult steps... I had the advantage of taking West African dance class a few years back. The little black girls at the orphanage were laughing and getting excited that I could do all of their movements.

***[Speaking of the orphanage in Dondo] "This orphanage is completely different than the others we had been to. The kids were calm and didn't hang on us as much. They were happy to see us, but they didn't "attack" us... I tried to teach the girls double dutch with the jump ropes, but Stacy was the only one successful at it! We only jumped rope for about a half hour... The rest of the group proposed playing with a parachute. Parachute was always my FAVORITE in elementary school, so I thoroughly enjoyed this!

***"By 5pm, we were loaded into the Landrover to head to Oceana for dinner. Oceana (as the name suggests) was right next to the [Indian] ocean... We had to pay in advance for the cooks to run and go buy supplies. Because we knew the wait would be so long, we brought 2 decks of cards and played scum for the hour - two hour wait for food. The food was pretty good - pizza... I ate like an entire pizza by myself! I just kept putting more and more in my mouth until it was all gone!... As we were leaving the restaurant, I volunteered to walk with Cuca to return the [soda] bottles to the shop we purchased them from. I think I have seen a pretty dang scary side of Africa! The soda shop was on the other side of this large, unlit park. Cuca and I walked in the middle of the street along the edge of the park. Any time there was a person in the street, we moved to the sidewalk. Any time there was a person on the sidewalk, we moved to the street. It was quite interesting... When we had given [the shop owner] the bottles, Cuca turned to me and said, "Do you want to run back?" I asked him if he were crazy...
***[Speaking of the performance the ASEM dancers participated in] "It was like the entrance to a battle-of-the-bands party. TONS of people standing around the entrance, hoping to get in... Our group pushed through the gathering crowd to find João, Sylvia, and the other Nikki, sitting near the makeshift stage... Poles with lights had been set up to light the stage. A nice sound system was being used to play music. A lot of the music was Portuguese, but some was English! Any time an English song came on that we knew, the girls in our group would start singing! We sang and danced in our seat until the show began... Following the fashion show was a Michael Jackson mock! It was phenomenal! The kid had the PERFECT outfit and the exact moves!... Our group was all dancing and singing - we had a blast - to "Billie Jean". Our ASEM dancers went after Michael Jackson and they did so well! They even made little costumes. The dancers did the same thing that they did at the orphanage - a traditional dance to live drums... We cheered so loud! The crowd loved it too, they were clapping like crazy!"
See. A lot. And let me clear something up that may have caught you off guard. Cuca. No, not my child (obviously). But who my child is a namesake for. The Lucas (Cuca) in Africa taught me the phrase I later used when I first met Robert. "Cala boca e me beija" (if you don't know Portuguese, Google translate). First thing I ever said to my hubby. And no, he didn't... Not that night at least.