Dance, Dance, Dance!

Sunday, August 26^th

We went to church with our cornerstone assistants at Calvary Chapel in Kampala. It was a rather westernized church and I would have preferred to go to one more traditional, with a true African beat to the music and people with soul, swaying to the music. But we will visit one of those later. It bothered me that the pastor was white. It seems like people’s own countrymen should lead their people. Maybe I’m just weird. Anyway, so after church we walked around town and went out to eat for lunch. We had hamburgers and fries. It definitely had a different taste and texture, but still was a pretty good hamburger. Then we went to a craft market and I bought some cool earrings for like less than two bucks. They are round and wooden with butterflies carved into them. They don’t sound as cool as they really look. =) Anyway, then later that day we went to the Ndere Cultural Center and had dinner there and witnessed 4 hours of dancing, singing, drumming, and sweet tricks. Those women can move their hips! One guy did a balancing act on a bicycle for like at least 20 minutes. It was also amazing. I can’t even describe it all to you. It’s definitely something you have to see for yourself. This helped me to appreciate the beauty of the Ugandan people, all African people and their culture even more than I did previously. I was overwhelmed with sadness over the things that European and American people have done to this amazing culture and their people in the past.

Toward the end of the program the MC of the program called out different nations’ names and the people who were from those countries went up and he shook their hands. Everyone stayed on the stage and then when everyone was down there he had one person say why their nation was the best. When we heard we were supposed to do that, the girl who was volunteered from our group shrank back because she did not want to say anything. But she ended up saying, “Because our nation invented coca cola.” It was pretty much ended up being a humorous event. Germany said it was because of the beer. Ireland said it was because of their beer and because of how green it was. Sudan said hospitality. It was amazing being on that stage with sooo many countries. It almost brought me to tears. Finally they put on some music and we all started dancing. All of us. From all over the world. It was sooo great. I don’t know if I will ever have an experience like that again. I don’t know many who can say they have done something like that. Many of us, during the dancing were trying to do a lot of the moves that the woman tribal dancers were doing, but we definitely were very white and incapable of looking as cool as them. But it was still fun. We were all in awe of the whole experience and I’m sure we will never forget about it.