The Chameleon

Last Sunday the 4th was Chief's Day as
I mentioned in the prior blog article. It was
a pretty ok day despite the fact that it had
a constant but not too strong rain all afternoon.

In the picture you can see the kids from the
cultural group performing the animal song.
The young boy you see is the Chameleon
and he is doing his interpretation of one.
He is actually the brother of one of the older
girls in the group and he also just finished
kindergarten last month.

The crowd just went wild when they saw him
and he was definitely one of the favorites.

The group was the high point of the festival.
When the dignitaries talked there were a few
people. When the drum began the people came
running. There was at least 400 people watching.
The kids were 'troupahs' (as we say back in
Massachusetts) as they danced through the rain.

I have mentioned a lot about the group and their
activities but I don't think that I've mentioned the
real goal behind having this bunch of kids
together and occupied.

None of the kids families are rich or well off by any
means but there is one girl that epitomizes why
we are doing our best to develop the group.
She is actually the newest girl dancer to have
joined. She is also one of the youngest (about 8
or 9 years old) and I think (and maybe I am a bit
delusional with this) that, she may benefit the most
out of it.

Her family consists of her, a small brother of about
6 months, a mother of 27 and a grandfather that
I have never seen standing up. He appears pretty
feeble.

Her mother has HIV, is an alcoholic and really isn't
a bad person, she is just having a lot to deal with.
Last Saturday when we were organizing the kids
for one last practice before going to the Chief's
Day Festival we had to send a girl to go find the
young dancer. She was at one of the shebeens
(bar) watching her 6 month old brother while her
mother was drinking. And this was a 10 in the
morning.

So, the mother to her credit, let the girl go to
practice and we got her away from that environ-
ment for at least one day.

I am hoping that by her participating in the group
that it will give her a chance to see another side
of life. Also, the rest of the kids are good kids and
she has friends that are of good quality and to her,
good influences.

So, working with the group does have a serious
side and there are a lot of the benefits that come
from it, I'll never see the final results as in 6 months
my time is up.

But I know in my heart of hearts that there is a
good possibility that at least one young girl out
here in the bush, might have gotten a chance.