Dancing in the moon light ...

As mentioned in the prior blog entry,
Saturday was supposed to be a special
night of dancing by the Young San Cultural
Group.

Well ... it happened ... it was something.

Around 6 p.m. everybody was in place at the
tree/cultural house area, ready to go. The two
new drums were in front of the fire heating up
the goat skins to tighten them up for the night
of song and dance.

At 6:30 when everything was organized the first
beat of the big drum (bass) started it all. The
sound of the drum was the call to the village and
about 30 minutes later the people began to
arrive.

I was really interested in watching the elders and
how they seemed to either enjoy or not enjoy the
spectacle. To get to the point, they enjoyed it.

The kids danced even more energized that during
the usual practices and the crowd really went wild.
The spectators jumped in and danced with the kids
whenever they had the whim to.

We had two bonfires spread apart by about 5 to 6
meters and the dancers danced between them.
In the night of the full moon and with the bonfires
blazing, added up to ... well ... wow. It was surreal
with the drum beating and the people dancing.

The kids danced for a total of 8 and a half hours and
it ended with almost all the kids sleeping in front
of the fires at 4 o'clock in the morning.

At around 2 in the morning people passing to another
village stopped and it resulted in a dance off. It was
the kids on one side and older (20 to 35) on the
other side. It was about even as to who won and it
was people giving it their all, so as the saying
goes, everybody won.

In the end the maize meal porridge was served and
everyone ate till full and that's about the time the
kids started dropping off by the fire.

In my opinion it was even more successful than I thought
it would be. The idea was to re-enact how it was in
the 'old days' when being around the campfire at night
was a way of life.

I haven't met any of the elders to ask their opinion of
how it was but I am feeling that they enjoyed themselves.

A goal of this was to make an activity that would attract
people away from the bars. It is only a one night thing
but even one night with less time in a bar is going in
the right direction.

As for me, I never get tired of being there seeing these
type of events. Even after many years I am still thankful
that I have the opportunity to experience these
incredible moments.