Dance Party!

One day this past week when I came home from my work at Centram (teaching English to adults), I decided to go sit for a while on a mat outside at our neighbours (we own both compounds and rent out the neighbouring compound to a number of families.) I arrived home around 6pm and it is dark by 6:30pm.

Suddenly music was started on someone’s cell phone radio and I was summoned to begin dancing. We began with me feebly trying to dance as Chadians do (shoulders bouncing, arms moving out front, feet stepping forward and back) but soon Ornella (my 10 year old host sister) and Vivianna (a 14 year old girl who lives next door) were asking me to show them some dance moves that I know. Now I’ll admit, that I like to dance, but I am not the best dancer in the world. However, there I was showing them the sprinkler, the shopping cart, the funky chicken. By this point the children (ages 1-6) had surrounded us, and were also following my every move. We continued dancing with moves like the can-can, hands on your knees, underwater, but still they wanted more. So eventually I started twirling and doing leaps like ballerinas! Fun was had by all.

Other stories about some of the children who live with me/the neighbours:

Name: Gloire

He is about 4 years old and plays a lot with Junior. A few times now I have seen him carrying a stick around chanting Alleluia, Alleluia.

Name: Ma Joie

I have played peak-a-boo with this 3 year old some and it has been fun.

Name: Aline

Aline is 4 and she was the first of the children to warm up to me. I walked 45 minutes to the market with her and she held my hand. We did this ‘game’ where we would put our heads together, growl and then laugh. She was always laughing. (This is in the past tense because she left about a week ago to go back to N’Djamena with her mother. She was only visiting our home, but I was sad to see her go.)

Name: Junior

Junior is Maman’s youngest child and he is a little trouble maker. At 5 years old, he loves playing games with the others and loves testing boundaries. He is starting to speak French and he tries to communicate with me some in French/Ngambai mix (Remember that none of the other children speak French because they start learning French at school). Junior knows that I’m not a fan of dead mice, because he picked one up and was chasing Ma Joie around with it. I hid in my room. Sometimes he will now pretends his fingers are a mouse on my neck!

Name: Ornella

She is the next youngest daughter of Maman (10 years old) She has really helped me and has answered my questions. I brought out cards the other day and taught her war, and go fish.

Here is a picture of the dancers!