Uganda: Monday Jan 6

Today was another incredible day here in Kampala. It was my first day of actual "class". We walked across the street to Nakasero Primary School where we met our teachers and started to learn our first Ugandan dance! The dance is from the Mushroom tribe and has so much history behind it. Grace did a very good job at explaining the origin of the moves and reasoning behind the dance. It was originally created for a King that was put in power when he was only 2 years old, because his father the King was killed in war. Well, they actually never say that here, he "disappeared" in the war. In other words, "Long live the king!" Also, the dance is very entertaining and would be danced to entertain the little boy so it was distracting so he wouldn't cry like most 2 year olds tend to do. It is taboo for the King to be seen crying no matter what age.

Anyway, we spent the first 3-4 hours learning the dance moves and some of the songs that we will be singing while we dance. The songs are the hardest part. I seem to be picking up the dance moves easily enough, but the language is very challenging. The teachers are very good about spreading themselves among us though so we always have someone near by to help.

After our dance and singing lessons we had lunch and joined back together to be split into our teaching groups. I am going to be teaching with Brian and Tacha. Brian is brilliant and full of facts. He is so intelligent it is impressive! I wish I knew everything he does, he always is teaching me something. We brainstormed different ideas for our lesson and decided on the theme of Rainbow. We decided to focus more on ROYGBIV as the inspiration for the dance we are going to create together.

So this is how this program works. This week all of us (NYU & Ugandan teachers) are learning two traditional Ugandan dances as well as 1 modern Western dance. We are spending the mornings learning the dances and songs and the afternoon planning lessons. Next week we will spend the mornings teaching children and then the afternoons to continue to rehearse our dances. This week we are at the Nakasero Primary school because they are not in session, and the school is just across the street. It is one of the nicer schools in Kampala if not the nicest. They go back to school next week though so that is when we will switch to start going to the Queens Royal Ballet School (yes, as in the actual Queen of Uganda's ballet school).

Each morning there will be two classes going on simultaneously. One floor will be the younger class (6-10 year olds), and the other floor will be the older class (9/10-12 year olds). At the end of each 2 hour lesson we will have created a dance with the children based on a theme we choose to plan our lesson about. Each day we will have new lessons and create a new dance with the children. We will continue to rehears the dances we learned the previous day as well as the one we learned on the current day so that come Friday we will have 8 different children dances (4 for each age group) as well as the 3 we teachers are learning on our own time. We will have a performance at the National Theater on Friday January 17th to show all these dances. From what I've heard about past concerts people from all over the country come to watch.

Anyway, after lesson planning we went back to the hotel then quickly turned around to head back to the grocery store. We needed more snacks and water. When we returned we showered, blogged, and took our time with getting ready for dinner. Mariana, Gaspare, Krissy and I walked up to the Sheraton and had a delicious western style dinner, or actually mine was Italian. I just ordered a giant pizza while everyone else had split pasta, pizza, and a wrap. The sheraton actually has food on the menu that American's would recognize and want to order. It was delicious, but don't get me wrong the Ugandan food we have everyday for lunch is delicious too!