Today Judith and Grace dressed a few of my classmates up in traditional clothing and explained the importance of them. Ugandan culture has so much history and tradition and it surprises me how much is still in practice today. For example, there is a certain dress that a male has to wear when he is going to meet his future mother in law. Also, when he goes to meet her he has to bring her a traditional Ugandan dress since he is taking her daughter for marriage. There is a lot I learned about the dress that I will have to add at another point when I have more time to dig through my notes.
After class we had a VERY short time to get back to our room and get ready to go to the Afrique Cultural Center to watch the Afrique Dance Troupe. Read more about the grouphere. One of our teachers named Michael is the founder of the troupe. It started in 2004 and is a group that brings kids off the streets and orphans, as well as other talented kids and adults to become dancers and better citizens of the world. They teach them these skills of how to dance, teach, sew, etc. so that they can get jobs with their skills and sufficiently take care of themselves. They make their money by teaching dances to different schools that use them in dance competitions, also they have over 500 costumes that they loan out with a fee to different groups that want to rent costumes for a show or performance. Many of the members have gone on to graduate from Universities and become teachers themselves. They have also won many awards regionally as well as internationally. There are 45 members now 25 of which are orphans due to HIV/AIDS taking their parents. I was blown away by this organization and how much it has accomplished in the short time it has been around.
While we were there the troupe performed 4-5 different dances. While they were dancing a herd of children gathered to our right side. I don't know where they came from, but they were watching them dance and also staring at us. I got some incredible photos from this performance since we were the only audience there.
After the performance we came back to the Fang Fang, showered and headed back to the Sheraton for dinner. It is always good to wrap up the day with a good dinner with good friends. We came back earlier than other nights so I could blog and pass out early. I think I've fallen asleep 5 times while writing this post. I am so tired I'm pretty much typing with my eyes closed. Ugandan dance is no joke! Can't wait for tomorrow, we get our drums!
Tonight at Afrique- They had us get up and dance after the performance, obviously.
Brian and Me at Afrique- He's my teaching partner with the kids and you can usually find both of us with our camera in our hands.
Me and Michael- the mastermind behind Afrique. Absolutely incredible man right here.
The group of kids that stopped by to see the Afrique Dance Troupe perform.
(I think most of these are children in the company and live there due to loosing their parents from HIV/AIDS.)
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