This Saturday we spent the day out at the Heritage Month Festival in Homevale (a section of the township). Due to obvious lack of organization and planning prior to the event I was sure the event was going to fail on so many levels. This was not our event, but we had attended some of the meetings to help out. It was mainly organized by LoveLife and Evelyn (the lady who came up with the idea for the event), but Grassroot Soccer, UNICEF, Lifeline, New Start, and Youth Aids were are present at the event adding some expertise where needed. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually turned out all right. Maybe it was just because I went into it with such low expectations. Of course there were several organizational malfunctions; nothing went exactly according to schedule, though I do not think that anything here runs according to any type of schedule. If you want your event to actually start at 9 a.m. you have to set the start time for 7:30 a.m. if you catch my drift. I also think that the entire event was saved by the performing arts sector of it. There was a sports component that involved soccer, basketball, netball, boxing, and maybe a few other sports and then there was a performing arts component that consisted of dance, singing, drama, and poetry. As Grassroot Soccer representatives we were technically there to support the soccer and the sports component of the event, but we all spent most of our time watching the dance and singing. I actually was asked to sit on the judge’s panel, so I was there for the entire thing.
The dancing is so great here. Before the performing arts competition even began, we watched this group of young boys, probably 8 years old, have their own mini dance competition in the boxing ring. They were so good; each one would go up and show off their skills and crazy moves and I was just blown away. Some of them seriously rivaled the abilities of the professional dancers I have seen in movies and on TV. Pretty much anywhere there is music, there is dancing and everyone can dance. I keep thinking that it would be insane to have a South African So You Think You Can Dance and you know what, it is crazy to me, but they watch the American version on TV over here. I wonder what they even think. I mean I am sure it is fine because these are some of America’s best dancers, but here they would just be someone else on the street that had some moves.
A lot of the dancing in the competition was pretty good too, especially towards the end. There were some unbelievable performances. There was a group of young boys again, different group this time, but similar age and they were awesome too. At the very end of the competition there were two groups that went back to back and did very similar dances in which they used dance as a way to communicate. I mean I have always heard that dance is a form of expression and I have seen it used before, but never exactly in this context. Interestingly enough both dance crews decided to tell the same story. After watching the first dance I was left sort of confused and concerned because I didn’t really understand if they were just telling a story to tell a story or to leave us with some sort of message. The performance started out with two guys showing up to school (remember this was all dancing) in their school uniforms; each one took sometime to show off their moves before finding their seats in the classroom. Next came a guy dressed in a girl’s uniform wearing a wig (adding the comedy to the performance) and she came in showed off her moves and found a seat as well. Following that the teacher came in, pretended to write on the board, handed out some booklets, and pretty much taught the class. After a few minutes of dance teaching, the teacher then collected the booklets. The one girl and the boy just got checks and nods of approval and were sent back to their seats. The second boy’s work apparently was not good enough so he was beat with a stick in front of his classmates. After that scene, the teacher left the room for a minute and the kids pulled out empty beer bottles and pretended to party and fake have sex. After that the teacher came back in and the student he has previously beaten pulled out a knife (fake of course for the performance) and acted out stabbing the teacher. There was then a medic that came to save the teacher. In the first performance the teacher died and was carried off by the students, while in the second the teacher was revived.
After the first performance I was fully perplexed; I thought it was extremely interesting that this was the story the kids decided to tell. I was even more interested when the second group, which was entirely unrelated to the first, came out with almost exactly the same story and performance. It made me wonder while the second dance was going on, exactly what goes on in the schools here; is this that common of behavior that both groups decided to act it out and tell this story? While at this point I don’t really have an answer to that, I did decide that it really doesn’t differ all that much in the United States at least in some parts. I think the part of the situation that is different is that it is not as common for students to attack their teachers or for students to be beaten by their teachers, but the partying aspects fully exist in the States. I will tell you now that the second group held up a sign at the end of their performance that said something to the effect of “Stop the Violence in Schools, Education is the Key to our Future.” So while I didn’t fully understand it at the end of the first performance, I definitely got the message by the end of the second dance. I really though it was an unbelievably creative way for them to take a stand on an issue and share it with their community.
After a full day of the performing arts, I accompanied Mzala (one of the coaches) and Albert to watch another one of the coaches, Casper, play in a soccer game. It was definitely a nice way to pass the afternoon and beat us sitting around our apartment staring at walls of maps of all the places in the world I want to visit. I think Albert really enjoyed it because he beginning to get into soccer, playing with some of the coaches and trying out for some of the provincial teams. I on the other hand am exploring my intellectual side (as if I really have one) and am spending my time reading and writing. It is sort of a nice change of pace from the summer, though I have to keep reminding myself that it is okay to take some down time and not be constantly running around and working out.
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