Reasons to DANCE

“It’s everybody’s responsibility to give the world a reason to dance.” 
– Kid President 

There are many children within the town who do not have the opportunity to an education due to lack of room. Today was a special day! It was the opening of a brand new school in Livingstone!!! HUGE CELEBRATION! As guests (parents, partnerships, workers, volunteers, etc.) were being seated, music was playing and there were children at the front. I wanted to go dancing with them, so I went up…I was literally treated like a human jungle gym. I had around 8 children crawling all over me, hahaha. The African ladies kept saying to me, "MOZUNGO (white person) CAN DANCE!" YESSSSSSS!!!

The ceremony started off with a prayer and speeches were being given. Each speech was talking about the blessing of the school and the key to success was education. They mentioned how over years, they have had troubles with lack of capacity for children in the classrooms, elephants passing (what??? I’M JEALOUS! haha), hardly any food to feed the children, and water pumping problems.. The teachers were filled with immense gratitude and out of nowhere, tribal yelling could be heard and drums being banged loudly. Making their way to the front of the crowd, there was a group of traditional tribal singers and dancers. THEY WERE MY FAVORITE!!! They would take people from the crowd (or people from the crowd would come up themselves…..Africans? Not shy at all! MY KIND OF PEOPLE!) and they would start dancing together…and oh no, not just “dance”, I mean they get DOWNNNNNNN. Their dancing involves getting really close to one another, moving every muscle in their body – body rolling e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g….I can’t even explain, hahahaha. As they were ending their dance and rushing through the crowd to make their exit, one man picked me up and carried me away!!! I was a little scared because I wasn’t sure how far away he was taking me, hahaaha. He eventually put me down and asked me, “Do you love me baby?” and I was like, “Oh, uh…I love ALL you guys! You were all so awesome!” and he asked, “Can I have your number?” and I replied, “Oh.. I don’t have a cell phone, I’m sorry,” and he said, “Oh why not? How are we to continue communicating with one another?” – hahahaha!

One of the new students, a little girl named Grace, gave an amazing memorized poem to the public. It was all about how she is a future leader and how she could make a difference due to education. She had so much passion at such a tender age of nine. You could FEEL how much education meant to her. You could tell the whole crowd was moved by her message… let’s think about ourselves (as I write this, I am mainly directing this message to myself – but go ahead and think about this too): What does education mean to you? How are you meant to be a leader? How much effort and hard work do you put into your education – even if you are done with school? How accessible is it to you? Do we take the access we have to education and the education we have obtained for granted? How will you make a difference? 

You know who made this whole school possible? A 12-year old boy from Holland, Xavier. He is another volunteer here and he learned about the situation in Zambia and he decided to put together a fundraising event at his school and community to help raise the funds necessary for a school to be built. Xavier was there today and I was very inspired by this humble kid. I was thinking out loud and said, “Man, I want a son like that someday,” and another one of the volunteers standing next to me said, “You will because you are here right now. That’s where it all starts and they will definitely pick it up because of who you are.” I wondered if there was any truth to what she said. When I think of my life… I know people might think I’m weird, but I don’t imagine a huge house with a large yard in the suburbs with a nice car, luxuries, just staying "put" in my "own little bubble"... I really don’t. In fact, the idea makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable, HAH! I can’t exactly paint out what I imagine my life all to be except I just want to go about doing good – I want myself and my family to be involved with this world. I want to make a difference in this world.. starting with myself (as Michael Jackson states, "I'm starting with the man in the mirror" - amen, brother!) and then within my own family, and spreading goodness to all we interact with. I want to help restore HOPE within people! It may sound cheesy, but it's really what I want!

Just as Kid President tells us is our responsibility, I just really want to give the world a reason to DANCE!!!!!! Just as the teachers, children, and community did today in celebration for education! Another step in making this world a better place!