Jambiani Music & Dancing

After almost nine full days of intese labor, we decided to treat the students to a night of local music. We surprised them after dinner when we announced that a local band would be coming to our camp to play. This is Faith and Abigail's account:

 

After having our last dinner at the bungalows in Jambiani, we had a surprise performance by a Zanzibari band that included 7 people. The African Impact volunteers and some of the kids from the town all gathered around the men to hear them play. All the people in the band had different instruments and talents and all contributed to make the the performance memorable. One man used sticks to bang out rhythms on a wooden table, others played different drums and shakers, and the leader played on a fiddle (which he held very oddly).

 

It took a minute to break the ice but soon one of the performers got up and tied a blue cloth around his waist and did this unfamiliar belly dance with it, in which he moved his waist while the rest of his body was still. People began to join in, including a lot of Ross kids (but not the ones who were too afraid: they went and hid!) and eventually we decided to take all the fun out to the beach by the bonfire.

 

Local kids demonstrated some cool dance moves while they played and sang and we all became closer as we laughed and clapped. Soon our friends, Simon, the Massai dude, and Marco Polo, the local Zanzibari guy with a hand in everything that went one, also started to dance and jump. After we danced, there was a sense of warmth and well spent merriment. It was an experience we will never forget.