Mzungu Dances in Rwanda

Just as I realized that my flowing 'traditional' white gauze dress was fully sticking to my legs, glued, in fact, I was called up to dance.

Celebrating the end of a 10 year partenership with Food for the Hungry, children of Cubi village, Rwanda were in the mood to party, and they wanted me to join in. What could be funnier than inviting their foreign visitor to participate in a well practiced dance routine. No one was watching, only the entire village, FH staff from around the country, and, unfortunately, a professional photographer, Jonty Wilde, flown in from the UK (he assured me, he only takes pictures of feet).

Somehow, I managed to peel off the layers of fabric clinging to my salty skin, enough to walk, and attempted to make an appearance. I would like to think that I appeared rather swan-like, resembling a dancer on the nutcracker. Graceful. Flowing. In control of her body. However, unaccustomed to the beating drums and chant-like song structure, I found my body doing rather strange things. Things that impressed even myself. This was no Mzungu appeasing the crowd with small side steps and a sympathetic grin. This village was celebrating 10 years of hard work and the support of Canadians on the other side of the globe. I was a representative of that support, and so... I gave them a Canadian Mzungu... I gave them a Canadian Mzungu dance.

I am sorry if I falsely represented some of you with my boisterous displays of enthousiasm, but I think we can all agree that to celebrate in Africa, we Canadians must lose some of our Canadian-ness. No need for golf etiquette or indoor skytrain voices. This was a Stanley Cup Final for the village of Cubi. This was a moment where I was tempted to shout: I Am Canadian (but then realized no one else would find that funny, and they were already laughing enough).

I thought that the dance would quickly be forgotten, yet I discovered that Jonty had lied to me. He actually photographs two things: feet and Canadian Mzugunu Dancers. The following day I visited families of the Cubi hills. I was greeted by many, who, similar to Jonty, betrayed me with their photographic memories of my dance. It made for many great conversations about what my friends in Canada are like.

They cannot wait for you to come visit.