Dancing again finally!

Last Sunday I attended a confirmation for the daughter of my host mom’s niece…something like that anyway. There were paper decorations on the ceiling and pine needles adorning the concrete floor. After lunch there was a significant time of everyone just sitting in chairs, looking very stoic as the music played loudly. I commented to my host dad, “Nadie quiere bailar” (No one wants to dance), but he said that everyone was awaiting the 14-year-old (hostess of party) to dance with her father…eventually they did get up to dance with the awkward embrace of a teen daughter not wanting to dance too closely with her papa. Awhile later, my host mom whispered to me that my host dad wanted to dance with me (my host parents had already taken their turn) but that he was anxious about his dancing ability. I said “no importa” and accepted his offer to dance.

I think it was Cumbia that we were doing, a variation of salsa…occasionally I had difficulty following his lead and would pause, laughing. It was all in good fun. I also danced with my host mom’s niece and led her in merengue…I spun her about and introduced a few new moves, which brought on laughter but she was a great sport in following my lead. So after 6 wks+ without social dancing,  my feet finally got to tap out some life!

Bike race going through my home town

Next dancing opportunity is likely in a short 3 wks+ when I swear in as a volunteer on Oct. 29th ! A day and evening of grand celebration… I’ve put in a fair amount of work during training to get to this finish line, which actually is the starting gate for the next 2 yrs of my life!