All I want to do is dance

All I want to do is dance
There is always too much to do in Fuiluga. I talked with some other Peace Corps Volunteers that were in my group, and they were having the exact opposite of a problem. There was always so much to do that it was very hard to get the actual work we were supposed to do done. I was pretty much having my days booked so badly that I had no desire to awake early to get my run in as sleep seemed much more important.
The one day where it felt like I had a break I went to the city to get a little bit of internet work done, and the trek to the city can be very taxing on yourself.
My first weekend I did what any good Samoan did-go to church. Since my family went to church on Saturdays, on Sundays I was free to pick whatever church I wanted to attend. Since I attended a little party at the Methodist church a few days prior, I decided it was a good opportunity to thank them by attending.
Although I only went to the first service, they were eager to get me to come back and were playing twenty questions with me to find out if I would attend the afternoon service. (However I decided that at that point 5 and a half hours of church were more than enough for one weekend!)
My brother Soki invited me to the beach after church to tafao with his friends. It was a beautiful experience. There were children who brought their horses into the ocean to bathe them. It looked like a post card as they eased the horses in and then continued to ride them in the water.
Then there were a few of us under one of the coconut trees relaxing on the sand. We all acted like I did when I was five, and going to the beach was the most amazing trips you could take it the world. We played in the sand for a long time; digging holes, covering people in the sand and just building things seemed like it was second nature to us.
Some of the boys stopped playing and began to practice a SaSa dance. The Sasa is a dance that is traditional for Samoan where a group of people sit on the floor cross legged and mimic motions. We did a sasa when we were leaving Manunu, but it was nothing compared to what these boys were doing. I began trying to do what they were doing. They then invited me to their dance practice that evening.
That evening Tony and another boy from town picked me up to take me to practice. We walked down the road in town through the dark for a few minutes. The road through Foiluga is not paved with tar and is extremely rocky with huge holes scattered about. (Being the klutz I am I was always nervous because I knew I was going to biff it and land in a pile of rocks.) We then turned into a grassy area which was someone’s home and we began to hear Christmas music blasting from someone’s stereo.
At first I walked around the open fale watching in amazement, but quickly I was invited in. I watched at first and then they gave me a place to be in line. We first did a sasa and then they told me to stand up as I was doing the next dance as well. We did a traditional Samoan dance, the hula, an African dance as well as many, many others. I did all of the dances with the exception of the boys dances. They didn’t take the time to teach me the dances so I just mimicked them. That night we spent two hours practicing and I was exhausted and dripping with sweat from all the dances.
The next day I was available I was brought over to practice singing as I was now a full blown member of the Methodist Church Youth Group. My tama, Tupai was the leader of the group, even though he was not a member of that church.
Tupai lives to sing and perform. It seems like it is his life. In our fale he has many ula that he has collected over the years that people have given him at his performances all over the world. It is a beautiful decoration in the room. He has given his time to help a few churches work on a performance for the holiday season.
So I had to learn a few more dances and pretend to sing. Since the words were rarely shown to me I only picked up a few of the words. For the next few days I had at least two of those practices a day averaging at least four hours. (Along with the other dance group…which brought me up to six hours of singing and dancing..pretty impressive for someone who is horrible at both of them!)
I got myself into trouble because when I was walking around town one of the neighbors asked me if I was going to dance practice. I went with him, not knowing that I was going to a different dance group. Apparently the youth group is divided into three groups that have a sort of dance off on Christmas. Anyway I went and did the dances with them.
Through the coconut wireless the other group heard that I was dancing with them, and I guess they were not happy that another group tried to steal me away. Although I loved my new group as they let me do every single dance, even if it was meant to be only for boys, I had to only pick one group and had to go with the group that found me first.
Tonight (the Friday before Christmas) the youth group is performing in front of a lot of other churches. They gave me a few spotlights which makes me nervous, especially when I do not know the songs!
All I can hope for is the best, and at least I will be as well dressed as them as I was given my own uniform to wear.