Most mornings I get up with some of my teammates and do a workout routine called “Insanity”. (After I’m done, I always think it’s appropriately named). We routinely do it behind the tin roofed dwelling we stay in here in Africa. After hearing the workout leader, “Sean T”, yell “LET’S GO!” one too many times, a group of African teenagers came out of the brush wearing identical dark blue sweaters and khaki pants. They stared at us like we were Martians.
I wondered why they were staring:
Maybe it was because we were mostly Muzungus (the African word for white people).
Perhaps it was the Macbook Air that we used to play the DVD.
Maybe it was because of the foreign concept that we needed to “work out”.
Maybe the scantily clad women on the DVD were a factor.
Or one guy doing calisthenics with three women in the early morning might have been a cultural violation.
Whatever the reason, they began to playfully jeer at us while speaking Swahili. After a few awkward moments, one of the gals switched off “Insanity” and put on some music. This excited them as they all did old break dance steps. After a few smooth moves, they all began to say “Michael Jackson? ….Michael Jackson?”
After fidgeting with the computer, “Thriller” began to blare through the tiny speakers and the boys went nuts. They formed a dance circle as two boys went out and began to do the robot. Then, two others pushed them out of the way and began to do the exact dance from the Thriller music video, complete with zombie chorography and moonwalking.
It must have looked strange: a bunch of African teenagers and four Muzungus dancing to Thriller in the middle of an African village. But, seeing the smiles on the boys’ faces, I wonder for that brief moment, we were experiencing heaven, with God in our joy.
Currently I am $1.8k short of being fully funded. My deadline is at the end of the month. Any help would be much appreciated.
