Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nah-Naaaah

Important info to know in order to get the humor of this next post:

Mr. and Mrs. Eby (the missionaries with whom I am staying) are both teachers at the Westminister Theological College and Seminary here in Kampala, Uganda. They are both in their sixties. Don and Fran McNeal (missionaries from MI) also teach at Westminister and are in their fifties. Keep this in mind.

There was a student party at WTC last night, and I got to go. There were about 70 people there. Mrs. Eby and Fran brought down food, and we three served it to all the students. It was a lot of fun, but kinda weird cause I could tell that all the unmarried African men were watching me. One guy even snapped a picture of me when I wasn't looking. I would have liked to mingle with the students (such is my TeenPact training) but the women were kinda of spread out and I
didn't want to join a group of men, so was very anti-social and sat near the Mzungus (Foreigners).

After dinner we all gathered together and had a time of singing and dancing, with the African drums. We sang some songs all together first,and then Mr. Eby asked all the students from the Congo to sing and dance, then the students from Jinja, etc. ect. with every different African country or tripal group represented. They sang and dance their tribal dances, and it was a blast to watch them! They really got into it! The guys even borrowed jackets or sweaters and tied them around their waists to dance.

After several groups had gone, they all started to chant for the Mzungus to dance. The Ebys, the McNeals, and the Whites all shook their heads. Mrs. Eby said "We would need a full orchestra!" But I, being young and inclined to make a fool of myself, volunteered to do a dance, and they all cheered when I stood up. I got Walker and Parx to come up with me, and then we danced the Chicken Dance! We three did it for a little while, and then I stopped and said to the American adults "Now you have seen it, you have to come dance it." So, some what reluctantly, all the Americans stood up and danced! Everybody was laughing very hard. I am sure we must have looked ridiculous, especially when I started speeding it up. That really surprised my dancing partners, and their facial expressions made me laugh. But we all had a good time, and proved very forcefully that white people can dance, they just don't dance well!

It was a really neat evening. A little taste of heaven, actually (though I doubt if we will be doing the Chicken Dance in glory). It was so refreshing to see the Africans enthusiasm and energy in praising God. I am a very white girl, and I often just repeat the words without thinking about the meaning of them, and tell myself "I just don't get emotional or demonstrative like that", trying to excuse my lack of true worship. So the worship time last night was a good example for me. The love and adoration for God is so evident in their faces as they sing! Now I will probably never jump up and down or dance around as I'm singing, but I can and will try to be more passionate about He I am sing to, rather than let it become an empty ritual.

It is hard to describe, but suffice it to say: I can't wait 'till heaven when every tongue, tribe, nation, people, and land are joined together in praising God. And I sure hope there are a lot of Africans there!