March 20th
Just had the most fun time at Zumba Island Style…
Tonight after walking back from the beach where we had
watched the sun set and seen amazing cloud formations and colours I’ve never
seen in the sky (including one cloud that looked like a rainbow) we passed our
neighbours sitting out on their doorstep enjoying the cooler temperatures (as
it dropped to near 30), as we passed and chatted briefly one of them asked if
we knew about Zumba at the school most nights, she let us know it was at 7pm
and invited us to come. For me in the
first month and a half here in Tokelau, I have often felt isolated, lonely and
at times left out, but this felt like such a lovely way to be with my
neighbours and friends, our village, a way to be a part of something, the
beginning of belonging. So feeling excited and eager (especially Nga, it was
past her bed time:) and she has always wanted to come to Hot Hula in Porirua) we walked from our
Fale at dusk, just as the moon was beginning to glow, down to the park (netball/volleyball court) at the school.
There we sat on the still warm concrete and waited chatting quietly until 7pm
when the dull thud of the drum sounded and curfew was over. Then the park came
to life, a laptop was set up with speakers and a projector onto a sheet, Zumba video
clips had been saved off YouTube onto a flash drive and were loaded up for us
to follow along to., Music filled the air and drew us in together,
Everyone got into it from the grandparents to the pre-schoolers
in nappies and all in between, with lots of laughing and dancing. The sun
had set but Mahina (the moon) is almost full so gave us enough light. Meli and
I giggled a lot especially as I was particularly un-co! By contrast Ngaremu and
Ru were awesome and especially Nga was in her element. The second song was
“Bang Bang” which is banned in the Crawshaw household. After having spent most
of a year explaining to Nga that we didn’t listen to this song in our family,
she finally got to groove to it like she has been dying too. Of all the places
I thought she would get to hear it, Tokelau wasn’t top of the list - I imagine
the English is probably a bit subtle to pick up in translation…..ah well she
loved it!!
Then Taylor swift, Bruno Mars and other popular music (All
the Zumba videos as opposed to the actual music videos…phew). It was so much
fun to dance; I’ve been missing music heaps. I love songs in the supermarket
and can’t help but sing along and I crank up the sounds at home when everyone
is at school and I’m doing housework. I love music, it is a place of real
fullness of joy for me, so it was a real breath of life to be singing along and
dancing. The relief I felt was palpable, tears gathered, brimming, as I was
filled with gratitude at Gods provision, the gentle welcome of others and the
rich privilege of being able to live here….
The wind picked up and the sounds of the waves crashing
increased, suddenly in a burst of refreshing delight the warm tropical rain
came. Quickly people scampered about grabbing the computers and technical gear
and Zumba was over for the night, but as everyone dispersed, kie’s over our
heads, tofa ni ringing out across the few dusty streets as we ran home, the
belonging felt even deeper…
Looking forward to tomorrow night :)
NB: This has been posted so late as I was wanting to take some photo's to go with this post but as things roll here, sadly we have not had a Zumba night again.......anyways just how it is, hopefully it will happen again sometime. :) Chrissie
This post made me smile and happy cry. Nothing like that place of acceptance as a newbie to a place that is far removed from your patch. Bless you Gus!
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