On Friday I promised Agens I would show her the video of me Ugandan dancing on Sunday. Sunday rolled around, and as we prepared for dinner she politely demanded that I show the family the video. I brought my computer outside and placed it on the ledge of the house. Everyone gathered around my computer screen. Ensimere got up from the stairs, Bibian came over from the canteen (I forgot to mention that she sells chapatti to the school kids next door), and Chief climbed onto Eliza’s lap to get a better view. Imachulate grabbed a cushion from the old worn down couch in the front room to put the computer on, then joined the rest of the family. With the computer raised on the cushion I pressed play.
The next 8 or so minuets were some of the most embarrassing of my life. I got lucky that the low glow of the charcoal stove and computer screen didn’t expose how red my face turned (not that my family can notice anyway, I’m just always white to them). Agnes said, “you tried. You were trying,” through tears of laughter every so often. Everyone seemed to tear at least a bit. Eliza told me that she was impressed, but I could see her cheeks turning red from laughing so hard. Chief and Paitence giggled like mad and squealed in high pitches when I messed up. Ensimere took it upon himself to imitate my start-stop form of dancing.
As I observed everyone I started to laugh as well, and I mean really laugh. At first my laughter fell more in line with the uncomfortable sort of laughter that happens when you don’t know what else to do. Some of that remained, but everyone else laughing diluted that a bit, and laughter from joy mixed in. I did try. I may look like an idiot, but I got up there. The video added a few years to my families’ lives, and brought them joy at seeing a mzungu try to Ugandan dance. Sure it is embarrassing, but hell what is the point of having video of something embarrassing like that if you can’t share it?
