Dancing with the locals!

These first couple of days in Mongu have already been full of excitement and new experiences for us!

One in particular we would like to share is the experience we had when going on a walk with fellow students Mark and Janeva. It was the weekend and we were still settling in and planned to go on a walk off of our compound to see the surrounding areas of Mongu. We decided to walk opposite the direction of town to see what lead ahead. As we were walking we definitely noticed that we stood out, as people driving by would honk their car horns and children playing along the road would wave with excitement. We kept walking and waving to everyone who passed by when we heard loud cheering and gathering from a distance. As we got closer we saw about 40 women and children gathered outside a small concrete house singing and dancing. As we got closer they began calling out to us, inviting us to dance with them. As a group we decided to join in and were quickly greeted with hand shakes, big smiles, and "how are you's?". Before we knew it we were guided to the center of the gathering to begin dancing. We tried our best to keep up with them as they guided our hands and hips encouraging us to dance like them. The women were all singing together as there was no music playing to dance to -it was an amazing thing to hear. Dancing was very fun and we can already tell that dancing is a big part of the culture here. It was incredible to feel the warmth and welcomeness of the community. We are looking forward to our upcoming weeks and getting to know the people of Mongu better!

Lots of love,
Priya and Jeevan