Thursday, May 8, 2014

Zumba in Zambia

Let's just say there is a lot of giggling. And some really hysterical dance moves. And maybe, on occasion, an unseemly wiggle. And only women. That part is important, what with the unseemly wiggles.

It is one way we take care of ourselves. Women come in veils, covered from head to toe, and underneath the black robes they are decked out in workout clothes. Other women arrive on their way to work, Zambian ladies in three piece suits, changing into tennis shoes. Some come from home, having dropped off children at the international school, like the Italian woman whose son goes to school with my boys. Some of them are 10 years younger than me. Some of them are 30 years older. They are Muslim and Christian and Jewish and Hindu and secular. They are all shapes and sizes, all colors, all ages. And together, we rock some pretty awesome moves.

We dance to Latin music; the Spanish words flowing into Zambian rhythms, as we mix Dominican merengue with Timbuka drum struts. Every once in a while, an American hip hop song appears, and we throw in a few body rolls. No matter what we are doing, though, we are laughing. Because we know we look ridiculous. And we simply don't care.

I love to look around during these sessions, not to see the ways that we all butcher the dancing, but to observe the remarkable diversity in that circle. From so many different parts of the world: all over Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, America... From so many different religions, from such different socio-economic backgrounds, such different languages. We all have different reasons for being here in Zambia. And yet, when we dance together, when we workout together, we laugh together, we encourage one another, and we moan in unison every time our instructor requires us to plank.

When the class is over, the women headed to the office put their heels back on. Our Muslim friends don their robes. I grab a skirt and get ready for a meeting. We do live in separate worlds with different world-views and real issues that can create distance and division. But at the same time, at least for awhile, we can see each other. We breathe together and laugh together and dance together and remember that we are one - all of us children of God...children of God who sometimes engage in unseemly wiggles.

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