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Random viewing of the day: watching a set of dogs waiting to cross the street and thinking to myself that they’re smarter and more patient than some of the people who cross the streets.
This past weekend I was privileged and humbled to be a part of a salsa/dance festival. I was invited as a capoeirista to give a class for 50 minutes on a Saturday morning. First of all, I’m not a real teacher, so this was a huge deal for me, second of all, capoeira isn’t exactly a dance so I was nervous on how well it would fit in with the other activities. Third, the other instructors were some of the best in their field from all over the world. I was out of my league. The rest of the workshops were other forms of dance, but mostly salsa. It was so much fun. We spent the entire weekend dancing and socializing and dancing and dancing. I met some amazing people who were fantastic dancers. For all of those who doubt that India is on the world map for dancing, at least salsa, they shouldn’t. It was a fun filled weekend to say the least. My workshop was really great. It was at 8:30 in the morning and there was a salsa social the night before. I myself didn’t get to sleep until around 2 or 3. When I walked into the room there were 2 people there. I got a little worried but by the time the class started there were about 20 people. By the time the class ended there must have been almost 40. It was incredible. There’s not much you can do with one session of capoeira in 50 minutes, but I tried and I was well received. Everyone was nice, tried really hard, and were supportive of each other. I didn’t cover everything but, it was good. For those who couldn’t make it to the class, for the rest of the weekend I heard how good they heard the class was and how much they wish they could have been there. It was an amazing feeling.
For the fun of it, the foreigners were made to do a Bollywood number. I couldn’t do anything but laugh at myself the whole time. The other folks were professional dancers. I couldn’t follow the routine, couldn’t get the moves, but had an amazing time. At my own expense, I’m sharing the video with you all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEdWOEiXLBE

Last night it was Ishwar’s birthday. Lucky for us it was also a park day and a non-rained out park day. It couldn’t have been better. Everyone contributed. We got him a cake, Manoj picked up a notebook with colored pencils. He gave each of us a “chocolate” which is really a little candy. And we played some capoeira and cut his cake. It was a real surprise for him. We think he had a great time. His friends made sure he had cake all over his face. He didn’t open his present, he wanted to wait until he got home and he even made sure that everyone got cake before he carefully closed the box to take home to his mom. We walked home and we sat outside of the community clicking pictures and seeing the many family members who walked into the area. We caught almost everyone’s mom. It was really nice.