The month of youth against AIDS (MYAA) was coming up in March and we though an American style school dance would be an ideal event. We wanted to make it an HIV/AIDS awareness dance to go along with the MYAA part of it. So we made up posters for the dace to be on Friday the 11th, right at the end of the term after all the testing was done as a way for the students to cut loose a little. We can never tell how out events are received until the night of because no one talks about it. On the day of the dance we cleaned up the hall and set up 3 tables that would represent the ABC’s of HIV awareness. A: being Abstinence, B: for Be Faithful and C: means Condomise. Each table had pamphlets and posters that represented the different ABC’s. We also made 200 small red ribbons that had safety pins on them so they could be attached to each person who entered.
We were set up and ready by 7 with all things in order except for kids. The students do something a little different than I’m used to in terms of privacy when setting up the hall. They turned it into an exclusive club by covering each window with either a bench tipped on end or a random poster made in some other class. We had volcano posters and the layers of the human skin posters and much more covering all the windows so that if you were on the outside you couldn’t watch the dancing. It was a fund raising event for both the guidance and counselling committee and the HIV/AIDS club. We charged 1 pula which equates to .12 USD. So when all was set up and music was playing inside by our self proclaimed teacher DJ, a line formed out the door and wrapped around the building. At that price, almost every student could be part of this dance. I think the fact that it was an American “Free style” dance that made it so appealing for the students. Every Batswana kid knows how to dance to some degree so it was perfect.
Kids started pouring in through our assembly line. 1 pula at the door, a stamp on the wrist, and a AIDS ribbon on the shirt was the complete package. When the line ended we had made some 450 pula and the school isn’t much over 500 kids. It got hot in there but the kids were loving just being themselves and dancing. Many were just in their own little worlds, feeling the beating and letting it move their bodies. The teachers kept asking Katie and I what was next on the agenda, as if every event had to be so finely planned that they were surprised and a little worried when I told them there is no schedule...”This is how an American dance is, kid’s just dance and they love it.” This might have been too unstructured for the staff so we did have 3 groups of presenters on the ABC’s, who all did wonderful. During the Condomise piece, I opened a box of condoms on the condomise table but it was quickly taken up by the guidance teacher under the assumption that we were encouraging sex. There was also a planned debate. I was sceptical of a debate at a dance but the 2 teams of debaters had everyone sit down and they debated the topic of weather Anti-retro virus (ARV’s) medications should be free provided by the government. This is currently how Botswana is doing things. It was great and very informative to me and the student body.
I had to wrap it up and do some more dancing before the night came to an end. So I had the DJ form an old school dance circle from middle school dances we all know so well. Some students had practiced for this and gave their dance, followed by Katie and I who showed off our now rusty swing dancing skills, and then individuals jumped in and broke it down until time was up. It was a great success and I could see smiling faces on all the kids who participated. Dances are so much fun when few people hold back or are too cool to just let go and dance.
Katie, what is on your head in the top picture? Is that a headband? You better bring that back with you. Or better, buy me one. And I love that yellow skirt also. It's great that you two still remember your swing lessons. Getting Bryson to a ballroom dance class seems like a pipe dream four years later.
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