Wardance

In my hear, I am more than a child of war. I am talented. I am a musician. I am Acholi. I am the future of our tribe. --Dominic

Our last class was Thursday, February 2nd.
It was movie night, and after handing in our journals we watched "Wardance."

This documentary follows three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.

This documentary was an incredibly moving hour and a half. We were able to see the way children live in their culture in Africa. Of course, the movie took place in Uganda and we will be in Kenya, but society is very similar.
We will see families that interact like the ones in this documentary when we travel to Chogoria, but we won't see families in the same situations.

In the documentary, people are afraid of being killed and abducted. They are protected by men with guns and must live close together because there is danger in the areas around them. Chris assured us that where we will be in Chogoria is much safer and people there have not gone through as much loss because of war and unrest.

"Wardance" showed the three children triumphing over their circumstances. It showed them working hard to do well nationally with their music. It made us laugh, cry and think about our own lives and what you we working towards. What are our goals? What are we willing to work to achieve and overcome?

Listening to the discussion during and after the movie, I think the biggest thing the class took away from the movie was the immense strength the children had. They came from fragmented families, poverty and extremely sad and challenging backgrounds and yet they were able to find happiness and success. Do we have that kind of strength? Could we find that emotion and perseverance inside of ourselves? We will never know, but understanding how those circumstances change a person and change the culture is important for us to know before we travel there.

Next class, we will have speakers who lived in Africa for several year.

The Journey continues and we continue to learn things about Africa and things about ourselves.

Check out the video! I highly recommend this video to any one looking for a good watch.