As the proverb says...

There is an African proverb that says, "If you can speak, you can sing, and if you can walk, you can dance." I don't care how much I can speak, I will never sing. But let's talk about the dancing thing. I am not known for my dancing skills, or to put it bluntly, I am known for my lack of dancing skills. However, when in Burundi, do as the Burundians do.

My new friend Brad, the nurse at the Kigutu clinic, took me to a restaurant/club. We had large brochettes of goat and beef, Tasty, but tough. Very tough, in fact.

But before I even sat down to eat, the music and the dance had an irresistible pull on me. There were between 100-150 dancers on the floor at any given time, and it goes without saying that all of them, and I mean every single one of them, were amazing to watch on that dance floor. You want to talk rhythm, you want to talk moves, you want to talk grace, rhythm, and moves at the same time, they had it all.

And, yet, I was there with them every step of the way, although not every step of the way. I danced with men, (and, in Burundi, men do dance with men), I danced with women, I danced with both women and men. Perhaps my favorite dance was a kind of twist with a 6'4', 270 pound man, whom I think got just as much a kick out of dancing with me as I did with him. And I do not exaggerate when I say I danced with a series of beautiful Burundian women. If you don't believe me, see photos below. I know it amused them that a small, white man with no rhythm was able to keep up with rhythmic large and small African women and men. The evening of three hours of dancing ended with me in the middle of a conga, snaking its way along the dance floor.

The music was a mixture of African and American, and, trust me, if you had been there, you would have danced too. You could not have stopped yourself. There was such wonderful energy, such happiness, such plain "joie de vivre" on that dance floor that you too would have had to have been part of it.

What you're about to see in the pictures below may shock you, but only if you know me. If you don't know me, or maybe even if you do know me, you'll simply be amused. Have fun viewing them. Signing off for now. Peter