There is a reason Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" is ranked number 325 in the Songs of the Century List by the Recording Industry Association of America, in addition to being soundtrack to 2008 movies like Tyler Perry\s The Family That Preys, when it was released ages ago in 2000.

It's because it shares the combination of musical beauty with timeless application to the universal human condition, in the tradition of all classic songs.

These last weeks it has been the soundtrack of my life in more ways than one;
 
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
Do I still have mine? Can I still be surprised at the waitress who sprints into the chef's dressing room everytime she sees me near the counter to buy food? Do I laugh that off as cute maalo, or be angry that her run-from-the-bushman is racist to a degree?

May you never take one single breath for granted
When we see grandfather-grade people sleeping inside ATM rooms so they can beg off the latest entrants, its reason to be grateful for the plywood beds and threadbare beddings we now have...and feel even more blessed that we are leaving this place on 26th to return to civilisation in Beiijng.

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
Am I the one leaving the people I relate with empty-handed,or vice-versa?Unavoidable philosophical thoughts when a girl you got love-scars from on Monday morning finds talking to you too much of an effort at lunchtime on the same Monday.

I hope you still feel small When you stand by the ocean
If this means humility in the knowledge that there are things greater than ourselves, our Namata Ruth should have thought of this before she ordered the infamous fish (Imagine an ant trying to eat a full-grown Victoria perch in one hour).

I ate the same fish the next day, and considering that even for me finishing it bones, soup and flesh was a struggle, you can see why in honour of her eating talent we now go by the name of Namatta Troupe.

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
The club's doors are closing sooner than we thought, but hopefully we are either going back to performing before bar-chairs in Beijing, or going to sunny Yunnan province to dance in a park.

Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
Faith is believing an employer will pay you when u have no contract with him. Faith is believing we are not in the process of becoming aliens fit for deportation when we don't know our visa status and who is paying for our tickets back home when its all over.

It is also believing that sometime this century their mouths will come out from under our girl's noses and that we shall perform a dance we asked them to choreograph inspite of the us-against-them state they seem determined to create.

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, dance
Toughie! If you had a choice between "interacting" with a bored, semi-drunk patron who cared nothing for African drum and dance-interaction being the action of trying to get them to dance with you when they are not busy checking your skin for paint or shoving you out of the view of their women, and sitting it out in the dressing room waiting for another 15-minute's drudgery on stge, which would YOU do?

Never settle for the path of least resistance
Have we settled considering that now we play almost all our drums to background of ekidongo, or are we just adapting to the situation of being in an environment where anything softer than eardrum-splitting noise is a whisper?

Part 2 Another time when the cafe time is not in black...(hopefully with photos) blog comments powered by Disqus

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