The
Dance Marathon on November 23rd was a huge success! Thank you so much to those
of who donated money and those who are trying to organize your own Dance
Marathon in the states. Overall, the
Youth Development Committee was able to raise just under $5,000 to support
volunteer projects in Burkina. This money
is going to go a long way in supporting volunteer projects in their
communities. This was the first dance
marathon in Burkina and after seeing how successful this was there will be more
to come.
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| Motivational Speaker |
The
dance marathon was exhausting, informative, and so much fun. With
the help of volunteers and host country nationals from Sapouy, the location of
the event, the children had a great time dancing and gaining information. Seventy-nine students from five different
schools came to the event. Each school was
assigned a color and the kids came decked out in their colors.
The event started at 2:00pm with
team chants and songs in order to get the students excited for the rest of the
day. My role during the dance marathon was team leader for the green team. Throughout the night I organized the kids
from one activity to another and keep the spirits up when as the kids got
tired. At the event we had two
motivational speakers, three sensibilizations on critical thinking, nutrition,
and HIV/AIDS, and time to dance. Dancing
was a great way for both the volunteers and children to exchange their
culture. The volunteers led dances such
as the limbo and choreographed routines.
One of the choreographed routines was a dance competition between the
teams. The dance was taught and then
each team had about five minutes to learn the dance. Somehow my team won. This was/is still a surprise to me because I
also learned the dance at the same time, and for those of you who have seen my
skills, you understand. During the past
seven months I have learned a lot about myself and I think hearing that I can
dance from a bunch of kids (who dance really well) was the most surprising. At 8:30pm the marathon came to an end and the students went home exhausted and with new skills and information that will hopefully be helpful in their futures.
