4

Okay, last post! This past Monday was March 8th, International Women's Day! It was a day off of school, and I got to participate in a couple of activities that I surprisingly enjoyed a lot. Surprisingly, because one of them involved me, in front of my entire village, attempting to play football. There was a women vs. men match, and I was recruited. I would have felt super lame if I'd refused, as much as I wanted to sit it out. So I played, and was terrible, obviously, but it was Not a true competitive match, and my skills were possibly on par with those of the other women. We had a couple of men dressed in pagnes (skirts) on our team, and after a while the game devolved into a sort of rugby match with the women throwing the ball into the goal. It was a really fun time and I learned just how awesome the women in my village are (answer: extremely awesome.)
Second event: a women's dinner, with dancing afterwards. And again, me, dancing, in front of many, many people. Not something I would generally attempt. But I think I may be getting over my self-consciousness, or just accepting embarrassment as inevitable, because I did, in fact, dance. And I enjoyed it. As did the other women. P.S. Turns out dance circles are universal- who knew?

Overall, great 8 Mars, and I've certainly felt more integrated into my village because of it- I've gotten many, many, many comments on my football skills and amazing dance moves.