African Hip Shakin’….A.K.A pop locking

Lianne showin off her moves..see how they wrap cloth around your hips?? It's so you can shake em' good


Wowzas….On Tuesday night we were invited to a dance practice that the students hold. It is an opportunity for the Juniors to learn the traditional Losi songs and dances that they will perform at the graduation ceremony for the Senior students. As usually, we both took part in the dancing by showing off our amazing dance moves….However, we can not seem to perfect the gyrating hip movements those Africans can so well. We have never seen so many hips twist, bend, and pop, it looks like the hips are dislocating and then popping back into place. At first we were looking around the room, thinking to ourselves, “where will the music come from, I don’t see an electrical outlet.” Then we remembered we were in Africa, and all the music is created by the people. So the music was provided by two drummers, a man with a stick hitting a beer bottle, and the “choreographer” who had a whistle in her mouth. On top of all of this, the entire group (close to 100 students) all sang, clapped their hands, and created sweet sweet music.

The feel of the place went from a dark, dingy, dining hall to a vibrant African dance floor. Can you imagine what these people are capable. They can take something that seems worthless and turn it into solid gold! It is something that the developed world needs to learn to do.

We think it is important to note that this is what the students do every week, twice a week. They are a very close knit community, all living on campus. They spend most of their extra curricular time together either in dance, prayer, or sports. They must remain on campus, even on weekends, with very little time each semester to go to their homes. In fact, many of them are married with families and children and only get to see them a few times a year. They literally eat and breathe nursing. School is in session 5 days a week from 0800-1600 with an hour break from lunch. After these hours they spend the remainder of their free time writing out lecture notes and studying. Keep in mind that there are almost no textbooks, and they share the 1 copy of our lecture notes between all 50 of them (which they write out by hand).

Jess teaching about SCABIES....

We are really appreciative of all of our students, as it seems they have taken us under their wing. They invite to church, dance practice, and really seem to want to teach us about their culture. At lunch hour they show us how they cook their food and teach us the names of the local fruit and vegetables we don’t recognise. When we are in our office, they come and visit and want to see pictures of our home and families. They also enjoy hearing about nursing in Canada, and show a real eagerness to create change in their own country.

Our Senior nursing students

All in all, we are both learning from each other a great deal. And by the time we come back home we will be able to shake our hips and cook you a big pot of Nshima (the staple food here in Zambia)!

Jessica “These hips don’t lie” Barker and Lianne “you ain’t got nothing on me Britney” Jones