THE SALVATION ARMY AFRICAN DANCE CONCERT

For two weeks, I volunteered at my home church of the Salvation Army. There I taught the church youth my African Dance Concert. It was my mission to inspire the youth. Also, my mission should be the shared responsibility of the churches, the educational system, and especially the parents. Unfortunately, I believe we all have failed the youth. In result, these kids are spiritually dying.

The kids I inspire are kids that are left behind. In reality, nobody has paid attention to these kids. I believe the main reason is because their parents are not financial blessed. So they are left with the belief that they cannot be anything in this world.

All around the world there are kids like the Salvation Army youth. The youth I had come across are an inspiration to me. The kid that received the Best All-Around award shouted out in church, “I want to be an artist.” Why was he selected for the Best All-Around award? It was because of among many other things. He volunteered to be responsible for getting everyone to dance class. Then, I had my businessman kid. He had to make sure everything was perfect. I had my questions girl. She made sure that I was the real deal. Her dream was to be a pediatrician. I have Ms. Graceful; she was born to be a star.

Today, I left these kids with one belief. I told them they are going to have to take their own responsibility to accomplish their dreams. I told them to look out for each other because nobody else would do it. My best all around kid will go with me to the top dance school in Beaufort, SC to audition for their dance program. The director said if he does well she will possible wavier the dance classes price.

Unfortunately, even though their bake sale will raise money for gas money, he will probably not get a chance for someone to drive him to dance class. But, he will get the chance to experience a real dance audition. In his eyes, that was all he wanted.

I am sad to leave these kids. However, this has even fueled me even more for my further studies of African dance in South Africa. I am making a promise to myself to learn everything so I could open my own place of inspiration for the kids.

In this world, I have learned to be patient and with my patience I could start my ultimate mission in life the right way. Fortunately, I have the support of my family and friends to do anything I want to do.

MY TO DO LIST:

Yesterday, I finally allowed myself to have a day off. Currently, I do not have a specific job. So, what have I been doing? Everyday, I wake up no later than 6:00am to start working out. Then, I consume my day with taking dance classes, the Internet, reading books, and volunteering with the Salvation Army. So you see, I need a day off.

My To Do List: July 25, 2008 (Friday)

1) Wake up at 10:00am
2) Start packing
3) Set clothes aside for donations to my cousins in Zimbabwe, Salvation Army, and other Thrift Stores.
4) Rod my hair up so it could be curly
5) Run Laps


So, did I do my to do list? NO! I really slept all day and at 4:00pm I went with my mom and aunt to go shopping for today’s party at my house. Yeah! The party is for my cousin’s welcome home, my brother’s going away to college, and of course my going away to South Africa.


In case your wondering, my parent’s house is like big mama’s house. Most of my cousins stayed with us during the holidays so my cousins are more like my siblings. So, I had a very interesting childhood with the blessing of growing up with like 10 cousins in the house.

Anyways…when we got back from shopping, one of my favorite cousins was back home from taking his three-day long BAR EXAM. Did you know that you take the bar exam in July and you find out the results in November? Poor Couz! So, I stayed up all night playing monopoly (I lost like always) and watching “Devil with a Blue Dress” starring Denzel Washington. I ended up sleeping at 5:00am and I got up at 10:00am this morning. Now, I am preparing for the party…

Dear God, CHOICES....

In this life, people have to make choices everyday. The choices that I had come across in life were my decisions: to drink alcohol or not drink alcohol; to smoke or not smoke; to have sex or not have sex; to stay in a bad relationship or not stay in a bad relationship; to eat this or not eat that; to have good friends or not have good friends; to have bad grades or not have bad grades; and to dance or not to dance.

For me, these decisions were not easy to decide. To help me decide my decisions, I wished if there was a guidebook to this life. However, you did provide your creations with a guidebook, The Bible. This book has carried me to great lengths in my life. Most importantly, it opened my eyes to the truth.

What is the definition of truth? To my understanding, the definition of truth is to strive to be the best possible image of you. As I am writing, I realize the responsibility of achieving this truth. Honestly, I have found this a difficult responsibility that I will try my best to achieve.

In my life, I believed to achieve this truth was to really not limit myself by expanding my human mind. I will expand my mind by putting myself out there in the world and really learn everything possible. Nevertheless, college did wake up my mind with inspiring me to learn more but it did not complete me with my connection to my roots. In other words, I will always be searching for ways to expand my mind.

At the moment, I do still wonder if moving to South Africa was the right decision for me. Literally, I slap myself because I realized that I am just letting non-believer's comments get into my head. Some people do believe I am crazy yet some people think I am adventurous. Personally, it does not matter what people think because I know my calling from you.

Last Sunday, my calling had become so clear to me, that I went to the altar to pray about it to you. My calling was to be a positive figure in the dance world. I saw your calling for me in a dream. To achieve my calling, I have to be the best possible student. I have to learn my craft to the fullest. I already had the opportunity of teaching. Surprisingly, the preparation of teaching could not be taught because you either have the gift of teaching or not. Fortunately, I believe I have it. However, I prayed on Sunday and I ended up in tears. I cried because my calling could be so hard.


Currently, I volunteer at the Salvation Army to teach kids my African Dance Concert. In these kid's eyes, I see a need of some one believing in them. This was when my calling had become hard because I had a responsibility to inspire these kids. Then, I have to leave them. Even if I do move them forward to dance for really good dance schools, I just do not want their environment to discourage them from them doing better in life.


For example about environmental influences, I know people who were born in Beaufort, SC and their vacation is Myrtle Beach, SC. Also, I know other natives from Beaufort, SC who expand their minds and go to Tennessee for a vacation. On their belief, they never go anywhere else because its a waste of their time to expand their minds visually. Please believe me that I am not judging, I just know that was not me to just stick around my birth place and accept that this was it for me. I just have to see things visually for myself and one day I will bring it back to my hometown. Also, I know that this belief of people and their other beliefs transfer to their kids. Resulting into kids not believing, "I can do anything in the world." On the other hand, I understood that you could possible not miss something if you have never tried it. However, you will always wonder, "what if?"

All summer, I have been doing a lot of thinking and preparation. I have worked out, I had my own apartment (bills suck), I had a job, and I realized who my real friends are. What is a real friend? The answer has to be family. My family included my dance family. Simply, the dancers and my teachers were the people I was with 95% of the week. Since I was 14 years old, these people have been supporting me.

Today, I said goodbye to my dance teacher Ms. Shannon and everyone at the studio in Richmond Hill, GA. We did not cry or anything because we knew we were going to see each other again. Instead, I did teach a modern dance class. It was my classic goodbye because I wanted to show Ms. Shannon everything I learned over the years. Thankful, it was because of this studio that I was able to do what I am doing now.

Teaching modern dance at this studio, could be complicated because all the dancers prefer ballet. However, I stressed to the dancers that you have to be that hip hop dancer, ballet dancer, jazz dancer, modern dancer, tap dancer, ballroom dancer, and so on. In my eyes, I believe if you fully commit to everything you are doing, the rest will come. Toward the end of class, I did see modern dancers and my greatest pleasure was to know that everyone did work. I know this because they all were sweating from head to toe. As I looked at all the dancers, I knew this studio was producing professional dancers because everyone in that studio had the ability to move on to dance professionally.

However, some of my real friends that I considered family were not very good friends. Well....I am just going to say that you live and you learn. Sometimes...you learn the hard way. For me, I always learned the hard way.What could I say? I am the person that learned the hard way and has instilled many thoughts over the years. Today, I had many thoughts and I just wanted to run it by you. Could I let you know? I am not perfect but I do believe. I promise to live this life to my fullest and not have any regrets because I am going to learn from them while trying my hardest to be closer to you. Being closer, it requires for me to make choices and making choices I shall do. This time I will do it YOUR way because you have proven to me many times that your way is just so much easier.

Amen

Dear God,

On Thursday night, I realized how close my arrival to South Africa was and how I am going to miss everything in America. Out of everything, I will miss my family. Just tonight, my brother and I had come back from watching Will Smith’s new movie called “Hancock”. On the car ride back home, I realized my brother and I are truly growing up. In August, he will be leaving the house to go to college and I will be leaving to go to South Africa. Why South Africa? Well…it was your plan for me and I took this blessing seriously. As you know, I am from Beaufort, SC but my roots come from Zimbabwe. All my life, I have danced and it took me places that I only dreamt about. I earned my Bachelor of Arts degrees in Dance and Communications at Coker College in Hartsville, SC. At Coker College, I learned how to not settle just for anything and never stop learning. These lessons brought me to my current step in life, my adventure to South Africa. So, I followed your plan because I wanted not to limit myself and one day ask that question “what if?” I wanted to dance, teach, market the dance world, and most importantly feel complete. The only way, I could feel completeness was to be fully connected to my roots. Now, I know my roots come from Zimbabwe but my late grandmother on my mother’s side had come from South Africa. When my mother was four years old, my grandmother passed away so I never got the pleasure of knowing her. Naturally, I felt not knowing my mother’s side of the family left a void in my heart. Fortunately, Sello Pesa, a choreographer, had given me an opportunity to fill this void. He has agreed to take me under his wing and go into training with him. Currently, he is the artistic director of Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Company. How did I meet him? Well…lets just say always keep in touch with important people that cross your paths. In my case, I had one important person, Professor Natty Mncube, he helped me get into the South African market. He was my past professor and mentor. When I told him my dream, he said it was possible but I was going to have to put in some work. So, we both made it happen. He sent out my resume to some of his trusted dancer friends and I put together a picture presentation of myself. It was a pretty long process but it worked. I know that this was not done on purpose because it was your plan for me. Now, you have me going to South Africa in less than two weeks and I would like to share with everyone this blessing, of the journey of finding myself. Dear God, here it is and I hope this will inspire someone that dreams really do come true……..