Dancing with the Hamer people

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Vasara dictating….When our family traveled south, one evening we were invited to go to a dance party with the Hamer people. The Hamers don’t wear too many clothes. The men wear short skirts and the girls wear animal skin skirts. They are very pretty. We drove with our jeep for 15 minutes into the desert. We arrived at a group of small huts. These huts are round and made out of grass and mud. There was no electricity so it was very dark. We kept our headlights turned on so that we could see. When we got out of the car, small boys and girls who were almost naked took our hands. They were very friendly and cute. They led us to the center. There was a circle of young teenage boys, and adults were mixed in. All the girls were in one half of the circle. The boys were on the other half of the circle. There were no instruments, but the kids started singing happily. They sang and clapped in the darkness. The teenage boys got into the center of the circle. They jumped as high as they could, barely bending their knees. They jumped really high and everyone started to laugh.

The 12 years old girls invited me to dance in their circle. We each had a partner and linked arms. We made little jumping steps and moved into the circle center. We then jumped into the circle. The circle got smaller and closer to the boys. They jumped into the circle too. The boys would come really close to the girls. The girls would break away from the circle giggling.

Sometimes the girls would break off and lead me to the side to my mom, who was taking pictures. They wanted to see their pictures to see how they look. When we returned to the circle, we got a different partner.

I thought the dance was really interesting and fun.

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