Girl's Play

I live behind a school and everyday there is some sort or noise or sound coming from the school yard. Whether it is a staff member chopping wood, a random traveling band, kids playing, girls sweeping as a school chore or excited boys burning hay... also and surprisingly as a school chore. The screams and screeches that come from my backyard never cease to amaze me. Today is no different.  As I peered out the side bedroom window, I found a group of about 20 school girls organizing themselves into a circle. A couple of the girls were pulling the others... quite violently, but that is not the subject here. In a matter of minutes the school girls gathered in their pale blue uniformed dresses and black dress shoes, sweaters folded and wrapped tightly about their waist.. and danced. Boy were they getting down. Swiftly moving their waists from side to side, jumping back and forth as they trailed each other in a circle singing...something in another language. I want to say it was a traditional dance, but that would be assuming. Who knows?!

It reminded me of how I used to play with my cousins and the neighborhood girls... chants like Gigolo... "Gi-gah- lo, Gig, gi-gah-lo! My hands up high, my feet down low, and this the way I gigolo!" ...Not sure why Gigolo was a girl's chant.. but hey. Then, there was Fight the Power.  (A revolutionary chant of sorts). "Fight, Fight the power, yeah, Fight! You got to do it baby, do it baby"...Once again, not sure why that was in a girl's chant, but I digress). And then there was the ever famous Jump in, Jump Out, turn yourself about...(I wish you could here the cynicism in my voice as I sang that).

 Anyway. All that to say... this is what girls do. But to see it Kenya style was nothing short of exciting. I only wish I could have joined in. Why not...