After dinner we were hustled down to the end of the village. Where everyone had gathered for a celebration.
Some officials from the Ministry of Tourism were there to see what went on and to wonder why western tourists wanted to visit remote villages. Pok was buzzing, he had had a long chat with officials and had done himself proud.
Pete also sat with them (it's a male thing, official things should be left to the men-folk!!) to give them our point of view as to why this was all so special for us.
We sat around the display that the women had spent all day working on. A long piece of white string was wrapped around the display and then looped around for us to hold in a large circle. A village elder gave us a long blessing and then Pok explained the meaning of the blessing. Other village elders then took pieces of the string and wrapped them round our wrists whilst blessing us and wishing us health and good luck. It really was something special.
I'm not sure if the number of pieces of white string was significant. I got three whilst Miss Turnbull and Rachel received 7, maybe they thought that they needed more luck!
Then the music and dancing started. An "orchestra" played for a while and then some girls danced, the highlight being some girls learning backwards into a crab to pick up money from the floor with their teeth.
Then it was our turn. With the benefit of Steph's i-pod and speakers the girls attempted the Macarena (sp!) which was kindly received by the locals, so then we resorted to the ultimate classic, the Hokey-Kokey. The girls grabbed the local children and our rousing rendition went down an absolute storm. The children quickly picked up the dance and the adults thought the "ohh hokey kokey" section highly comical. A fabulous night.
Some officials from the Ministry of Tourism were there to see what went on and to wonder why western tourists wanted to visit remote villages. Pok was buzzing, he had had a long chat with officials and had done himself proud.
Pete also sat with them (it's a male thing, official things should be left to the men-folk!!) to give them our point of view as to why this was all so special for us.
We sat around the display that the women had spent all day working on. A long piece of white string was wrapped around the display and then looped around for us to hold in a large circle. A village elder gave us a long blessing and then Pok explained the meaning of the blessing. Other village elders then took pieces of the string and wrapped them round our wrists whilst blessing us and wishing us health and good luck. It really was something special.
I'm not sure if the number of pieces of white string was significant. I got three whilst Miss Turnbull and Rachel received 7, maybe they thought that they needed more luck!
Then the music and dancing started. An "orchestra" played for a while and then some girls danced, the highlight being some girls learning backwards into a crab to pick up money from the floor with their teeth.
Then it was our turn. With the benefit of Steph's i-pod and speakers the girls attempted the Macarena (sp!) which was kindly received by the locals, so then we resorted to the ultimate classic, the Hokey-Kokey. The girls grabbed the local children and our rousing rendition went down an absolute storm. The children quickly picked up the dance and the adults thought the "ohh hokey kokey" section highly comical. A fabulous night.
The Hokey Kokey moment was a classic, however sad news via google :
ReplyDeleteLarry La Prise, the man who wrote the 'Hokey Kokey' died peacefully at age 93.
The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin.
They put his left leg in, and then the trouble started