Dancing is the best thing ever

Well, well, well. Guess who got asked to teach a beginner swingdancing class last night with about two minutes’ notice?

MATT AND I, THAT’S WHO!

Iraj, the ‘mad keen lindyhopper’ we’d been told about prior to coming to Dili, has been teaching swing classes on his own since December, and we’ve been meaning to go for a while. I think he asked us last night because he was tired! It was so fun. There was a decent ratio of guys to girls at the beginning of the class, although by the end we’d picked up a few extra girls. Also quite a few people we knew were there, including C and M, lovely girls (C is from New York and M is French) who I work with regularly as they are also in gender equality – C in the UN and M in the Ministry of Education.

We had a lovely compliment on the class – Muriel said we teach well together, which is nice considering we haven’t taught together much.

I had such a great time. Favourite songs (I have Shoo Fly Pie in my head), watching (new) friends dance, chatting hard at the side of the room with another (new) friend and, of course, dancing with smooth-stepping Matt – it all combined to give me a familiar kind of happiness. Lindy hop… it’s a way to find yourself at home anywhere.