Party in the USA

I was looking at some of our old africa pictures and was reminded of an experience that I wanted to blog about but never did. So this happened in Lagos like....umm before christmas but its too funny not to write down for my memory sake! It also definitely goes down on my list of most embarrassing moments.....

Our ward in lagos was split and we became part of a new little branch. There's probably only 30 of us that would show up most sundays, and more than half of them were american x-pats since our new boundaries covered all the oil company compounds (except one). Anyways it seems like our little branch would sometimes be forgotten when it came to stake things. So one sunday our relief society president told us she just found out that we had an upcoming Stake RS activity on that coming wednesday. It was going to be a big cultural day where every ward was assigned a different country and they were to dress up, prepare a traditional dance or skit and a bring a plate of food that represented that country. She told us we were to represent.....english....??? Everyone seemed really excited about it while me and an xpat lady looked at each other trying to figure out what they meant by english? After asking what english people wore and being told it was what me and an american were wearing (just regular sunday clothes) we figured by english they really meant american. They also said the reason they picked "english" was so they could make pizza because thats what "english" people eat. We just kind of smiled and said...sure! Unfortunately the only other xpat couldn't go so it was going to be me and 4 of the local sisters in the ward. One of the local ladies was a nanny for an american family and said she could get some music to go with the rest of our "american" presentation. I still didn't really understand what exactly we were suppose to prepare but i just went along with what they were saying and agreed to bring a plate of food that represented "english" and hoped everything else would be taken care of by the other ladies.

A couple days later i still seriously had no idea what food to make that represented america and went along with pizza....haha! I ended up just making a few batches of snickerdoodle cookies mostly because they were easy and i could make a lot of them for everyone to try. So i got all dressed up in my "american" clothes...or just my regular sunday clothes...and just as i was walking out the door the RS pres. called me and said we had no music so i should bring some. I seriously had ZERO idea what they wanted or exactly what we were going to do with the music so i just grabbed my laptop and a blank cd and hoped to figure it out on the way there. Jeff had a meeting by the stake center so he came along for the ride...THANK GOODNESS because our driver had no idea how to get there and getting lost on Lagos main land can be really scary! So we pick everyone up (only 2 people showed up) and were on our way. As soon as the RS pres saw me she told me "thats not english clothes...english people wear blouses and slacks." Somehow i guess I....the closest thing to an american...missed the memo on how americans dress?? Although my sunday clothes i had worn that previous sunday where somehow english???? Anyways too late to change now so I started going through my music on my laptop and quickly realized it wasnt my music. My sister had synced her dang ipod to my itunes so i had all of her high school, teeny bopper music....great! Between trying find a song that was appropriate for a church activity and that represent america our options were VERY limited. Please dont judge me when i say that we finally decided on........Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. We got to the stake center and I wish soo badly i knew what the next couple hours had in store for me because i would have never gotten out of the vehicle....

I think we were like 20 mins late and we still were some of the first people there. We did meet 2 other members of our branch there though which meant there was me, the RS pres, her daughter and 2 other ladies.....oh and i was also the ONLY white person in the building. So we sat there waiting for the activity to start for 2 hours (once again..gotta love africa time) and finally enough people were there to start. After the introductions and such they went right into the program. They started calling up one ward at a time to show off their country. I soon realized that we were sooooo not even close to being prepared. The other wards had been preparing for this activity for MONTHS and all had amazing presentations. Most everyone was an african country/tribe so they were dressed in that tribes traditional clothing and had the most amazing dances/ songs prepared with all kinds of local instruments. Not to mention the plates and plates of different kinds of local food from that country. And here we were.....with our pizza and snickerdoodles, nothing but a lousy song burnt on a cd and me not really understand what country we were even representing. As ward by ward continued to present their amazing 20 minute prepared presentations i keep asking our RS pres what the heck we were going to do. She keep telling me not to worry she would take care of it. I really should have known better. Our branch was finally called up and our RS pres got up and went to stand in front of like 200 people and started telling them about our country. She said we represent english and everyone started clapping. She started to tell them about the food we had prepared then all the sudden stopped and said, "well i might as well let our english girl tell you about it" then called me up to tell everyone about our "english" food. I seriously had NO idea what to say....I stupidly started to say like "umm...we made pizza...english people love pizza...and as a dessert we have a cookie called a snickerdoodle." haha! Then the RS pres took the mic from me and said that our appetizer was chocolate cake which was also a very common english dish most people would eat before a meal. By that point i seriously had no clue what was going on...i just stood there and nodded my head wishing i could sit down soo badly. She proceed to tell everyone we had a small fashion show prepared to show off our english wear. She puts the mic down and tells me to start modeling then calls up the other 3 branch members to go walk out in front of everyone and model......so we randomly start walking down the gym to the head table which the stake RS presidency and stake pres were sitting at, everyone cheering and clapping. The locals were dead serious and had their catwalk down to an art. Please keep in mind too that these ladies are like in there 40's or 50's minus the RS pres.'s daughter who was a YW. Anyways i awkwardly strutted my stuff behind them my face so far past red it isnt even funny. So we get to the end of the gym and the RS pres grabs the mic again and tells everyone we have a dance prepared and starts the cd player to "Party in the USA". Everyone starts going crazy clapping to the song and she then pushes me out in front of everyone and says show everyone how you dance!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! Africans are seriously the BEST dancers in the world and are not ashamed what so ever of it. They just have the rhythm in their blood. I, on the other hand, am the most hideous uncoordinated dancer in the world so you can imagine my embarrassment as im am left absolutely zero choice but to leave it all on the dance floor in front of 200 africans while everyone chanting and cheering for me to keep dancing. Thank the high heavens the other ladies in the branch didn't leave me out there by myself for too long before they came and started busting some serious moves.....yes 50 year old african ladies have SERIOUS moves still. By that point it was way too far past the point of embarrassing that I couldn't stop myself from busting a gutt laughing as they danced around me and everyone else in the gym laughed and clapped. There truly are not words to describe how ridiculous those moments became. Finally after dancing for the WHOLE entire song we sat down my face still a million shades pasted red but soo relieved our turn was finally done with!! The torture wasn't over though... randomly throughout the rest of the activity i would hear recordings on peoples phones of "party in the usa" followed by im sure video of me awkwardly dancing while everyone laughed. I was actually seriously grateful i was the only white person there.....im pretty sure any other american would have been completely embarrassed by the fact that now our whole stake thinks the song "Party in the USA" represents americans. Needless to say the africans loved the song and i was asked 100 times if they could have a copy. Also the whole branch found out about it by the following sunday i dont know how many people came up to me had to comment about my dance. I really could not escape the embarrassment of that day......Anyways it will definitely be a day i will never forgot but also very happy that it is in the past!! Here are some picture of the activity....and no i have no record of our little number....jeff did try finding someone who had recorded it on their phone because he desperately wanted to see what everyone else was talking about. I just thank the high heavens he had no luck!! I dont not want to be reminded of the fool i made myself that day.

Some of the costumes....i wish i would have written down which tribe was what.....im pretty sure the one with the red beads was benin....i love all the different colors though! Some costumes were soo pretty!!







The head table / stake pres / stake RS presidency........



Our little group sporting our "english" wear.........



I wasn't kidding when i say these older women have serious moves........