African Cultural Day Show
My experience with the African Cultural Day Show (AND) and African Chorus are the experiences that helped me to express and reflect on my culture the most.
About the African Cultural Day show, at first, I realized that it's hard to express my opinions and culture being the only Angolan representative currently in the Show. In addition, it is inevitable to not be underrepresented when the majority belongs to a certain nationality that the general public knows the best and can relate to. Being challenged by this fact had driven me to choreograph an Angolan dance called Kuduro. It is interesting that I did not know how to dance Kuduro before I started studying at my current school so I was impressed by how much I could put together after watching a couple of youtube videos and doing two online classes on this dance. I felt that it was my duty to represent my culture as accurately as I could, but at the same time, I also had the responsibility to learn and represent other African Cultures, for example, I participated on a skit in which an African Men from Guinea had multiple wives. As my first reaction was that polygamy was unfair for women, I also found myself wondering whether or not I would still be thinking that way if I was not out of my country. This is something that I had happening in my own family since my grandfather was a polygamous, and it was not really a problem for me before I exposed myself to different ideas. This show, helped me not only reflecting on my identity and beliefs, but it also challenged me to reflect on how much my ideas can be influenced in a bad or good way once I am willing to see the world through different lenses. Furthermore, the same happened while I sang in the African Chorus in which we sang African songs and used instruments like the drums and to add up to it we also used the cello, violins and the trumpet, which made me reflect on whether or not this is the actual African culture being represented or if it was African culture represented in a way that was more appropriate to the public.
Wilderness Trips
The wilderness trips in my first year were the most challenging activities that I have ever done. These had taught me that I am stronger than I thought I was and they also taught me perseverance. They also taught me life long skills like cooking, making a tend, hiking and camping that can be used in other situations. However, as they taught good qualities about myself, they also taught me that it honestly is not something that pleasant to me and I respect this lesson I learned with this trip and that I shouldn't push myself to the limits especially when I know that it's not my thing.
