Indatwa

Yesterday was the International Women's day, which usually means there are a number of interesting events (plus some boring stuff) at the library. Ah yes, I was at the library again; the hub of cultural activities in this town. I watched an all-female band called Kraa perform, but I didn't dare take any photos because I was sitting dead-centre in the front row. It would have been disruptive just getting my phone out of my pants. (In case you're new here; all these photos were taken with my mobile phone.) However, I do have some photos of the african dance troupe Indatwa. They were kind enough to perform dances indigenous to Rwanda and Burundi.

This was apparently a girls' dance, although I'm pretty sure there's a guy with long hair in there too. He seemed to have a prominent role in the arrangements, so I can only assume that he's a choreographer/teacher.

At the end, two of the girls had a dance-off! Cute and awesome!

This children's dance had the most action and dialogue of all the dances that the troupe performed. It certainly seemed like a fun dance. Kind of reminded me of Mora Träsk's Tigerjakt, a children's song about hunting tigers. I'm not sure that's what this song is about (maybe I just didn't listen to the announcer), but I'm picturing a tribe teaching their young ones to hunt by using song and dance, the ultimate teaching tool! I use it all the time to teach programming. Jokes aside, I'm pretty sure passing on wisdom is what culture and religion is all about. Feel free to flame me all the same.

Olympic singers

I'm usually not interested in sports at all. Football is boring, be it European soccer or American football. Indoor bandy is too frantic. Outdoor bandy is too cold. Handball is stupid.

However, the Olympic Games this year were kind of interesting, even to me, although the skiing was boring as usual. The curling, however. That was riveting. I like watching people excel at a certain skill, using weird tactics that I don't understand and strategizing about stuff that I don't have a clue about. Team sports usually seem to boil down to either chance, stamina or violence, none of which excite me in the least.

I watched the Swedish women's team win their gold because I thought it was actually fun to watch. That's a first for me, even though I have sat down to watch ice hockey before and found it only mildly boring. (Actually, ice hockey can be fun too, but also tends to have too much violence and chance for my tastes.)

So now, when the team came to visit their hometown (where I happen to live) to play in the Swedish curling tournament, I was at the town square to greet them and sing along in Hammerfall's Hearts on fire. Fun for the whole family!

Now, why in the world are they singing a heavy metal song? What does that have to do with curling? The short answer is: Everything!

With a video like that, how would they not win?