This day started a little lazy.
I went to bed early yesterday, slept more than 9 hours and when i woke up i just stayed in bed a little…
But then finally i was putting my legs outside and started my day. The first thing i did, was the whole first series, and it felt wonderful! Also i did some other things inbetween, like Hanumanasana! It almost worked. I think it won’t be long before i am down on the floor. Jumping thru goes well now. I learned that last week, well, to do it with all straight legs. One day all of the sudden i can do something i never could do before. It’s funny, i know that has to do with the mind. I am not taller, more flexible or anything like that than last week… Before i was never really trying hard. I was just happy jumping through cross legged. Now i decided i wanted to do it with straight legs, but i couldn’t. It only took me 1,5 day before i could. It’s that easy. The mind is much stronger than the body. Much much stronger…
Amazing i find it to teach the little ladies at the mosque on Sunday afternoon. These are mostly teenage girls and a few boys. They are orphans and most of them are HIV+. The driver is picking me up around 14.45h and brings me to the location. This mosque is in a Muslim area. It’s beautiful over there. Around the mosque is lots of space, where many groups of orphans in different age groups are getting together. Some do sports, some dance and some.. ..practice yoga! At the mosque are classrooms and in one of these rooms we practice. Today the floor in the room was pretty clean, that was nice. The tables were already stacked on top of each other. I only had to manage these a little and lay down the mats. There were not so many kids as usual today.
At the beginning of class we did some warming up and ‘grounding’ exercises, which they found pretty funny it seems… and after that we started with the first Surya Namaskar (sun salutation). They would reply after me… Injeza amuuka, suhoro amooka (inhale – exhale) sweet! Then i asked who could teach one round of sun salutations! Al hands went up! I picked a girl, she did a really good job. Then another one who did a great job as well! I seemed like it made them very proud on themselves. Then we started with the standing postures. What i like about these teens, is that in some poses they are helping each other. Normally i would not allow that in class, since everyone should be focused on their own mats. But the kids this age, i think it’s important for them to do it together as a group, to help each other. Especially these orphans! I think it’s very sweet. They do it with good intentions and i see they do it very mindfully. Also some ask for help, for example in Parsvottanasana, hand in prayer position on the back, one girl asked her neighbor girl to put her hands together. And she did. I think it’s amazing… They laugh and having a good time.
After class there was some time to play with my iPhone. They love the music on it and started to dance and sing along. It seems to be a release to jump and sing around a little. Then it was time for them to go outside and eat the banana and probably something like a bun and a glass of milk to drink. The driver was there again and he drove me back home.
Still i am home alone. Not all alone, Damescene is there, the i-do-everything-in-and-around-the-house guard. Every day we practice English together now, he’s learning some words. Which is good, then at least we can talk a little bit…
I go post this, then take a little shower. Really a little one, since the water is down and the only water that is left is in the big reservoir. Which is a very big tank, but still, we need to be very mindful with water on these days. That’s also Rwanda, i guess. Hopefully it’s back on and normal tomorrow again. My feet are always very red and dusty. It’s dry season and everything really is starting to dry out. I will not say this often, but i hope for a little bit of rain soon…
Ciaoo! Anneke
The house of love 