Fastelavn

Man skulle tænke, at vi keder os i en bygd med kun 190 andre mennesker, men der er masser af ting at lave. Der findes klubber, der mødes til håndværk, madlavning og fodbold. Derudover er der 'klub' tirsdag, torsdag og lørdag aften, hvor man kan spille kort, spil, playstation, bordtennis og billard i mini-hallen. Og folk er rigtig søde og vi må være med til det hele. Vi underviste ikke de voksne fra Nuiki-projektet sidste uge, fordi de havde et kursus i personlig udvikling, så vi observerede bare. I lørdags var der one-man comedy show fra Valerius Nielsen, en af lærerne fra kurset. Han er åbenbart ret kendt og selvom vi ikke forstod en dyt af hvad han sagde, var hans kropssprog fænomenal og vi lo med de andre. Hvis ikke hele bygden viste hvem jeg var før, ved de det nu, for Valerius hentede mig op på scenen, hvor jeg skulle synge med ham.

I søndags var der fastelavn. Kl.12 mødte såvel børn som voksne klædt ud på fodboldbanen til konkurrencer, fodbold og til at slå katten af tønden (eller i vores tilfælde en pyntet papkasse). Utroligt, at de laver så noget udenfor i to timer ved -12 grader! Om aftenen var der fest i mini-hallen. Igen var der masser af lege og danse til voksne og børn. Jeg elsker hvordan de voksne heroppe har bevaret en uskyldig, barnlig kådhed, som gør, at de ikke er generet til at danse og se tosset ud. Vi kunne ikke forstå hvad de sagde jo, men vi gjorde bare lige som de andre og var med til alt. En leg gik ud på, at alle bare gik i en stor rundkreds i laaaang tid, ca. tre sange igennem. Vi syntes det blev lidt kedeligt, men ville være åben for den kulturelle oplevelse. Bagefter fandt vi så ud af, at meningen var, at dommerne kunne vælge den bedste udklædning! Pinligt, at vi var med, selvom vi havde normalt tøj på... :D Ved en anden leg gav de en kost til mig - mærkeligt - tænkte jeg og dansede videre i kredsen. Da musikken stoppede forstod jeg så, at den med kosten rykker ud. :-P

Carneval

One would think we get bored quickly in a place with only 190 other people, but there are lots of things to do here. There are clubs with handcraft, cooking and playing soccer. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays people meet for 'Club' in the gym, where you can play cards, games, playstation, table tennis and pool. Everyone is very sweet and we are allowed to participate in everything. We didn't teach the grown-up from Nuiki-project last week, because they had a seminar about personal development, which we just observered. One of the teachers from the seminar, Valerius Nielsen, performed a stand-up comedy show Saturday night. He is quite known in Greenland, which we didn't know when we met him on the ship from Maniitsoq. We didn't understand a word of what he was saying, but his body language was so phenomenal that we had a great time and didn't stop laughing. If there was anyone who didn't know who I was in Atammik by Saturday, they know me now, because Valerius came to get me on the stage to sing with him.

Sunday there was carneval. At 12pm grown-ups and children met in costumes on the soccer field to participate in competitions, soccer and 'slå katten af tønden' (a Danish carneval tradition - look it up on google :-P). Unbelievable that they do something like that outside - two hours standing outside in -12 degrees Celsius (10°F). In the evening there was a party in the gym. Again with many games and dances for the young ones, as well as the older ones. I love how adults here have kept an innocent playfulness, which makes them not care about looking stupid! We didn't understand what they were saying of course, but we just did what everyone else did and joined all games. One game involved walking around in a big circle for a looooong time, about three songs... We thought that got kinda boring, but we wanted to be open for the cultural experience. Afterwards we found out that the purpose was for the judges to find the best costume! Embarrassing that we participated without any costume at all... :-P During another dance/game they gave a broom to me - weird - I thought and continued dancing around in the circle. When the music stopped, I understood that the last person with the broom is out of the game... :-P