Homecoming dance is near, everyone in the school hallway and cafeteria is talking about homecoming and homecoming dance party. What is homecoming? What is it going to look like?
Lots of students are wearing different costumes in school. I asked my classmates what is going on? I didn’t know anything about homecoming because we don’t have such a thing in our schools. But I showed my participation on the last day of homecoming week by wearing Red and White clothes.
I really enjoyed that week, when each day people were wearing different costumes. I wish we would have the same at my school.
It is a homecoming dance night, my family gives me a ride to the school, it is 7:30 pm and the weather is chilly, Mr. Murray is in the hall in front of the gym and nobody is inside the gym. The gym is dark and scarily decorated with Halloween decorations and colored lights.
“Hey Samad you have come early, “ Mr. Murray says. I am too early, should I go back home and come back later, or should I just wait?
I say hi to him, and I go inside the gym. I am a little scared because of the darkness and loneliness.
I remembered the Teacher’s day party in my school in Kabul where that we had decorated our classroom with banners and poems for teachers on big posters on the wall and a big welcome note for our teachers. The table was full of different kinds of foods and drinks with Desserts. Every student participated and brought homemade Afghani dishes.
After a few minutes, people started coming one by one to the gym. Some came with friends some were couples, but I was alone because I was new in school and not familiar with other students.
I was waiting for someone to give me company and to talk with. Now lots of people are inside the gym, it is dark and cold inside. Music is on and two boys are dancing like dancers in an ice skating rink in a comic style, which amazed me and made me laugh.
“Abdul this is not the way how we Americans dance.” one of the girls who was watching me laughing at the boys said. I didn’t care whether Americans dance like this or not, I have never seen such a thing in my life, and I am having a great time. “I know but I like the way they are dancing,” I said.
The gym is now full of boys and girls, DJ is playing the music, I was not familiar with the music but I like western music. Everywhere is dark, and music is too loud, colored lights are on, It is hard to know who is dancing with who, and what is going on, all I could see was those who were dancing under the blue and red lights. But it was good because I was dancing also and no matter how bad I was dancing no one could see how I was dancing.
I am standing in a corner of dance floor in the gym and watching my friends dancing, everyone is busy dancing, and taking photos. Some people were dancing very good and some danced different, which was new for me.
In parties in Afghanistan usually, people dance in circles with other people performing different dance steps. As on teacher’s day in my school back in Afghanistan where we celebrated a big dance party in school, each of my classmates was dancing the way danced in their provinces, some from the north, some from the south, some from Hazara tribe, some from Pashtun tribe with different music and songs. We made one of our teachers dance with us, he was one of the strictest teachers in school, but we made him dance and we were clapping and enjoying seeing him dance.
In Afghanistan boys and girls are not dancing together unless they are husband and wife, or close relatives. In wedding parties, men and women are sitting separately in different rooms, when dinner is eaten and guests who are not relatives or close friends leave then men and women are getting together in one room.
In Afghanistan dancing is for special ceremonies to express our cultural history, and expressing our happiness and sharing it with our relatives and close friends but men and women dance separately.
Dating is not acceptable in Afghan culture because most people are against love marriages. Families arrange marriages for their sons or daughters. They only meet each other after their engagement, not before. We don’t have any place where teenagers can go dancing.
Some people are still on the dance floor and dancing. But some are tired of it and sit in corners and watch the others. I am also watching but I am not tired. It is 11:30 pm now and one by one people are leaving the gym and going toward the parking lot to go home. Some people are enjoying dance and don’t want to go. I am leaving the gym, the weather is too cold for me and I don’t have my jacket, my family is on the way to come and get me, I am walking toward the parking lot. It is too crowded with cars of parents who have come to take their sons or daughters back home.
My first homecoming dance -- what an amazing experience.
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