Every Wednesday at this hotel, the Regency Cocoanut Grove, the local radio station 97.3fm hosts Salsamania. A couple hundred people showed up for the free lesson and then right into salsa for the rest of the night. Fer real! Most of the dancers are incredible! There is a lesson for the first hour (you can see them in the last image), then it’s open dancing. It’s like watching Dancing with the Stars, except I really am watching them dance with the stars – they’re all outside.
I swear, I gotta learn to salsa!!!
Another sign that the world is getting smaller: The DJ played that line dance song heard at many a wedding. You the know the one where the guy says, “step to the left, step to the right…clap three times…etc”. I don’t know what it’s called, but they even do that here.
Music is blaring, people are dancing. The air smells like fire season on So Cal, the faint smell of burning brush. The four of us, Tim, Sammy, Jay and myself are inside the hotel restaurant, windows open a nice breeze blows through. Each of us si typing away at our respective laptops. We are all in preparation for the upcoming Human Rights Leadership Forum. Oh yeah, I haven’t told you what I’m doing here. I’m documenting the activities of Youth for Human Rights International education and leadership program. Timothy Bowles is the Director for International Development. I came with him. You can find out more what the group does at www.youthforhumanrights.org.
Sammy Jacob-Abbey and Jay Yarsiah are the men on the ground in Africa. You’ll see them soon enough.