Les Hannah, day 52, part final

I had a full day this day. I was in a class every period except the fourth. But then in the fourth period I had a combined lesson on powwows and powwow etiquette. In the classes I worked with the students on some literature, a mix of poetry from different Native poets. During these discussions we talked about identity. So many students this age and even a bit older are trying to find who they are and have not really stopped to think about it yet. That’s what I use these types of discussions for, to cause students to think; that’s the type of discussion we had today.

In a later class I showed and discussed artifacts; I believe this is the final class for that. All of the classes I have been scheduled to visit have now seen these and heard the short lectures on each item.  Following this class I held the powwow demonstration in the gym. This was interesting. Probably around 100 students showed up for this. It was just supposed to be a demonstration and a few short lessons on drumming, singing, and dancing so the students would have some exposure to a powwow. Of course we could get nowhere near the grandeur nor exactness of a real powwow, but we did the best we could with what we had. For a powwow drum we used a bass drum from a kit, and we could not find the sticks so we used a small piece of wood. Hey – it worked. I tried to get the experience close. We had a grand entry, did some round dancing, the two-step, a snake dance. It was fun while it lasted. All of this was practice for a more “realistic” powwow to come on my last day here. Of course I use realistic with a very elastic definition. It will not be a real powwow but it is not the realism that matters here; it is the spirit of the event. It will be my last full day in Esbjerg, and this will be a farewell powwow. We will have fun.

I returned to the flat shortly after the powwow rehearsal where I settled in for the evening to put the finishing touches on the PowerPoint for my presentations; those begin tomorrow. I did some reading, watched a little television, then headed to bed a bit early.