Les Hannah, day 66, part 1

Today was close-of-business day, well for everything but one. I had the first morning period off from the school, so I took advantage of that to get my “packed” level up to about 95%. I headed to the school a bit later to prepare for the two lessons I had today, which were the second and third periods. Those went well; we actually played more stickball in one of the classes. I am telling you these Danes love stickball. The girls are part Cherokee I think, at least judging from how they play the game. They’re almost as rough as the Cherokee girls I’ve seen.

The fourth period this afternoon was a special treat for the entire school. Recall a little over a week ago in the posting where I mentioned a practice powwow? Well, today we had the “real” thing. Of course, it was not a real powwow but I tried to make it as close as I possibly could with what was available. For the drum we again used the bass drum from a kit. This time we had drum sticks, not just a piece of lumber. There were five different boys who helped me drum during the event. Two of the original drummers had to leave early because of a prior commitment, but there were two other who eagerly replaced them. Between the five who helped me they did a pretty darned good job.

Now remember, this was all for fun and experience. I did not do this as a joke or in any way to disrespect powwow traditions, but to try to give these students, faculty, and guests an experience as closely as I could replicate to the real thing. Get this, we did a grand entry, and a student carried the Danish flag into the arena. There were several students who participated in the entry and all the other dances. Most students, however, sat on the side and watched. No one left though. Everyone stayed the entire time – well except for two of my original drummers who are on a football team and had to go to practice, but I knew about that. What I am trying to say is no one used this as an excuse to skip out early.

Instead of a flag song I had the audience sing the Danish National Anthem. I think everyone in the room was singing, well except for me but only because I did not know the words. I thought this was amazing, every student I saw during this moment was singing, and rather proudly too I thought. Not just moving their lips, but actually belting out the words. It was loud in the room. Following the anthem we sang the colors out of the arena, then we did some of the fun dances typically held at powwows.