This Africa Night began with a kind of crisis management. At around 17.00 hours on that Saturday came a call from Linda who has been helping us by the door since the departure of Maureen. She (Linda) was not feeling well and you could hear that from her voice. This meant that we had three hours to find a replacement. We were not confident at all. But then again when the chips are down, you just keep going. A couple of telephone calls later and we were assured of an ad-hoc replacement.
After the euphoria of August came the reality of September! The reality of September is that there were fewer guests than usual. This was already factored in. This was due to the fact that this edition of Africa Night fell right inside the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A substantial part of the patrons of Africa Night is Muslim. We knew before hand these people were not going to show up and with them, their partners.
One advantage of having less people turn up is that those who came had more space on the dance floor to perform their dance manoeuvres. And dance they certainly did! One of the highlights of the night for me was to see how Lut (a female patron) intermittently took virtual control of the dance floor with each of her two equally excellent dance partners for the night.
The absolute highlight of the night was the unannounced and surprise appearance of Maureen. Yes the Maureen! Maureen had always been there to help since the inception of Africa Night. But she left to live and work in Sweden in June 2007. (Read the full story elsewhere on this blog). Now she was just in town and just decided to drop in. Just like that. Just like…. Maureen. We were genuinely happy to see her again. It was as if she’s been gone for 3 years when in fact she has only been gone for 3 months. The funny thing was that after saying hello to everyone and dancing a bit, she just went to her usual spot and did her thing; welcoming guests and taking care of their coats and jackets. Just like she did for 9 years, just like …Maureen!
She is back in Sweden now. Maureen if you are reading this, we miss you!
