Dancing Lessons and a Clothing Exchange

This morning at church, I learned to Dinka dance. I know, I know...Baptists dancing at church? But I assure you, it does happen.
Anyway, towards the end of the service, Jamie, Jennifer and I were greeting several of the ladies and children from the congregation. We were practicing our limited language and introducing ourselves when the ladies suddenly came rushing over to us. They lined us up on one side and immediately formed a semi-circle in front of us, cheering and clapping excitedly. A young boy began beating a drum and two of the ladies stepped into the center of the circle and began to dance around each other. The Dinka dance is a rhythmic jump up and down while the arms are held down by the stomach. Occasionally, the ladies throw an elbow up towards the sky while they jump, just to make things interesting. When they get fancy, they do a leap, leap, hop kind of step. It's really interesting. But after the first two ladies danced, they grabbed Jennifer and another Dinka lady and had them dance in the center. Everyone laughed uproariously at Jennifer's dancing. After a few seconds, they made her leave. I was next. They pushed me into the center, and I danced next to another lady. Unfortunately, I smiled too much while I danced. Rather than laughing at my dancing, they scowled at me and instructed me firmly to "be serious." They take their dancing very seriously, apparently. Then I was booted from the center of the circle, and it was Jamie's turn to dance. She did okay, but only lasted a few seconds, too. Finally, the ladies began to say good-bye to us and shake our hands for us to leave. But as we were leaving, many of the ladies began offering us consolatory apologies and saying things like, "It's okay. So sorry." It was then that we realized we had just competed in a dance competition, and we all totally lost. We realized that the ladies were trying to make sure we weren't upset about losing! They actually do this frequently. They have dance competitions between the ladies to see who is most graceful. So, I found out today that Dinka women find me completely ungraceful.
Also, one of the women who made us dance also wanted to swap clothing with me. She kept motioning to my clothes and grabbing my skirt. I thought she simply wanted my clothes (which is a fairly frequent problem), but then she began grabbing her own clothes and pointing at me! Finally, she grabbed my hand, said something about going to her house, and started grabbing both of our clothes at the same time and pointing furiously between the two of us. I finally realized what she meant to happen. She wanted to swap outfits...I would take her dress and she wanted my shirt and skirt. This is actually something that the Dinka ladies do among themselves sometimes, especially between friends. It was a sweet gesture, but I am pretty certain that her clothes would not have fit me and mine probably would not have fit her. Eventually, after much maneuvering, I was able to leave with my own clothes and she kept her dress. It's a tricky thing, this culture. By the time I leave, I will probably have all sorts of African dresses and absolutely none of my original clothing.