Fall 2007
The Mesgana Dancers of Ethiopia have completed their performances for 2006. See the tour website at http://www.mesgana.com for information about the 2007 tour.
Mesgana dancers are coming back to the U.S. in 2007! We are definitely coming to San Jose and Southern California. We are also planning a couple shows in the Washington, DC area and in Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah. We are also looking at venues in Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, and Portland. Watch this space as plans are firmed up. success. The 10 girls, all students with Children of Ethiopia Education Fund or COEEF, trav
Mesgana dancers are coming back to the U.S. in 2007! We are definitely coming to San Jose and Southern California. We are also planning a couple shows in the Washington, DC area and in Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah. We are also looking at venues in Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, and Portland. Watch this space as plans are firmed up. success. The 10 girls, all students with Children of Ethiopia Education Fund or COEEF, trav
The 2006 Mesgana USA Dance Tour was an amazing success. The 10 girls, all students with Children of Ethiopia Education Fund or COEEF, traveled from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to the United States and delighted audiences in Maryland, Washington, DC, Northern and Southern California, and Utah.
Here is the story of their tour:
August 24th to the 26th: The Mesgana Dancers arrive in Washington, DC after a long journey, courtesy of Ethiopian Airlines, who is the official sponsor of the group. After relaxing for a day the girls did a short performance at Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring, Maryland. The rest of the day was spent sightseeing in DC. Then on Saturday night they did a performance for an appreciative audience at the Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington, DC.
Here is the story of their tour:
August 24th to the 26th: The Mesgana Dancers arrive in Washington, DC after a long journey, courtesy of Ethiopian Airlines, who is the official sponsor of the group. After relaxing for a day the girls did a short performance at Whole Foods Market in Silver Spring, Maryland. The rest of the day was spent sightseeing in DC. Then on Saturday night they did a performance for an appreciative audience at the Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington, DC.
August 27th: Mesgana flies from Washington DC to Salt Lake City arriving late in the evening to meet their host families while in Utah.
August 28th: Mesgana is outfitted with new 'travel clothes' at the Gap Store at Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah. Generous store employees donated many items of clothing for the girls in a 2-month long project. The treated the employees to a short program of singing and dancing.
August 29th: This day was a "meet the dignitaries" day. Hosting the girls were Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City, Mayor Dan Snarr of Murray, and the Governor of the State of Utah, John Huntsman. Mayors Anderson and Snarr are both COEEF sponsors.
August 28th: Mesgana is outfitted with new 'travel clothes' at the Gap Store at Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah. Generous store employees donated many items of clothing for the girls in a 2-month long project. The treated the employees to a short program of singing and dancing.
August 29th: This day was a "meet the dignitaries" day. Hosting the girls were Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City, Mayor Dan Snarr of Murray, and the Governor of the State of Utah, John Huntsman. Mayors Anderson and Snarr are both COEEF sponsors.
August 31st: The girls fly to San Jose, California where they spend the next 4 days in the Bay Area. Friday night they appeared at a sold-out audience at the East Palo Alto Community Church. The hall was packed and the audience was really into the performance. A great time was had by all!
Saturday night the girls danced at an Ethiopian New Years celebration at the Marriott Hotel in Oakland followed by an amazing performance at Lake Merrittt Park in Oakland on Sunday afternoon. A crowd of close to 10,000 cheered, clapped, and cried, as they were stunned by the amazing talents of these young girls from Ethiopia. This was a combined Ethiopian community New Years celebration by the communities of San Jose and Oakland. The San Francisco Chronicle said the performance was the highlight of the day and one observer was heard to say that the girls, "Really brought the two communities together"
Saturday night the girls danced at an Ethiopian New Years celebration at the Marriott Hotel in Oakland followed by an amazing performance at Lake Merrittt Park in Oakland on Sunday afternoon. A crowd of close to 10,000 cheered, clapped, and cried, as they were stunned by the amazing talents of these young girls from Ethiopia. This was a combined Ethiopian community New Years celebration by the communities of San Jose and Oakland. The San Francisco Chronicle said the performance was the highlight of the day and one observer was heard to say that the girls, "Really brought the two communities together"
September 4th: The Mesgana Dancers fly south to Ontario, California where they will spend the next 7 days performing and playing at various Southern California attractions. Hot weather greeted the children as they landed in Ontario, with temperatures in the 100+ degree range. Dance programs were held at the Rancho Cucamonga Community Center (close to another sell out), Liberty Elementary School in Ontario, and opening day at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona where they marched in the Pomona Day Parade, an amazing experience for the kids. The girls also played hard as tickets were provided, courtesy of Disneyland and Sea World, to two days of fun and good times.
Another hot day was in store during the visit to Disneyland on September 5th, but the girls had a great time. A VIP tour was given and the girls started out slowly on the Sleeping Beauty ride in at the Disneyland Castle and the Merry Go-Round. Then it was on to Small World. The real fun began when the girls made it to Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad! Only one girl refused to ride the second ride; after her experience on Splash Mountain, but little 7-year old Sofia wanted to ride on Splash Mountain again and again. She told us, through our interpreter that on the last time down, she 'almost threw-up!". The highlight of the day was meeting Mickey Mouse himself. Thanks go out to Toyota Motor Logistics who provided drivers and 3 Toyota Sienna minivans for several of the trips that week. Also to Reggie and Rene Webb who provided meals from their McDonalds restaurants in the Inland Empire.
On Sept. 7th we all went to San Clemente Beach which was a favorite day of most of the girls. When they saw the ocean for the first time, they all gasped and expressed extreme thanks for seeing the ocean for the first time. A little afraid of the water at first, it didn't take them long to get used to it (luckily the water was unusually warm), then we couldn't get them out! Mahider quickly learned to master the 'Boogie Board' thanks to good teachers, Ruthann, and good friend Dave Halgren (a long time California surfer).
Saturday we all traveled down to San Diego where a fun day was spent at Sea World who provided tickets for all to enjoy. The highlights were the Seal and Walrus Show, The Atlantis Ride, and the Shamu "Believe" Show. Everybody loved seeing Shamu and the girls quickly learned to chant "Shamu, Shamu". San Diego Sponsor Steve Clark and his daughter joined us for the day. Sept. 10th: A tearful goodbye was said and the Mesgana Group flew from Ontario back to Salt Lake City for a short nights rest.
Sept. 11th: Two early morning flights were caught from Salt Lake City to St. George, courtesy of sponsor SkyWest Airlines. SkyWest provided tickets for the short 45 minute flight to the beautiful red rock country of southern Utah. The girls enjoyed their first flight on a turbo prop Brasilia airplane. COEEF Board Member, Greg Farley, met us at the airport where he followed us to Coral Canyon Country Club for a nice lunch. Hertz Rental Car of St. George provided two nice mini-vans.That night the girls performed a rousing performance to another sold-out audience at Tuachan Center For The Performing Arts Hafen Theatre. After the show the girls signed autographs for the appreciate
audience and people lingered long after the show to meet the Mesgana Dancers.
The next morning the girls performed another show for the Tuachan High School for the Performing Arts. The students greeted the performers which loud applause and at the end gave the girls a standing ovation. A students were amazed with the performance. After a fun side trip to the beautiful red rock canyons of southern Utah the kids spent one night in Las Vegas, where they saw the bright lights and the "America" show at old town. Then it was back to Salt Lake via SkyWest.
Sept. 14th: The girls performed at two Utah elementary schools; Mountain View Elementary in Layton, and West Jordan Elementary. On Friday night they performed before another large crowd in the Pepperwood Community of Sandy, Utah. Many new sponsorships were pledged that night. The girls were forced indoors to perform after a cold and rainy Fall Utah day but the crowd was warm and friendly and really enjoyed the show. Personal invitations were sent to friends from the Klintworth, Wolf, and Thomas families.
Sept. 17th: A fun afternoon performance was given at the Greek Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City. Father Michael was an appreciate host as many joined the COEEF sponsor family from the audience.
Sept. 18th: The Mesgana Dancers were delighted to welcome their Honorary Director and Olympic Gold Medalist Meseret Defar and her husband Teddy, who arrived at Salt Lake International direct from winning the Grand Prix race in Athens, Greece where she broke another record. She broke the world's record in New York in June in the 5k and the world championship in Moscow. Sept. 18th & 19th: Performances at a Montessori School and Murray High School were enjoyed by hundreds at we made the local newspapers at ABC-4 and CBS-5 filmed the events.
Sept. 18th: The Mesgana Dancers were delighted to welcome their Honorary Director and Olympic Gold Medalist Meseret Defar and her husband Teddy, who arrived at Salt Lake International direct from winning the Grand Prix race in Athens, Greece where she broke another record. She broke the world's record in New York in June in the 5k and the world championship in Moscow. Sept. 18th & 19th: Performances at a Montessori School and Murray High School were enjoyed by hundreds at we made the local newspapers at ABC-4 and CBS-5 filmed the events.
September 20th: Mesgana Dancers were hosted by NuSkin International in Provo, Utah. A nice lunch was provided the the dancers delighted the NuSkin Employees with their various cultural dances and songs. NuSkin's Force For Good Foundation re-committed their sponsorship of 30 COEEF students for the upcoming school year.
Sept. 21st: The Mesgana Entourage, along with Meseret headed north in their La Point Ford Explorers, to Logan where Meseret ran in the Top Of Utah 5k. She was the featured runner and brought much attention to the COEEF Sponsorship program. On Saturday morning she won in a commanding performance besting the nearest competitor by 2 minutes! Meseret turned down of Ethiopia Education fund and the Mesgana Dancers. She re-committed herself to support the COEEF girl's education program for the upcoming future.
Sept. 21st: The Mesgana Entourage, along with Meseret headed north in their La Point Ford Explorers, to Logan where Meseret ran in the Top Of Utah 5k. She was the featured runner and brought much attention to the COEEF Sponsorship program. On Saturday morning she won in a commanding performance besting the nearest competitor by 2 minutes! Meseret turned down of Ethiopia Education fund and the Mesgana Dancers. She re-committed herself to support the COEEF girl's education program for the upcoming future.
That night Meseret and the Mesgana Dancers appeared the grand finale of the tour, The COEEF Fall Celebration at the University of Utah Rice Eccles Stadium Tower. Noted Ethiopian children's book author Jane Kurtz gave a wonderful talk on books in Ethiopia and announced a new partnership with COEEF and the EBCEF Children's Book Center. EBCEF will partner with COEEF in placing libraries in many of the COEEF partner schools in Ethiopia.Sunday morning Meseret and Teddy were guests of honor at the weekly CBS broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
After many tearful goodbyes, the girls said farewell to their host families in Utah and flew to Washington, DC on Monday morning where they spent a couple more days touring more sights in Washington, before heading back on Ethiopian Airlines flight #502 to Addis Ababa.
he Mesgana Dancers touched the hearts and souls of thousands during their month-long visit. They appeared in many newspaper and TV stories and were featured on the Sunday night Amharic broadcast of Voice of America where an estimated 7 million people heard the COEEF story and Mesgana Dancers. 3 girls were interviews, Abeba, Bethlehem, and Melat and they delighted the VOA audience with their humor and stories. Meseret and Mr. Norm were also interviewed the the COEEF story was told to a worldwide audience. Due to the efforts of the Mesgana Dancers, close to 100 new students have been sponsored and more are coming in each day.
The Mesgana Dancers will be continuing to delight audiences in the near future as their will be upcoming performances in Ethiopia and possibly a trip to Paris, France, to perform in November, 2006. We are also planning an 'encore' Mesgana Tour in 2007 with possible performances in Washington, DC, Boston, and Denver as well as additional performances in Utah and California, where all the venues have asked for them to return. Thanks go out to all the host families for their kindness and generosity, to all the companies who helped out with food and lodging, and all others who helped. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2007!! Big thanks also to Serkaddis Seifu and Henock Tesfaye for traveling with the girls and keeping us all together. Also for the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa for providing the VISA's for all to come, along with Ethiopian Airlines for their generous offer of tickets.
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