Today was full of singing, singing, and more singing. We went to church earlier than usual because we were supposed to practice our choir songs. We were the first to get there, and a few others showed up after we did, but definitely not the whole choir. So we ended up not practicing at all. That made us really nervous for how singing would go. I was also approached by the keyboard player who had heard from Pastor Mutentami that we play piano. He wanted help with the hymns today. So I ended up playing 3 of the 4 hymns. Nothing like last minute playing for church. Good thing I can sight read hymns. I definitely made quite a few mistakes, but it went well. We didn’t end up singing during the service, since they didn’t sing any of the songs we actually knew. We sang at the end though as everybody was leaving, which was actually perfect because then they couldn’t see our embarrassing dance moves.
After church I spent a quiet afternoon reading and then ended up taking a nap. It’s been a while since I’ve had a nap in the middle of the day and it was lovely!
We headed back to Bethel at 2 for choir. We were told to come early today. However, when we got there we were the first ones there. We should have realized it probably wouldn’t start til 3 so we decided to go back home again and clean the house for the Hartmanns who would be arriving later. I moved out of my room into the 3rd bedroom, so I worked on changing sheets and moving my clothes etc. and Erika worked on cleaning the rest of the house. We also brought Jennifer, a friend we’ve met from choir, along with us. We met her on the path as we were leaving and she wanted to come along. What a sweetheart—she did such a great job of helping us clean. She was way more thorough than we would have been. After a good 45 minutes of cleaning, the house looked so much better than before and we headed back to Bethel for the 3rd time today. This time when we got there, there were lots of people there.
We worked a lot on songs that they’ll be singing for the competition. Steward also did some work with tone quality and breathing and posture. He asked for my opinion and advice on how to produce good tone and wanted me to teach everyone. Nothing like being put on the spot! I gave a few pointers from things I remember from College Choir but definitely not a lot of advice. I don’t quite feel qualified enough to give voice lessons. Plus, the singing here is a lot different than what you would hear in choirs in America. I love the way they sing here, so I didn’t necessarily want to teach them the way I’ve been taught.
Anyway, after some of these drills we broke up into voice part sectionals and worked on the English hymn again. I worked with the tenors. J They’re a good group of guys and we definitely made some progress. Since none of them can read music, they have to pick it up by listening to what I’m singing and just memorizing it. Put some difficult English words into the mix that they have to learn, and it’s quite a challenging task to learn this song! They did very well though. We got back together as a whole group and put it all together. Definitely sounds better than it did yesterday.
We did a lot more songs after this, including dance moves and marching around the church. I really wish I knew the words to the songs! Since we stay for the whole choir practice and dance, I feel like we’re a part of the choir except for one of the major issues: we don’t know any words so we don’t sing. It’s still fun to be around people our age though. Nobody speaks English either, so it’s fun trying to guess what they’re all saying. Sometimes I leaned over and asked Jennifer what was going on.
Choir ended with lots of discussion about the competition: uniform, transportation etc. There’ll be another practice on Tuesday that I’ll try to get to, mainly so I can film some of their songs. We don’t think we’ll be here for the actual competition on Saturday because we might be in Luangwa. At around 5:45pm, Pastor Hartmann called because they were at the gate wanting to get in. So we left choir to let them in. Choir ended up being about 3 hours long. Nothing like spending Sunday in church, and then the afternoon continuing to praise God through song!
We helped the Hartmanns unload their car and then Erika and I headed over to campus to fill up our big water cooler from the bore hole tap. Right before we entered the guest house area Erika shouted because she almost stepped on a snake. We ran out of the way as it slithered past us. It was just about dark at this time so the thing was pretty well camouflaged. It was definitely black and medium sized. Bismark’s house was the nearest house and thankfully he was outside talking to Steward and Boniface so I ran over there and told him we saw a snake. Bismark is the one that likes to come show Erika and me when he’s killed a snake while working around campus. So I consider him the snake expert. I was glad that he was outside! He put down whatever he was holding, ran for his panga knife while Steward ran for a flashlight and then came over to where the snake was. Erika was keeping an eye on where it went. Sarah and her husband also ran out from their house when they heard the commotion. Unfortunately, the snake slithered into the ditch and we lost sight of it. They tried shining their flashlights to find it but it must have found a hole and disappeared. It was quite exciting though. Bismark thinks it could have been a mamba since he’s seen other ones around there and it was definitely black. He said he’ll be on the hunt for it in the next few days and try to find it. After this little excitement we carried on to our old house to get the water. There were lots of pastors eating on the tables under the tent. Quite a few pastors have arrived for the conference. Just in the short time that all the snake drama was happening, pastors were walking past us with all their luggage. We said a quick hello to Anne and some of the ladies who were helping serve food and then headed back.
Pastor and Mrs. Hartmann had started on supper. Pastor made the most delicious cheese and tomato omelet I have ever eaten! How nice for him to cook for us. We enjoyed a wonderful evening eating and talking! We’re going to enjoy having the Hartmanns as house-mates for the next few days.
Tomorrow I’m not sure what my day will be like. The only thing going on for us is English. We were going to cancel altogether during the conference, but some of the ladies still wanted class since they wouldn’t be involved in helping out for the conference. However, I think that is mostly for Erika’s ladies. I think every single one of my ladies except for Rhoda will be helping Anne in the kitchen. So I’m not really expecting any ladies to come tomorrow. We’ll see what happens. If Rhoda turns up I’ll either give her the choice to have some one on one review teaching of things we’ve already learned, or I’ll give her the morning off. J
I love the feeling of campus buzzing with activity and pastors arriving from all over Africa. Everyone that’s coming from the States is also here. They got to Lusaka around 8:30 this evening after being picked up from Chipata yesterday. I’m looking forward to saying hi to President Schroeder and meeting the other pastors as well. Tomorrow if I don’t end up teaching or anything I’ll probably just wander over to campus and hang out there just to feel like part of the action. I’ll find some kids to play with and maybe meet some of the pastors that have arrived. Conference doesn’t officially start until Tuesday.
Quite the ordeal with the snake! Glad there were no bites!
ReplyDeleteI saw the April WELS Connection in church today; it was about the ECE program at MLC. I saw my kids at the Center! Surprisingly, though it was filmed when you were student teaching there, I didn't see you on camera at all. Even Ruth made it on there as she was walking across campus!