I didn’t know it was possible, but I accidentally joined the church choir. I was supposed to meet my friend Davis one day at the church to hang out and he told me that he totally forgot, but he had to go to choir. I love listening to the choir, so I agreed to come and watch. 3 weeks later and all of a sudden, they wanted me to actually sing. During church. With them. In Kinyarwanda and Swahili.
This probably wouldn’t be a big deal to other people, HOWEVER, since High School, I haven’t wanted to sing outside of my car or room. In fact, the very thought of it has brought me nothing but panic and unhappiness. But everyone in the choir is so nice and they are so happy when I join them. In fact, one of them tried voting me onto the Choir Executive Committee. Bless their souls, it was so sweet.
I’ve been going to choir rehearsals learning the songs by literally mimicking the shapes of Mama Davis’ mouth so that I can form some semblance of the correct words for the songs, because they don’t have the words written anywhere, as a fun, added challenge. Although, on Saturday, Mama Davis wrote out the words for the songs we were going to perform the next day, so that I could use them during service. I love her.
The idea of standing in front of a church of Rwandese as a muzungu (white person), mumbling words, and frantically looking around at others to try and remember the song doesn’t sound all that appealing, but all of my choir friends are so supportive that they make the experience worth doing. After our rehearsal on Saturday, they made me stand up while they talked about how happy they were to have me, how my punctuality is something to aspire to, and how they know I’m nervous about the words, but they know that I will do a great job. If only every choir was this supportive.
Come Sunday morning, there I was, death-gripping a piece of paper and attempting to blend in as much as possible while the rest of church giggled and smiled at me. This little performance was not without faults and I honestly don’t remember if sound actually came out of me, but Janelle did say that this year was supposed to push us out of our comfort zone. So, one small step for normal people, one giant leap for Claire.
ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, don’t get any ideas, Mom. This doesn’t mean I’ll sing in public in America.
This probably wouldn’t be a big deal to other people, HOWEVER, since High School, I haven’t wanted to sing outside of my car or room. In fact, the very thought of it has brought me nothing but panic and unhappiness. But everyone in the choir is so nice and they are so happy when I join them. In fact, one of them tried voting me onto the Choir Executive Committee. Bless their souls, it was so sweet.
I’ve been going to choir rehearsals learning the songs by literally mimicking the shapes of Mama Davis’ mouth so that I can form some semblance of the correct words for the songs, because they don’t have the words written anywhere, as a fun, added challenge. Although, on Saturday, Mama Davis wrote out the words for the songs we were going to perform the next day, so that I could use them during service. I love her.
The idea of standing in front of a church of Rwandese as a muzungu (white person), mumbling words, and frantically looking around at others to try and remember the song doesn’t sound all that appealing, but all of my choir friends are so supportive that they make the experience worth doing. After our rehearsal on Saturday, they made me stand up while they talked about how happy they were to have me, how my punctuality is something to aspire to, and how they know I’m nervous about the words, but they know that I will do a great job. If only every choir was this supportive.
Come Sunday morning, there I was, death-gripping a piece of paper and attempting to blend in as much as possible while the rest of church giggled and smiled at me. This little performance was not without faults and I honestly don’t remember if sound actually came out of me, but Janelle did say that this year was supposed to push us out of our comfort zone. So, one small step for normal people, one giant leap for Claire.
ALL OF THIS BEING SAID, don’t get any ideas, Mom. This doesn’t mean I’ll sing in public in America.