Hello everybody!  I am currently in Jinja, Uganda.  I apologize for not being able to update you sooner; I hope you were not worried.  I am in good hands here!  Internet is difficult to come by, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to blog.  I have a lot to share though!

It was a quick turn around from stepping off of the plane in Entebbe to where I am now, and it feels as if I have been here for so long.  Yesterday, I accompanied Greg (who is hosting me) to his primary school, St. Jude’s.  I came with the intention of teaching music if anybody would be interested.  It turns out that St. Jude’s has a planned in “Music Education” block for every grade that has never been taught.  It only took me a few hours at the school until a nun found me and handed me a class schedule – filled with teaching blocks for every single grade.  I was supposed to be “adjusting” to the entire new continent and culture I was in, but halfway through the afternoon a couple of students found me, grabbed my hand, and said “Sir, you are late.  You teach us music.”  And with that, I was pulled into a classroom filled with Ugandan children eager to learn music from “Mister Jo-el.”  (My name is pronounced “Joe-elle” here.)

I feel like I have basically been in class ever since.  While it is overwhelming, I feel blessed to be involved so quickly.  Every hour that passes is invaluable as far as research and learning on my end, and it is unbelievable how receptive the children are to my music classes (especially considering their limited English). My learning curve is immense, and each class is strengthening my skills.  All of the instruction I’ve received throughout the eyes has been invaluable.  And of course, music is holding up to be a truly universal language.  It is a crazy thing.

There have been many moments that I wanted to take a snapshot of, laugh at, and wonder how I got there.  For instance – we had a “dance off” (somebody told all of the children that I am a very very special musician who will also teach everybody to dance… so that has become the expectation for me), and I had to resort to my biggest trick – the backflip – to hold my ground with these kids.  I flipped, and I suddenly had a class of terrified and mystified African children running around the room attempting flips of their own while I sprinted to stop them.  Another moment – trying to teach P1’s and P2’s (who know almost no English) proved to be difficult.  The only thing that finally reached through to them was to “do the wave.”  We then proceeded to “do the cloud” and “do the lion.”  It was going fine until I had us “do the snake.”  These children’s conception of a snake is horrifying – they were all writhing around and attacking each other.  At that point, I submitted to their requests to “bring the ball.”

I have been blessed to truly immerse myself in the culture here – which is providing an absolutely immersive research experience.  It is a drastically different and simple life over here.  My day revolves around trying to be the best teacher I can be for these students and try to look into some bigger questions as well.  This is no small task.  But I have so much motivating me.  There’s nothing like a class full of children who have been waiting all day for you (they’ve really unnecessarily hyped me up here :/ ) to teach them to make you step up your game.  When those students pulled me in to that first class, it was go time.  They did not care that I was American, 19 years old, and a student (not a teacher).  They wanted to learn music.  So I took a deep breath, gathered up all of the strength I could, and began.  Teaching is a continually pivoting exercise in strategies:  the students don’t understand that a cow makes “moo,” we will cut that verse of Old MacDonald’ these children do not speak English, I will try to do rhythm things with them until I can no longer maintain control; these students have somehow been convinced that I am an expert breakdancer, I will try my best to fulfill that.  It’s an incredible challenge.  But I have an entire school excited about learning music, and they are looking to me to lead them.  In a very tangible way, I cannot let these people down.  Oh, there is also some music competition they are participating in that I am supposed to train them for.  I could not understand all of the details (language barrier), but I have been told repeatedly that the prize is soda and a cow.  All of these kids are counting on me to help them win that cow.  So there’s that.

Sorry for this rambling and long post.  I have other things (that are actually meaningful and cohesive) that I hope to share as soon as I can.  For now, please do not worry.  I am incredibly thankful to my hosts for their gracious hospitality.  This trip so far has been an incredible display of humanity.  I miss you, but do not worry about me.  God bless!