Guitar Hero

So yeah, funny thing. I brought my guitar here (Wes Clark: if you’re reading this, stop laughing at me)—thought it would be a good idea to pass time and such. When I got here, Ben (who had gotten there 3 weeks earlier) said "Hey, you should really bring the guitar to Mbagala. The kids’ll love it."

Acting like I do this often

My first day in Mbagala went a little like this:

I get out of the truck. Walk to gate of school.
Dickson/Ben meet me. Say welcome.

Dickson: So the kids are getting up from a nap right now. You should play them a song.

Me: Hmm, ok. I don’t know a single children’s song now, but I’ll see if I can learn one in the next couple days to play when they wake up.

Dickson: No, now.

Me: Like today? Damn… ok it’ll take me a few minutes to try to think something up.

Dickson: No, now.

Me: What?

Dickson pulls me by the arm into the room.

Dickson (in Swahili): Wake up kids! This is Brian. He’s new. He’s going to play a song for you now.

The kids wake up, stare at me open-mouthed. I want to die.

Me: Ben! Make up some words. Help me. Please.

Ben: Uhhhh…. (in Swahili, singing) There are white people, white people at the school today… (repeats)

I play and try to sing along. Dickson is laughing his ass off. The kids just look confused.

We play until Dickson finally has the decency to kick us off.

Playing with the guitar after class

So that was my introduction to the kids, or rather, the kids’ introduction to me. However it went, the kids are obsessed with singing songs, so we decided to try to write some songs to help to teach them English. The hit so far has been “So Many Monkeys” that helps them practice counting to 50. We’re working on the hokey-pokey right now to teach them body parts. Who knows, we might even record an album.

Practicing the hokey-pokey