Catching up:

On Saturday we zigzagged down the road from Gushegu toward Zamashegu.  The road is wide, sufficient for three trucks to drive in parallel.  However, there is usually only one good path.  Flying along at 60-80kph does not give enough time to always guess correctly, and Nathan levitated out of his seat and smacked his head on the roof of the truck on more than one occasion.

Several miles south of Zamashegu we turned West into the bush.  The electrical lines follow the main roads, and within moments we entered a land where strong calloused hands build homes, plant crops, and wash clothes.   Our destination was the village of Dayudigili.  Larger villages have a government-built concrete school building with 4 to 5 classrooms.  The building is always open.   Rough-hewn wooden desks face a blackboard painted on the concrete.  On Sundays, the classrooms become a church.  Today, however, the rooms will be a recording studio.  As we setup, curious children peek in, eyes wide.

Kevin and Nathan test the room for sound dynamics and we setup the microphone on my tripod with an elastic strap.  The choir is cautiously smiling, nervous, and looking at our equipment a bit of apprehension.  We set the drums up outside the building, under the porch, knowing they would deafen us in the small classroom.

Sound check…. The choir’s energetic singing and thunderous clapping overwhelms the microphones and has us all laughing.  Yes!  Wonderful, but we can’t let them clap.  We tried to limit it to 4 people clapping…. Finally we had to select three people who clapped like a polite dignitary on the heel of their hand to get the balance of the singing and clapping.  We had to coach the men of the choir to sing out a bit louder, but their praises were fantastic.  They had three different callers, each with about 2 songs.

Moms sung with their babies snuggly tied to their back.  When infants started to squeak, the moms would loosen the cloth, spin the baby to the front, and nurse them while singing — never losing a beat.  Then, when baby was happy, they got spun back around and cinched up. Wonderful.  Since mommy modesty is unknown here, I don’t have any pictures of the choir singing :-)

We did eventually try the drums… but had to move them another 15 yards into the field next to the school :-) However, it was inspiring, and the choir sang much more energetically with their drums pounding out a wonderful beat.

Just magical!.