{"id":2493,"date":"2023-10-09T13:17:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T13:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana\/?p=2493"},"modified":"2024-09-24T00:32:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T00:32:03","slug":"joy-comes-in-the-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/2023\/10\/09\/joy-comes-in-the-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy Comes in the Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sunday morning was a celebration. The small church had no ceiling fans or amplified speakers. No live video feed.\u00a0\u00a0A drummer with a pair of small sticks beat out a rhythm.\u00a0\u00a0Clapping along, a row of young boys sat on a discarded, rough-hewn plank spanning three cement blocks.\u00a0\u00a0The small unfinished building was overflowing with humble, honest, praise and worship.\u00a0\u00a0Like a sweet aroma carried by a gentle breeze, the music began to fill the village. Families approached and joined.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the afternoon, we bounced over muddy red paths to a small homestead and set up in the lush green studio of a clearing sheltered by a woven grass roof and blue tarp.\u00a0\u00a0We arranged the small choir, drummers, and marimba and prepared for our first choir.\u00a0\u00a0Each of the songs was authored by the lead singer.\u00a0\u00a0As their energetic praises started, so did the first rain\u2026we frantically shuffled around the equipment as leaks began to pour through the tarp.\u00a0\u00a0I slammed my laptop shut, and we surveyed the damage.\u00a0\u00a0I was ready to scrub the whole session, as I looked up at the uniformly dreary and wet sky.\u00a0\u00a0Timidly, the choir suggested, \u201cWe should wait.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Last night, wave and wave of fierce and relentless rain had pounded our guest house, beginning at 2am. I tried to be optimistic, but instead imagined everyone randomly grabbing microphones, laptops, and cameras should the skies unleash a last declaration of wet season fury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The drizzle began to wane, and my optimism improved. The choir reassembled and the mellow tones of the marimba began to once again join the choir of crickets singing from the verdant jungle surrounding us. Each time I looked up from my laptop I could see Beth smiling and nodding to the beat.\u00a0\u00a0I closed my eyes and took in the fresh, cool and moist air.\u00a0\u00a0How wonderful that Beth and I can vacation here in Ghana, teaching Clement and Cyrus to record the joyful songs of the Birifor, Bible stories, and prayers, and spread them across the most remote villages in Birifor-land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We returned to the clearing late in the evening, to record one more choir.\u00a0\u00a0By 8:00pm, we were set ready, looking up at the starry sky, Jupiter slowly rising above the horizon.\u00a0\u00a0The cool night air refreshed the cats and dogs who had slept the day away in the shade. Puppies and kittens energetically chased moths and small beetles.\u00a0\u00a0It was time for Clement and Cyrus to move from watching, to leading.\u00a0\u00a0Clement and Cyrus stepped forward and gathered the choir, drums, and marimba into formation around the tripod.\u00a0\u00a0The music began!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After Clement and Cyrus had their first end-to-end choir recording, we celebrated, prayed, returned to the guest house to wind down and wrap up with observations and suggestions for our next outing.\u00a0\u00a0We completed 31 recordings today, adding to the recordings we did in January. This will complete the Birifor language. Whohooo!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday morning was a celebration. The small church had no ceiling fans or amplified speakers. No live video feed.\u00a0\u00a0A drummer with a pair of small sticks beat out a rhythm.\u00a0\u00a0Clapping along, a row of young boys sat on a discarded, rough-hewn plank spanning three cement blocks.\u00a0\u00a0The small unfinished building was overflowing with humble, honest, praise … Continue reading Joy Comes in the Morning<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-oct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leopardshark.com\/ghana-trips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}