My concert

December started out with my concert in the school. I haven't really talked enough about this concert, not even to myself, I think because it happened in the middle of a lot of other things (I don't remember what now.)

It really was kind of amazing. Fourth and fifth grade choir, high school pastoral group, two high school girls who did several duets, and a group of girls who approached me about three weeks before to ask for a "singing class" after school. I said, only if you sing in my concert. This last group were very clearly novice singers, but luckily their songs were short. ;)

I arranged the date and time with Gaby and made flyers for the kids to color and give out to their family and friends. It was Friday December 5th, 5:30 pm, so that the parents could come but it wouldn't be too dark for everyone walking home afterward. The kids would have permission to get out of class a little early. The teachers and classmates, however, weren't going to be able to go, because class ended at 5:40... but I wanted them to be able to see what the singers had been doing all year, the result of all this yanking them out of class by their hair against the teachers' passive-aggressive resistance! So with Iris's encouragement I voiced this to Gaby, and voila, she sent out a memo saying that 4th and 5th grade would get out early that day at 5. I was stunned at how easy it was. It was like I was a sheepdog who'd been running back and forth barking at every individual sheep in the flock to try to get them in line, and they just kept wandering wherever they wanted to... and then in the blink of an eye the farmer comes driving up and claps his hands, and they all went running into the corral without so much as looking at me. ...Kind of like that.

Anyway the high schoolers helped me set up the chapel and decorate it with balloons and streamers, and a few parents came, and I was there with my guitar and Adrian filmed the whole thing (hopefully I'll get the finished, converted DVD the next time somebody travels between here and there.) The little kids sang first, then the newbie girls, then the big kids, then Jessica and Viviana. Each song was announced by a singer. I don't have pictures of the actual event but here are some of the participants:Christine and Jessica (Jessica did the duets with Viviana at the end)

Fourth and fifth grade. After I gave out the flyers, one of the girls came up to me very concerned to report that the tiny kid in the orange in the front row had been selling them in the market as tickets to the concert--at ten cents each! Peruvian resourcefulness! The next round of flyers I made had "FREE concert" written very clearly on them.

There was also a high schooler backing me up with another guitar and playing the cajon, a wooden box you sit on and play like a drum. We all ended together with the song "Danza Mi Pais"--an upbeat saya about how Peru dances through its good times and bad times with faith and hope. Everybody was clapping and moving.

The kids had never really done anything like this at the school... maybe for some of them it was their first performance of anything ever! They were really excited and the parents enjoyed it too. At the end Gaby made a little speech thanking me on behalf of the school for my two years of service, and the teachers gave me a gift--an alpaca vest, beautiful and expensive and like four sizes too big and a weird goldish color. But it was a really nice thought! (Since I knew I wouldn't wear it, I gave it to Luis to give to his mom.)

The hardest part of the experience for me was learning the humility to present something I didn't consider "good" musically. Seriously--the group of newbies was just painful at times, and the fifth graders had no concentration because they'd never been forced to be in two rehearsals in a row during the whole year, so they went out of tune with the fourth graders, and messed up their round, and... things happened that did not have to happen! It's no mystery--with consistent practice, they would have done amazing things. As it was, it was exactly what you'd expect out of a bunch of elementary schoolers. Pshaw. They're more talented than that. All I wanted was the opportunity to do something well! But that was not to be. For the kids and the parents (and I think for the school too,) it was a great experience. For me, it was... a bit of recognition after all my work, which felt like too little too late; the slightly harrowing experience of improvising the logistical details; and in the middle of all that, yes, the satisfaction of presenting what we'd worked so hard on. The music was fun and everybody liked it. So... Yay! ... I did it!