Another video!

This was our best song at the concert last weekend. Awesome soloist!!

Above All Video

Miracles do happen...I uploaded a video to You Tube! (The miracle is I have bad Internet connection here in Brazzaville). Here's a little clip of one of my solos at our concert last weekend. My solo isn't outstanding and the choir was actually pretty bad that night, but hey, God was there and we had a ton of fun!

TV Star

The aweseome opportunities I have here in Congo never cease to amaze me. So now not only am I a rock star in Congo, I'm also a television star! My fame may be somewhat fleeting, but who's complaining? Last week my choir was interviewed for a local program called "La Musique du Ciel" ("Heavenly Music"). We all sat inside a music recording studio with the vibrant host of the show who made flamboyant commentary in Lingala (and I was pleased to actually understand most of it!). A bright light was directed on us as the camera man panned around the room, getting some close ups of me since I was in the front row! Thankfully I didn’t have to say anything because just 4 members were selected to respond to the questions. Between questions we sang some of our songs.

Yes, I'm a TV Star

The TV host is sitting on the stool on the right.

Karismatic

I have been marveling at how much I find myself integrated into Karisma Gospel choir. Friday night’s rehearsal was a ton of fun. The last two rehearsals they’ve spent a big chunk of time helping me learn a solo part to one of the songs. The song starts off with one of the other girls singing in a Congolese language. Then I come in with the English rendition. During these lengthy solos, the choir just follows along with some choreography. Then there’s a last section where we all repeat this one line over and over and there are a couple of really awesome solo parts that are so fast I’m not sure how the soloists manage to spit out the words. It’s a very fun song and I’m super happy to be able to do the English solo, especially since it seems to fit my voice and I can do it with a reasonable amount of confidence.

The other song we practiced on Friday is a real “Gospel” style song. There’s a lead part that everyone repeats after: “Hallelujah! (Hallelujah!) Hallelujah, amen! (Hallelujah, amen!), etc.". For some reason, since Gospel music comes from America and I’m American, they kept looking to me to come up with some kind of dance move for the song. This is hilarious to me given that they used to think I didn’t even know how to dance, and at first I was like “What?! Yeah right!” But when they asked a second time I was prepped with the move I wanted to do, so I showed it to them and they all started doing it! I’m a choreographer! The president of the choir was singing the lead part, but then he would call out other people’s names to do it. After three or four others, he called on me to do it one last time! It’s a really fun song and I was into it, but I think I got an adrenaline rush ‘cause I was shaking afterwards!

Anyways, all that to say, not only am I having a blast, but it seems like I’ve really been accepted as a full-fledged member. They’re not just humoring the white girl!