17/4/09

Ok so another week has nearly passed with no updates. What have I been doing? Well there was Easter. That was fun. In the morning I went with Manding and Sukai (the guest mum) to a craft market which was closing that day so everything was very cheap. As a result bought far too much! Wow how my suitcase is going to suffer! Had the chocolate bunny hunt in the afternoon which everyone enjoyed, including the adults as it's a tradition they'd never seen before. In the evening we all went to the Ndere Centre which has a traditional cultural evening every Sunday with traiditonal dance and food. Was a great evening. The dancing and drumming are amazing! Ended with these women dancing with up to 8 clay pots on their head!! Wow.

Monday was a less exciting day full of practice and swimming and general relaxingness before going back to school the next day. This week has been very full of rehearsals what with the concert coming up on Sunday! Tuesday was my second rehearsal with Paul the pianist and it didn't go great. But he's practised since then so i'm feeling a lot more confident! Also have had rehearsals with Sam and Julie which are going fine and should be a success in the concert. It was Kampala Cantori on Tues night (not Wed) because George who is an organ teacher - only came out for about 2 weeks (he left today actually) was doing a recital at Nariembe Cathedral on Wed. We sung an arrangement of 'In the Jungle the mighty Jungle...' which was fun. Jenny and Jessy was cancelled on Wed becuase they had exams which was fine because it gave us more time for reheasing. The organ recital was great. I don't think I've ever actually been to an organ recital and this one was definitely one to remember because there was a power cut in the middle of one of the pieces! It was quite fun though - the lights went out one by one from each end of the cathedral, ending with the light on the organ. A bit like it might happen in a horror film or something! The rest of the week has been more rehearsing and teaching. And beauty school where we're just perfecting manicures and pedicures really. Today Carys gave Julie a manicure while I gave her a pedicure - talk about being pampered! Our teacher also announced that next week (our last full week here) we will be having an exam and then will post us our certificates! How exciting. Better get revising I guess! Last night we (me, Carys, Sam and Julie) were invited to dinner by George at the house of the people he's staying with which was lovely. Had mint choc chip ice cream and cookies and cream! What luxury! So that was nice. That's basically my week in brief...not that exciting and just lots of preparations for the concert. Oh - Marcel Worms (the guy from Holland who we're sharing half our concert with) has arrived and has been giving masterclasses to the piano students. They are very interesting and I'm sure will be a great help to those who are taking exams - there are a few grade 8 piano students going in for exams this year I think so it's great he's here now becuase they have a good length of time to work on the pieces...

My departure date is getting closer and closer. I'll probably only have time for 1 or 2 more entries - I'll definitely update it with how the concert goes! It is going to be very sad to leave. I'd like to come back in the future and see how the school has developed. It will be nice to get home and see people though. What a fantastic experience it has been! Bye for now, hope you all had a lovely long easter weekend! We had English bank holiday weather here - rained most of the weekend but has been very hot this week! Typical!