A Queen By Any Other Name

It was Sunday morning.  The day before, Marty had expressed that it would have been nice to attend a local church service, but our schedule did not allow us enough time for that, and not only that but not everyone on the team practices christianity.  I suggested that we take some time at breakfast to express our thoughts and feelings on our experience thus far.  We each took turns sharing our gratitude for a number of different things, but the one thread that ran through each was gratitude for being there and making new friends.  Another thing we had to be grateful for that day was Curt's birthday!  We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  Shortly afterward we were joined by Moses and some more YPO members.  I believe Deniz, Abdul, and Abrham Ikiriza came along that morning.

Our team arrived at YPO ready to be students.  Our goal: to learn about traditional Ugandan music and dance, and also to learn to perform.  A gargantuan task for one whose color is Paper Bright 85, but I digress...

Richard, one of the YPO trainers, started us off by having YPO sing us the Ugandan national anthem.  What they didn't know was that we had learned it!  We sang along with them and you could tell the kids were surprised.  Later on I asked one of them, Abraham, what he thought.  His response was that once he realized what we were doing, his heart burst.  Then he knew we were true musicians. I think that's the best compliment I have ever received...

forty-??? 

How old are you now?

They asked us to sing our national anthem, and we did.  It seemed like quite a few YPO members knew it.  We were about to start our tutorial when someone mentioned that it was Curt's birthday.  The YPO kids had Curt sit down in a chair and stood around him singing "Happy Birthday" including the "how old are you now" verse.  Curt beamed the whole time.  What a special birthday treat!

Now it was time for our lesson.  Richard held up each instrument that is used for performance.  He gave us the Lugandan and English names for each and a brief demo.  Each time he described an instrument he would always say "the sweet music" or "the sweet sound".  John and I looked at each other and smiled because his description was poetic.

Next we were asked to come forward and each of us was positioned by a drum. I was a fish out of water! I put on a good front though (at least i think i did!) and took my drum sticks in hand, totally prepared to make a fool out of myself.

When I was in high school I was part of a singing and dancing group called Show Choir.  Of all the kids in our group, I had the least amount of coordination or the greatest level of inhibition, take your pick.  Our poor choreographer was so patient with me. Her solution to most of it was to have me walk or move with the beat to my position and throw out "jazz hands". Standing there, getting ready to drum, caused me to relive this angst-filled time of my life.

 Saint David: My drum teacher and Gerald's Ugandan twin

I will spare you the details, but I think I did okay.  I kept the beat, but changing from one rhythm to the next was painstaking.  David was next to me trying to help me figure it out. He was so patient.  He kept saying things like, "Tah tah, bah-bah-bah..." And I kept telling him, "Give me numbers!  Count for me.  I understand numbers!"  After that experience, I think David should be nominated for sainthood! In the meantime, Curt and Mary, who were on either side of me, were drumming away.  No pressure, right???

Finally drumming lessons came to an end.  We stopped for a break and planned on learning some dance moves a little later (thankfully that never came to pass).  As we visited, we were introduced t some of the YPO members that were absent the day before.  One young man introduced himself to me as Junior and bragged that he was a "genius".  

I replied, "Really...?  Well...what you fail to realize is that you are standing in the presence of the Queen of Maine."

It stuck.  I figured, if Buganda can have a monarchy, why not Maine?

By the time I left Uganda, not only did all the kids from YPO call me the Queen of Maine, but many of the Kijjansi Rotarians did as well.  

It's good to be Queen...

Kuza Troupe Member, Little J