Let the People Sing!

Last week I spent Wednesday until Sunday in a music seminar. I had no idea really what I was going to be doing, but a visiting missionary woman was hosting it and the VanderMeer girls were going so I figured I would go as well. It was amazing. It was held in a church building and there were about 50 participants, almost all of them choir leaders or church officials. The teacher's name was Wendy, and she is an ethnomusicologist (try saying that 10 times fast) who is living in Central African Republic. In 5 days we learned all about music; how it was used in the Bible and God's purposes for music. We learned how to minister through music, the power of it, and how it can delight the Lord. I thought of you, Mr. Keith McMinn :) Not only that, but we also were taught how to compose music. It was pretty neat, I thought, ok sweet, i can listen to how to compose music, it will be interesting. I didn't know we would have to do it ourselves! We composed a total of 18 songs over those few days. One all together as a large group (in Lingala), 9 in small groups (in Lingala again) and then 8 in groups based on our tribal tongue. Composing the first few were fine because we just let everyone else do it, Africans are much better at composing songs than bandela (white people). But when we split into groups based on our tribal tongue there was one English group, Maaike, Joanna, Michelle and I. For the tribal song we all had to compose something to Revelations 7:10 and 12. Half of the language groups had to translate the verses from the Lingala because they don't have a Bible in that language.
On Sunday we performed the songs. It was really amazing to hear all the different languages. The songs and dances were awesome, some of them pretty typical of what you would imagine a rainforest tribe to sing like, complete with costumes made of palm leaves and white face paint. It was awesome. Except for our little english song... it was incredibly boring compared to the African songs. We did sign language along with it, because Africans find it hard to believe that white people actually just stand still when they sing, and with so much dancing in the other songs we had to do something. Our song was very boring, but everyone cheered very loudly when we finished, I think in part because they were unsure as to whether the white people would be able to do it :)
The time here is just flying by. Next week 12 or so people come from Germany for Bettina's wedding (her Malaria is gone by the way, praise God!), and the festivities and craziness begin. I think all of northern Congo might be empty except for Isiro because they are all coming to the wedding!
Tomorrow Maaike, Joanna, Mr. VanderMeer and I and three other people are biking to the town of Nebubongo. It is about 50 kilometers or so away from Isiro, and we are traveling over muddy jungle road (hmm... path). We will spend Saturday and Sunday staying with a German missionary couple there and then bike back on Monday. I am sure that it will be a lot of fun, but I don't think any of us really know what we are getting ourselves into! The trip takes three hours by car, at least. So much longer by bicycle! But I am sure that it will be quite an adventure! We might take a trip into the dense jungle to visit the pygmies while we are there. I am very excited, and I hope that we will be able to brighten the day of some of the villagers we pass... I am sure they will spend the next week talking about those crazy white people who biked to Nebo just for fun!