Music is the Universal Language

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I visited the Presbyterian Church that both Cristian and Narciso attend. Cristian gave me a ride and introduced me to literally every single person there - like 50 people. The church was small, so we filled it up pretty well. It was a nice little building: one large room with wood paneled walls, wooden beamed ceilings that came together at the center aisle, and wooden pews. At the alter was a poster of sheep in a green field with mountains in the backdrop. I was observant of my surroundings because I had a really hard time understanding anything that was said. Narciso tried to help me understand the message, giving me bits and pieces in English. He even owns a bible with both Spanish and English translations which he lent me. The music however, was perfectly understandable. I may not have known the words, but the style of the hymnal, the hymns, and the boistrous congregational singing definitely made me feel just a little closer to the people there and a little bit closer to Jesus. That was wonderful.

Choir Practice on Tuesday night was enjoyable again. Narciso took me this time since Sayuri's throat has been bothering her. The highlight of the night was teaching vocabulary to him. "Seat belt" and "rehearsal." Somewhere along the lines we started talking about bells though, and he began to sing, "Oh yes! Ding dong bells, ding dong bells..." to the tune of Jingle Bells. We both laughed pretty hard about that one.

And once we finally arrived at the long anticipated "Politechoir" rehearsal, I quickly discovered again that kids are the same everywhere. 9 girls and 3 boys showed up to my first choir rehearsal. I'd say it was a decent success although I have to admit I expected more people to come. At least it was managable -not the roar of noise that my 40 person classes can be sometimes. (I'm really trying hard to tame that tiger right now). They seemed to enjoy the body warmups although I sense that the movements were unusual to them. They taught me a little bit of Spanish vocab words: inhale, exhale, etc. I'm trying to say as much in Spanish as I can to make it more comfortable for them, but it's certainly a stretch for me. They're eager to help me out though (so thankful that I'm not speaking English I think), so it works. The singing was pretty good although there's always one or two poor souls with the best attitude and voices that just need a little help. Still working on that one

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