by Samantha Smith (’14) and Malinda Kathleen Reese (’16)

This summer we worked with Professor Christine Howlett in Nansana, Uganda, collaborating with a Japanese organization called the Ashinaga Foundation, which helps orphans achieve higher education in Japan and Uganda. At their Ugandan location, Ashinaga has over 800 registered orphans, all of whom lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. In addition to providing psychological care and scholarships for everyone at Ashinaga Uganda, they also house the Terakoya School, a primary school for P1 to 4, and these were the kids that we saw everyday. “Madam” Christine, as the kids knew her, taught music to all 70 students in rotating groups, but we focused on 30 exceptional students who will ultimately meet with the Vassar College Choir in Tokyo in the spring of 2014 to workshop a show that will then make a world tour in the summer of 2015.

As Christine’s assistants, we worked with the students in class on perfecting their solfège (a teaching technique using hand symbols to represent pitch) and on learning several new songs. The repertoire included American, Hebrew, and South African folk songs as well as contemporary choral works. Most of our students also regularly train in traditional Ugandan dance, and they brought their love of movement into our classroom, creating a dance to every song or even adding gestures to accompany lyrics. In addition to getting to know all of the students at school, we accompanied the teachers and staff of Ashinaga on several home visits, where we would meet their families. This home visit system is a way for Ashinaga to ensure that the kids have as stable a home situation as possible, and for us it was a window into a completely different side of these kids’ lives.

The most moving thing about working with the students at Terakoya was seeing the sheer joy that they could find in any activity, whether it be school work, singing or dancing. Their dedication to performing their best and sharing that joy with others was a major catalyst behind the remarkable improvement that we saw in their pitch, listening skills, and vocal control in just three weeks.