Day 6
Wednesday 26th
We started the day at Ballanta and JT Reffel as normal. At JT we taught a different class, to start with we made masks with different craft equipment, they loved the glitter and decided to stick it all over their faces, hands and Rhodri who is apparently afraid of it. After this we decided to teach them the round that Dillon and Hafren had taught us on the bus. This comprised of three songs, Swing Low, Oh When the Saints and I Want to Sing. The kids loved the singing and tried to sing loud enough to make the whole of Freetown jealous.
After teaching at Ballanta (with my [Lindsey] first composition student!), we finished the morning jamming with James - rehearsing pieces for outreach concerts later in the day. After this we met up with the others before heading to our first outreach concert - at Aberdeen Women's Clinic. Here we were shocked to see so many pregnant young girls even younger than us. Johanna's incredible voice was much appreciated by all the girls, as was the rest of the jazz that the musicians played.
Our second outreach concert of the day was at SOS school. Francesta (the singer from Groovy Colours) used to go there - which made her something of a local celebrity! We began the concert with Johanna's impressive vocals, then swiftly followed this with our jazz pieces. After joining up with Groovy Colours, Hafren stunned the audience with a rendition of Summertime, as we improvised. Next, we played James's Jam - our nickname for the first piece we played with James, Groovy Colours' pianist. One enthusiastic boy was summoned over by Hafren to dance, leading the whole audience (including teachers!) in a freestyle dance off. We managed to join in on the dancing, even while improvising. Hands down this was one of the most incredible experiences of our musical life!
Lindsey and Olivia
