Monday 21 October 2019

Day 4 Thrown at the deep end...

Today we split up into musicians and non-musicians and went to JTR and Ballanta Academy for the first time. The staff and students at JTR were very welcoming and friendly. The students loved playing games like maths bingo and 21, and often got a little overexcited!! But I suppose, this is to be expected when you teach a class of anywhere between 32 to 68 students ( Prep 2, which Elie and Hector we’re supporting rather than teach on the own).




After some very chaotic lessons, we went to meet the musicians at Ballanta before going to the Milton Margai School for the Blind. The musicians performed an outreach concert there for the students, before we listened to the Milton Margai school choir sing some songs, including ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ and a traditional Sierra Leone folk song. We spent some time talking with the children before returning to LACS for tea (black bean stew and rice). It was a very tiring but amazing day!
~ Lottie

Today we taught our first lessons at the Ballenta Academy, teaching groups of up to eight people including men and women, between the ages of 18-45 and ranging in ability. Whilst this was very challenging it was also rewarding to see how passionate the students were about music. After teaching from 9 am both groups met up and had lunch at 1 pm, this consisted of chicken pies. Unfortunately a few people within the group have been suffering from tiredness and over exposure to the heat. Both of which will hopefully be cured by a long nights sleep, so early nights all around tonight!!

This afternoon’s visit to the school for the blind was a very emotional visit but it was also lovely to see the children enjoying the music that we performed so much. It was also amazing to hear their choir perform some traditional African folk songs and see how much the music meant to them.
Hattie