Ugandan Kids Choir receives rave reviews
<span>EDITOR'S NOTE: To view a photo gallery of Sunday's event and see a short video of the choir's performance, see the Herald Tribune's galleries on this website.</span>
The First United Methodist Church in Chester hosted the Ugandan Kids Choir last week. A total of 10 choir members (five boys and five girls ages 8 through 12) stayed with host families during Thanksgiving weekend.
The Ugandan Kids Choir was formed in 2006 and has been traveling and entertaining ever since. The group of performers is selected based on their musical talent.
They train for six months in Uganda to prepare for the tour of America, which lasts 11 months. Each child in the choir has already been sponsored by someone either in America, or in some other country that supports the sponsoring of children in need.
The group performs mostly in churches, but also in theatres, schools, musical venues and for many United States dignitaries and government agencies.
A typical week includes traveling from town-to-town, family-to-family and venue-to-venue. The group performs two to three concerts weekly spreading their message and the joy of Jesus wherever they go.
The opportunity to host this very talented group of children happened by unfortunate accident. The church that was scheduled to host the choir had to cancel its offer at the last minute.
The FUMC in Chester was contacted and the Administrative Council at the church graciously gave the Worship Committee of the Church the green light to pursue to the somewhat ambitious project.
The children were accompanied by one employee of the Childcare Worldwide organization and two Ugandan volunteer chaperones. One chaperone was a teacher, while the other was a music director.
The request from Childcare Worldwide was that three families would volunteer to host the tour group. Groups are typically divided into two groups of three and one group of four choir members.
One family hosted five boys, along with two chaperones, while the other family hosted five girls and one chaperone.
Thanksgiving evening was an opportunity to share a traditional Thanksgiving meal with the African visitors in an American setting.
The children were quite excited and referred to their adult family hosts as "Auntie" and "Uncle" the entire weekend.
Bedtime was 8:30 p.m. on Thursday because Friday was a school day and rehearsal day for the children.
The group of children and chaperones arrived at FUMC at 8:45 a.m., where they spent the entire morning in class.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent singing, dancing and preparing for the Sunday performances.
The children were amazed by many American forms of entertainment which did not include television or technology.
Board games, art work, music, reading and asking thousands of questions about America were approved means of spending free time.
Approved video movies were also allowed, but only if the entire group of 13 visitors was joined together so as to keep opportunities equal for all.
Saturday was a day of rest. Choir members and chaperones enjoyed sleeping in after which a full American breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast were enjoyed.
What was left of the morning was spent playing board games, putting puzzles together, drawing, playing with toys and otherwise relaxing.
Adult chaperones spent time doing laundry for the group, completing paperwork and catching up with friends and family.
Sunday morning, November 29, arrived early. Showers and breakfast had to be completed by approximately 8:45 a.m., after which all luggage and supplies had to be loaded into the vehicles for transportation back to the church.
The 45-minute performance was a high-energy mix of cultural music, dance, and worship songs.
The children wore traditional costumes of the African culture and played numerous percussion instruments throughout the show.
Following the performance, the children were special guests at a church potluck in the FUMC fellowship Hall.
At 1:30 p.m., the group of travelers departed the Church for their next destination at Park Hills (Mo.), where they had a 5:30 p.m. performance at a local church.
After that performance, the entire group was scheduled to check in to a local hotel where they were to enjoy a rare three-day vacation of rest and relaxation. Then, they will travel to Oklahoma for the final leg of their 2015-16 tour.
The current tour ends in March of 2016, when the group will return to Uganda to continue their educations and prepare for the challenges of their future lives in Uganda.
For more information about the Childcare Worldwide initiative, interested parties can go to www.UgandanKidsChoir.org.
The Chester FUMC families sponsored six children and gave a "love offering" to the organization in addition, to help fund the everyday workings of the organization.