Song and dance

"Uganda is a very beautiful place with very beautiful people. It is green and lush. It has the best pineapples and bananas in the whole world!"

Students at Catalina Elementary got a lesson in social geography last week that didn't come from a textbook. Instead, they gathered in the school gym to see 18 of their peers from Africa sing, dance and share their story.

The Watoto Children's Choir is made up of orphans from Uganda. Most have been orphaned by AIDS, others by civil strife or poverty. Still, the 18 faces on stage are beaming.

"We can't play drums without dancing," says one, by way of introduction of a dance-off competition between boys and girls of Catalina Elementary. Soon the whole gym is alive with students trying to match the rhythm and moves of the children on stage.

But other moments are more sobering.

Jimmy was abandoned on the side of the road when he was five years old.

"I used to go to bed hungry and wondered what would become of me," the now 10-year old told the audience. "Then I came to Watoto and everything changed. Now I go to school, and I even have my own uniform."

This choir spent five months training for the road. They take English lessons, singing and dancing lessons, etiquettes, table manners - teaching them what to expect in other parts of the world. All this comes with a heavy dose of spirituality.

"We teach children about Christ so they know what they are singing about," says Children's Administrator Diana Serukenya. She is one of 10 adults who tour with the kids, responsible for their leisure time, costumes and teaching the Life Skills course. Serukenya also joins the children on stage with a microphone of her own.

There have been 37 Watoto Children's Choirs tour since 1994, raising funds for the Watoto Children's Villages in Uganda. The villages are homes for orphaned kids, with family units, a medical centre, school and recreation grounds. There are three children's villages in Uganda, founded by Canadian missionaries Gary and Marilyn Skinner. Over 1,700 orphaned and abandoned children are living in three children's villages and one home for babies.

Choir 34, who graced the stage at Catalina Elementary last week, has been touring since January. They've travelled across Canada by bus, staying with billet families and taking their school lessons on the road. They played two concerts each in Trinity Bay North and Bonavista. With just four concert-free days in May, their touring schedule is enough to make even the most seasoned performer's head spin.

"When we are on the bus, we don't sing. That's how we keep our voices," says Serukenya. They've performed at churches and schools and community events across the country.

Eighteen children from 8 to 13 make up Choir 34 - one boy celebrated his 13th birthday the day before arriving in Trinity Bay North.

"People here are very friendly. The weather has been good, but we've seen many changes," says Serukenya of the choir's time in Newfoundland so far. They met rain in Port aux Basques and 25 degrees and sunshine the day they were on the Bonavista Peninsula.

"The children only get one opportunity to travel, to give an opportunity for other children to go on the road," she says.

"It's a chance of a lifetime for many of these children to tour the globe, trying new tastes and sights; 647 children have sang with the choirs in the last 15 years.

"The food is different," admits Jimmy after the concert. "I miss my mother and friends." His mother is the house mother - a woman in charge of eight children at the Watoto Village. The snow in western Canada was also a real treat. Beneth remembers building snowmen earlier in the tour.

"Here, you have snow. We don't have snow," she says with a matter-of-factness akin to children the world over.

The children have six more weeks of performances before going home.

lbutton@thepacket.ca