Thursday, March 29, 2012

Entertainment at its....

Last Sunday evening Kelsea and I attended a gospel concert in town. This turned out to be such a treat, but not in the ways you might expect. The two hours we spent there were highly entertaining for me, but honestly it was probably entertaining for all the wrong reasons as it was a very "cultural" experience.


The concert was supposed to begin at 2pm. We arrived around 4:20pm to discover that it had just begun shortly before we arrived, so we hadn't missed much.

The first thing you need to understand is that music performances in Uganda consist of one singer going on an empty stage and singing along to a CD track which typically already has vocals on it. To be fair, they might have recorded their own voice on that CD in a studio, and now they are singing on top of their own voice. Sometimes harmonizing or singing an octave higher.

The second thing you need to know is that Ugandans like things to be loud. Whether it's church, a concert, or a van driving through town advertising, sound systems and loud speakers are used to their fullest potential. Sounds and voices get distorted and you can feel the vibrations reverberating in your chest and chair.

When we arrived we paid 3,000 shillings for admission. This admission price included a free soda (which usually costs about 1,500 on its own). Then once you were inside you had to pay an additional 500 shillings for a chair. This logic did not make sense or add up to me, but like I've said before, you learn to just go with things here. We set up our chairs toward the back in an attempt to save our eardrums from the speakers.

The emcees
Any ideas you have about what a gospel concert might be like should also be erased now. When I think about gospel music, I typically think about dominant and harmonizing vocals, a refrain, and often a more syncopated rhythm. In Uganda, "gospel" simply means music with a Christian message. It has nothing to do with a genre of music or how the song is written or performed.


One performer sang a song mostly in Runyankole that also contained the repeated line, "Yesu, number one. Sitaane number zero." That translates to "Jesus, number one. Satan, number zero."

The best moment, and the reason that we actually went to this concert, was to watch one of our teammates perform. Harrison Jones (or Herrison Jonez, as the advertising poster read) is a high school English teacher who has taken up a second career in Mbarara as rapper. He has a number one hit on the local Christian radio station and is proof that anything is possible here! Of course we knew about his musical talent as he often leads music for team meetings and plays in the community worship nights, but we had yet to see a live rap performance. Sunday was our lucky day, and it was worth every shilling!


Upon moving to Uganda, I quickly realized that you have to create your own entertainment. Whether it be inventing a game to play with your roommates, keeping up with the latest news about the lion in the neighborhood, or going to a local-talent concert, it's up to you to make sure you're having a great time here!

Last Sunday, I was very entertained.

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