As I wrote in my recent post, the Parot Community Church has the tradition of hosting a meal for the community during the holiday season. I don't know if any of you readers wondered how the church has the means to provide this meal, but if you're interested to know, read on!
The "fund raising" is done by a choir of church women and children who go around the village singing and dancing at people's homes. I like to think of it as caroling, Dinka style. It's also kind of like street musicians going from home to home. Most people seem to enjoy having the choir stop at their home; some join right in with the singing and dancing.
Most of the people who are visited by the choir contribute small amounts of money; others give sorghum (grain) or other things that can be used for the meal. This year they raised 850 South Sudanese pounds (equivalent to about $150 at the current exchange rate), which is quite a bit of money for here. They also received several gifts of food, particularly sorghum.
I don't have any decent pictures of the choir, but I do have two videos that will give you an idea of what their singing and dancing are like. The first video is below and shows the choir at the Wards' house on Christmas Day in addition to some short clips of them walking in village and "performing" at another house.
The choir walks around the village visiting the homes of church people and other friends, relatives and neighbours. They usually spend a few hours per day doing this for the five to seven days before the meal. The composition of the group varies from one day to the next. There is a small core of a few regular women and kids, and then others join in as they are able.
One day my teammates and I decided to join the choir and do some caroling, North American style. It was a very fun experience. We walked around with the group for a few hours. They would do a few numbers in Dinka, and then we would sing a stanza or two from a few English Christmas carols. People were rather surprised to see us but seemed to enjoy our very strange sounding (to them) songs.
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of this. I wanted to just enjoy the experience and not have a camera be the focus of attention, as it often is when I bring it out. We were enough of an attraction without a camera. :-) It's not often that our neighbours see that many of us "khawaja" (white people) out walking together. The number of kids in the choir swelled quite a bit that day as many wanted to walk along with us. Some of the older kids who are at school and can speak and read some English tried to read along on our carol sheets and they joined in when they could. A mini cross-cultural experience for them!
This second video shows the choir doing a dance step that is currently very popular for youth choirs to do as they sing.
The "fund raising" is done by a choir of church women and children who go around the village singing and dancing at people's homes. I like to think of it as caroling, Dinka style. It's also kind of like street musicians going from home to home. Most people seem to enjoy having the choir stop at their home; some join right in with the singing and dancing.
Most of the people who are visited by the choir contribute small amounts of money; others give sorghum (grain) or other things that can be used for the meal. This year they raised 850 South Sudanese pounds (equivalent to about $150 at the current exchange rate), which is quite a bit of money for here. They also received several gifts of food, particularly sorghum.
I don't have any decent pictures of the choir, but I do have two videos that will give you an idea of what their singing and dancing are like. The first video is below and shows the choir at the Wards' house on Christmas Day in addition to some short clips of them walking in village and "performing" at another house.
One day my teammates and I decided to join the choir and do some caroling, North American style. It was a very fun experience. We walked around with the group for a few hours. They would do a few numbers in Dinka, and then we would sing a stanza or two from a few English Christmas carols. People were rather surprised to see us but seemed to enjoy our very strange sounding (to them) songs.
Unfortunately I don't have any photos of this. I wanted to just enjoy the experience and not have a camera be the focus of attention, as it often is when I bring it out. We were enough of an attraction without a camera. :-) It's not often that our neighbours see that many of us "khawaja" (white people) out walking together. The number of kids in the choir swelled quite a bit that day as many wanted to walk along with us. Some of the older kids who are at school and can speak and read some English tried to read along on our carol sheets and they joined in when they could. A mini cross-cultural experience for them!
This second video shows the choir doing a dance step that is currently very popular for youth choirs to do as they sing.
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