The Ordinary and the Extraordinary

Dear friends-

It’s been a few days since I wrote the last blog post, even though I just posted it. I wanted to let you know that I am feeling much more stable anxiety-wise and have been sleeping much better. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray!

I’m getting to be on more of a schedule now. Let me detail for you what my schedule is beginning to look like.

On Sundays, I spent most of the day in church and in choir rehearsal at CSI Ascension Church and at the college chapel for Kottayam Mixed Voices practice. I usually assist with leading and doing vocal training and warm-ups at Ascension practice and get to do warm-ups with Mixed Voices. We’re singing Christmas music! Lots and lots of it. It is pretty odd to be singing “Silent Night” when it’s 85 degrees outside, admittedly.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I teach conversational English to the girls at the hostel for one hour in the evenings. We have a pretty fun time, and have worked on introducing ourselves, talking about our family, sharing about our hobbies…We had a great discussion about college life at CMS and the differences between college life in the States and in India. Initially these were really well attended; now the girls have exams going on again and so very few have been present.

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings for one hour, I lead choir at the hostel. We have had anywhere from 24 to 7 girls attend. We’re working on some Christmas carols-just unison, no parts (yet). Mostly we work on voice training and pronunciation. I’m debating whether or not to teach them some lesser known carols (the ones I really like) such as Sing We Now of Christmas or Fum, Fum, Fum.

Tuesday and Thursday mornings for one hour is the faculty voice training program. I really enjoy teaching this group, as they are charismatic and try everything I tell them to try vocally instead of always giggling like many students do. Our hour is divided between three components: vocal training, music fundamentals (right now we’re working on Kodaly rhythms-I can’t believe how useful everything from student teaching has been here), and then sight reading. Today we learned the solfege syllables do through mi.

On Wednesdays for a half hour I teach conversational English to a group of Home Science majors in their department. I wish I had more time with them, but as all the students are in class from 10 am to 1 pm, and 2-4 pm, the only time I can have classes with them or the faculty is from 9-10 am and for a brief half hour at lunchtime. And the college choir meets every day from 1:30-2 and from 4-5, but we didn’t meet last week or this week and won’t meet again until December. 

My flyer in the hostel

On Thursdays, I travel to Baker Girls School where I teach conversational English and music all day. The music class I really enjoy-they have been very responsive to Kodaly rhythms, which also transcends the language barrier. That’s the awesome thing about teaching music-it’s universal. The English classes have been going relatively well, though the very large class size makes any kind of movement or games pretty hard to do, which is a shame because I have a lot of great games I would love to do with them but can’t with 40-50 girls.

Fridays and Saturdays are kind of my free days as of now; Ascension choir rehearsal is on Saturdays as well but I’ve chosen only to participate because of trying to take care of my voice. I feel like I definitely strained my voice somehow a couple of weeks ago; it hasn’t felt normal since. I’m taking as much vocal rest as I can, but please be praying for my vocal restoration. Thanks for your prayers for this specifically.

  

I am excited to share with you an awesome blessing that has surfaced- I am teaching a private voice student. Her name is Jemima. She is only 15 years old and is INCREDIBLY talented. I sought her out asking if she wanted to study with me. She has voice lessons once a month, but has to travel far away, so this is such an awesome blessing to be able to work with her here in Kottayam. She has a very mature voice for a 15-year old. Though her English is limited, teaching voice works pretty well with her with lots of gestures and modeling. We’ve been working on Bach’s Bist du bei mir, a favorite of mine, and so we're working a lot on our German pronunciation. It's funny to be using little Malayalam phrases I know to work on a German piece! I get chills when she sings this piece; she sings it better than half of the vocal majors I went to college with. Her musical intuition is incredible and her voice lovely. It is a pure joy to work with her and I really look forward to it each week. We meet in Gigi Sir’s office, and he’s been so kind as so bring a keyboard in for our use. This is a huge praise!

Aside from scheduled programs, I was last week invited to two different schools to help out with some music training. I think there are one or two more schools where I will start to regularly teach, but I’m taking some time before I get involved with them to rest my voice and to just wait until I’m more settled in before taking on the challenge.

In the evenings, I exercise before I have to be in, then at 6 all are inside the compound. Evenings I usually feel like I have sufficient activity with English or choir, hostel prayer, dinner, and fun time afterwards. The girls have about a half hour free after dinner before they have to go back to studying-during this time I like to hang out with them, play guitar, or UNO. Some of them really enjoying learning worship songs, which is awesome. Afterwards I spend my evenings planning for my classes, reading, and hanging out with Ann, Rinsy, and Sheny. I have a Malayalam lesson on occasion, too.

I am now comfortable going out into town by myself-yesterday I went to the grocery and the tailors by myself. I prefer to go with some of the girls, but they are very busy right now with studying.


Thursday held something new: my first ever cricket match! It was the championship game between the colleges of Mahatma Gandhi University, and CMS won! This was also the first time I'd seen the college united at a sporting event-there were many students and faculty there, all cheering on CMS. Although I had no idea what was going on in the match, I heartily enjoyed being at this important event and look forward to learning more about cricket. 

Students watching the match

Friends Finsy and Divya and others from the hostel

The loudest I've ever heard these girls! Also, this shouting and cheering was right before choir practice! 

CMS won!!! The victory swarm

With Divya and Finsy and Finsy's friend

The victorious team with their trophy

A beautiful scene

On Friday I went with Prathibha, a friend from Ascension Choir, to her family’s clothing store nearby in Kanjikuzhy. She helped me choose two new churidars and two new kurti (tunics). It’s pretty exciting to have some new clothing and it was really fun to be able to go shopping with a friend. Most of the time here I don’t wear a formal churidar; most frequently I wear different leggings with different kurti tops.

After shopping, she took me to her family’s photography studio next door and we decided to do a random photo shoot, which was pretty amusing. Here I am with Prathibha: 

This past weekend was adventure-filled. From Friday to Monday I was in the town called Panthanamthitta about an hour and a half away leading a choir retreat at the college chaplain’s church. His name is Roy Sir. I stayed at his house with his family for three nights and experienced their loving hospitality. Sunday was his daughter’s birthday and there was a birthday dinner for her.

On Saturday before the choir retreat began I went with Roy Sir and his wife to an elephant place in Kunni, where I got to ride an elephant! I was so excited-it was about a five-minute ride on a big elephant! I was surprised how comfortable it was to ride her-she was kind of squishy! Afterwards, I got to feed her bananas one by one. It was such a fun experience. Interestingly, every Indian I've asked has not ridden an elephant, and Roy Sir had his first ride that day as well. I thought that many Indians have had this opportunity but they haven't, so this further made me appreciate this special experience. Hope you enjoy these photos:

"How do I get on?"

The ride! 

So exciting!

This was when I was feeding the elephant and I got "slimed": the elephant's trunk got mud all over my arm! Sitting on the elephant is Roy Sir, the college chaplain.

Feeding her bananas one by one!

 

After visiting the elephant place, the choir retreat began. It was held for members of three different churches: All Saints CSI Church of Pathanamthitta, St. Paul's Church, Nallanikunnu, where the retreat was held, and St.Thomas CSI Church, Chenneerkara. We met on Saturday afternoon as well as Sunday afternoon, and spent the weekend working on vocal training, learning warm-ups, and learning some basic music fundamentals. I had them learn the carol, "In the Bleak Midwinter" and they made admirable progress after two days. Many of them had not sung in English before and none of them read music. I was really proud of all that they learned. There were about 40 choir members present for the weekend. Some of them were very very young! It was interesting to note how the children stuck around for all the activities and tried everything that their parents did-even though my exercises and instruction were not at all age-appropriate for them. I couldn't believe that they stuck with me for the 3-hour sessions-trying all the exercises about breathing and tone production! That's a big difference I've noticed: kids in the U.S. would have been running around five minutes into it, doing their own thing, and I expected these kids to go off and do something else, but they didn't! They stayed and learned all the exercises; I felt bad that I didn't have more age-appropriate material for them. On Sunday morning before church I was asked to come and teach a song to the Sunday school class, so I taught them "I Love You, Lord." On the way home from church, I got to ride with Roy Sir on his motorcycle!

Roy Sir's bike

Our attempt at taking a picture of just me riding: please note the stand underneath :)

Teaching the men "In the Bleak Midwinter"

Teaching Kodaly rhythms-these are super handy to use here!

The Kodaly system uses easy rhythm symbols which can then be transferred to actual music reading

The whole group

I recorded them singing "In the Bleak Midwinter" and hope you enjoy the video. It was truly a blessing to come and to work with these people, and I was humbled by all of their kindness towards me. I was surprised at what a bond I felt with them after just two days. Working on music with people is really a very personal thing. I had to earn their trust in trying many new vocal exercises and they had to make themselves and their voice vulnerable to me. I think we were able to establish that trust and learned to make music together, which is really a very beautiful and precious thing. 

Once the retreat was over, a lot of the little kids rushed up to me, asking me for my autograph! I was very surprised and it kind of hit me that this had been maybe an important event for them. After all, most of them have never met an American. Many of the choir directors here do not read music. Most, or all of these people will never get the opportunity to work with a trained musician again, or have another choir retreat. This was, after all, a small village church. Roy Sir later told me that it was a very big deal to have someone come from so far away to see them, as he thanked me with tears in his eyes. I will never forget that.


It's amazing how God can take the small things and really use them to make an impact. After all, I feel like I'm doing a lot of everyday, ordinary things. I'm visiting people, smiling at them, eating with them, singing for them, teaching them a little song or two....it doesn't feel like much to me. It is nothing special in and of itself. All I did was teach warm-ups and some new ideas and one song to these people, but it seemed to have really meant a lot to them.
God is making the ordinary extraordinary. Even though being here is difficult and challenging, I must never forget what a privilege it is. It is a great privilege to live here, to live among these people and new friends. To do the small things-to eat with them, to smile at them, to greet them.

Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing anything special or extraordinary, and I'm not. I've come here to live in a different culture, and they have invited me into their lives and hearts. It is an honor and a privilege. Mostly, this year is not about me. This year is about learning, about being humbled, about dying to self. It's about doing the ordinary in a new place, and coming to a deeper understanding of the transformative power of the cross to make all things new. It's about getting my feet dirty and struggling with serious doubts. It's about serving. It's not about me. I trust and pray that God would continue to provide opportunities like this weekend choir retreat, opportunities to share little bits of my knowledge and to see how God uses them.


"I know I'm filled to be emptied again
The seed I will reap I will sow."
-from Hillsong's 'Desert Song'