Kampala Music School goes viral

So the good intentions of updating this blog weekly have already slipped - Work is suddenly very busy here!

In addition to the lessons I am giving to 17 Ugandans at KMS (mostly adults and some of whom are also teachers at the school), 2 outreach projects, 2 orchestras, choir, and various other small-ensemble rehearsals, I’ve now also started teaching violin at St. Mary Kevin Orphanage Motherhood. SMKOM, situated in the village of Kijaansi just outside Kampala, is home to 150 orphans but also provides quality primary education for 300 ‘day scholars’. SMKOM became one of the first schools to defy social barriers in Africa by successfully integrating orphans in the school's population; within the classroom environment, it is impossible to distinguish between an orphan and a day scholar.  This has turned out to be one of my favourite places to teach - the children are unbelievably keen and diligent.

Perfecting bow holds at SMKOM

There has been a hype of activity at KMS in the past couple of weeks, with 2 special visitors from the media. Wbs TvUganda – a Ugandan TV channel - came to make a short documentary (watch it here), which has gone viral in the Kampala facebook world. Also, a radio producer from the BBC spent the week with us, recording a programme for BBC Radio 4. It will be aired on 14^th, 15^th and 17^th of December, so be sure to tune in! Sarah, the producer was overwhelmed with the teachers’ personal stories and all the work going on here, so it promises to be an interesting programme. 

Sarah from BBC interviews KMS Head of Keyboard, Paul

In other news:

• I have moved house (or ‘shifted’ as they say here). After 6 weeks of kindly being hosted by the KMS director and his family, I’m now renting a little room in a house with 3 other lovely volunteers. The house is slightly further out than I remember from my initial visit, which means a longer commute, but I no longer have to battle through downtown at least! Amongst other missing furniture, there is no fridge, which means having to buy fresh produce from the market each day.
• My cello playing is getting pretty good if I may say so! Don’t expect to see me performing a concerto at The Royal Albert Hall anytime soon, but just to let you know, I have now mastered ‘A Sad Dream’ and ‘A Happy Rambler’.
• There was a rare 'hybrid' solar exlipse the other day. I watched it from a cafe roof terrace with a group of friends. I was totally unprepared (as were most of us) but luckily one of the guys, Alasdair, rocked up with a special paper/ foil/ binocular contraption which allowed us all to view the eclipse safely.