Sunday, Oct 23, I went to my first church service since I’ve been here. I went to John-Doe’s church. For those who don't know, John-Doe is my instrumental music education colleague here, and also one of my best friends here. He is originally from the Volta Region and he moved here when he started his undergrad degree at the University of Cape Coast several years ago.
JD's church is a church where people from the Volta Region go, who have moved here. They speak a different language than the people who are from Cape Coast, so their church service is in Ewe (Volta language), rather than Twi (Central Region/Cape Coast language). The church was celebrating their 50th anniversary. So it was a special occasion, which is why I went. For the occasion, John-Doe has his university band come and perform. He found me a flute, so I played flute along with them in the band for the church service as well!
There was so much music in the service! It was mostly music, and some talking, and a little bit of preaching. Some of the service (most, maybe?) was in English, and some was in Ewe. I really loved watching how they put the polyrhythms with the hymns. Such a cool way of singing hymns! The music really was the highlight of the service for me. And when I say music, I mean they had all different kinds of music. They had the traditional drum ensemble set up, which played a lot. And they had our wind band, which was your typical brass and woodwinds instruments. And they had a choir, which sang along with us too. And also a keyboard which acted as an organ, that played along to most things (it was typically John-Doe playing it, or one of our UCC piano students) And also, the people in the congregation danced and sang a lot when the music was going on. It was very participatory amongst everyone. I love how everyone feels very comfortable to just get up and move. It’s not just confined to the choir and there were no specific dancers. It was just such a cool immersive event and helped me understand a bit more about how music is integral to so many aspects of life here, and how everyone is musical, not just the people in the band or choir. The other cool thing was that sometimes a speaker would just start singing a song and then John-Doe would figure out what key it was in by noodling around quietly and quickly on the keyboard and then he would play along with them in whatever key. That was amazing to watch! Some of the instrumentalists did that too – lots of musicians here are able to play by ear really well! It always amazes me. And they’re not afraid to improvise and just play and groove and jam. I love that! So, what a cool experience going to John-Doe‘s church this morning! Even though it was very long!
And let me tell you, this was the longest service I’ve ever sat through in my life. It started at nine and we ended at 2:30 or so. It was also outside in the heat, though we had canopies we sat under. But it was REALLY hot. They were kind enough to feed the musicians jollof rice for lunch. It was a great experience overall, though I was so tired. I got home at 3:40 from Sunday morning church. And then I had to go to a rehearsal on campus at around 5pm. What a day!
These are some videos of the different musical numbers. In the first one, my students are really getting into it and dancing. They are hilarious. And you'll also see congregation members dancing around as they get up to give their offering.
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