Story Photos
 Peace Nasasira sings as others of the Ugandan orphans dance during rehearsal. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
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Ugandan children bring songs of hope, faith to local churches
Saturday, September 13, 2008 11:33 PM PDT
By Tom Paulu
Printable version
E-mail this articlePhiona Nekesa’s story is typical of children in the Mwamba Uganda Children’s Choir. Her mother died of AIDS. “I have only my dad,” said Phiona, 14, who lives in an orphanage in Kampala, Uganda. “My young brother died. We were six but now we are four.”
The tragedies of Phiona’s life don’t show as she sings joyous, high-energy Christian songs with the 16 other children in the choir. “I like being in this choir,” she said. “I serve God in this choir.”
The children, whose ages range from 6 to 14, are scheduled to sing in several local churches in coming weeks, and are open to invitations from other congregations. Money raised through donations and sales of the choir’s CD will help support the IAM Children’s Family orphanage in Uganda, where some of the children live.
During their shows, one lively song admonishes, “Keep on dreaming/You can have your dreams/Don’t ever let you dreams die.”
Other songs are in Luganda, one of the languages spoken in Uganda, and other African languages. A song about conquering the devil has a familiar refrain, “Yahweh,” which means the same as it does in a church here.
Jemimah Nasanga, the choir’s director, alternates between English and Luganda as she drills the children in proper breathing and the precise dance moves. “If you don’t exaggerate your hands, nobody is going to see you!” she tells the children. “Learn to bend you knees!”
One dance seems like a tap dance in flip-flops. (For concerts, the children don traditional Ugandan clothes and slippers.)
The choir’s appearance here is the result of a labor of love by Laura Carter of Kalama.
Carter, who previously worked on the staffs of state Sen. Don Benton, and Linda Smith (still active politicians?) when she was a state legislator, first visited the orphanage during a 2003 trip to Uganda. With five return trips to the African country, Carter has become the U.S. director of administration for the orphanage, which she described as a full-time volunteer job.
About 30 children live in the orphanage, though others are helped by its programs. “We reach out to about 170 children,” Carter said.
“I just fell in love with them,” Carter said. They’re like my own children.”
One emphasis at the orphanage is medical care. “They don’t go to the doctor until they’re next to their death beds because they can’t afford it.”
Like Phiona, many children are at the orphanage after losing a parent or parents to AIDS. According to Uganda’s official Web site, about 6 percent of people in the population there have AIDS, and about 880,000 Ugandan children have been orphaned because of the condition.
Many of the children served live in poverty, Carter said. “Most of the homes they live in are about the size of a bathroom with no electricity or running water.”
Getting the children to the United States was “a huge, huge undertaking,” Carter said, between arranging for passports and securing permission from parents or guardians to leave Uganda.
The children left Uganda July 21 and toured Denmark before arriving here on Sept. 1. After their last concert in the Lower Columbia area they’ll go to Arizona in November before returning home in December.
It’s a long time away from home and family for the children, but Carter said homesickness isn’t a problem. “Every person’s dream in Uganda is to come to America,” she said.
Rather than spread the children out among volunteers’ houses, Carter and her relatives decided to house them all on their property in the hills above Kalama. Carter created a dormitory for the boys and three adult males in their band on the main floor of her log cabin-style house. The girls took over the family room of the house of Carter’s son and daughter-in-law, Terry and Crystal Shepherd, which is next door.
The families brought in a couple of port a-potties to avoid lines for the bathrooms, and posted labels (“screen door”, “rail”) around the houses to help teach English. The Mayger-Downing Community Church, which Carter attends, loaned a bus to get everyone to the concerts.
The kids alternate between English lessons and rehearsals in the Shepherds’ triple garage.
After rehearsals this week, the group filed into Shepherd house, where Crystal had been busy steaming rice, cooking peanut sauce and slicing watermelon. Shelves of her garage are stuffed with plastic buckets of rice and beans to feed the flock, with help from other volunteers.
Nutrition is a major concern for some of the children.
One of the girls, Brenda Nakidde, “was starving to death when she came to the orphanage,” Carter said. Both of her parents died of AIDS.
“The most fun thing is to dance,” Brenda said of being in the choir. Her future goal: “I want to be an engineer -- and to be a footballer.”
Gloria Tendo, 10, who sings a solo on one song, lives with her parents but is helped by the orphanage. “They don’t have money,” Gloria said.
In between rehearsals and lessons, there’s time for some fun. The Carters set up a trampoline and gathered bicycles and scooters. They aren’t allowed to watch TV.
They took the children to a picnic at Merwin Park on a sunny afternoon. “They can’t swim,” Carter said, which made the Merwin trip challenging for the leaders. Other excursions are planned to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport and to Bonneville Dam.
People who sponsor individual children take them on outings.
But the high points of the journey for children and audiences are the uplifting song-and-dance shows.
“It really catches people’s hearts,” Carter said. “They come from such difficult circumstances but they’re so full of joy.”
Schedule
The Mwamba Uganda Children’s Choir will perform at several local churches in the next few weeks. Other churches may schedule performances by the choir by contacting Laura Carter at 673-2114.
11 a.m. Saturday — First Baptist Church, 747 Wheeler St., Longview.
10 a.m. Sept. 21 - Yankton Community Fellowship, 33579 Pittsburg Road, St. Helens, Ore.
7 p.m. Sept. 24 — Longview Calvary Chapel, 1410 Commerce Ave., Longview.
6 p.m. Sept. 27 — Woodland Christian Church, 430 Buckeye St., Woodland.
10:15 a.m. Sept. 28 — Baptist Church, 415 S Nehalem St., Clatskanie.
6:30 p.m. Sept. 28 — Westport Community Church, 49246 Highway 30, Westport, Ore.
11 a.m. Oct. 5 — Sunset Park Community Church, 174 Sunset Boulevard, St. Helens, Ore.
6:30 p.m. Oct. 11 — Father’s House, 1315 Commerce Ave., Longview.
10 a.m. Oct. 12 — Father’s House, 1315 Commerce Ave., Longview.
6:30 p.m. Oct. 12 — New Life Fellowship Church, 2441 42nd Ave., Longview.
10 a.m. Oct. 26 — Church service, Shekinah Christian Center, 1015 3rd Ave., Longview.
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