Siku ya Tamasha

It was the big day of the show. Our kwaya was singing at second Mass which started at 9 am, we had to be at our kwaya teachers house by 8:30 to practice. We all arrived wearing our awesome new uniforms, lavender "satin" skirts and blouses with a sweatheart neckline, a white sash around our waists with a white "rose" and tails hanging down. The skirt has a slit up the side with a white underlay. The woman all braided their hair with rasta and the men wore their new cream colors suits with their lavender skirts. We looked "smart sana" - very smart. There are five choirs at our parish, three at the main church and two at the outstation church, but we all joined together to sing at second Mass.

After second Mass we all gathered in our own choir groups and quicky practiced one last song before the competition was to begin. A little background info - we have been practicing songs for weeks and weeks. Neither Caroline nor I knew what we were practicing these songs for, Christmas maybe? Advent? Feast of Christ the King? We were told that we needed to get our uniforms by the 28th because we were wearing them on the last Sunday in November.

We suddenly realize how serious everyone is taking this event as we separate into our kwayas and sit down, however we still have no idea what is going on. Eventually they announce a line up. Kwaya ya Inyasi Loyola (St Ignatius Choir) will be singing fourth. Oh goodness, this is a competition. They announce that all choirs will sing four songs, an entrance song, one common song (Kwa Nino Leo Mnaimba Kwa Furaha), one traditional song, and then one more African traditional song. We will be judged (by the priests) and then there will be an award. My palms start to get sweaty and my heart starts racing. The first choir goes and sings well, the second one goes and the third one follows. Its time for Inyasi. They call us up and we get into our lines to dance in. Good thing Caroline and I were on the ends of the soprano and alto voices because otherwise I don't think anyone would have seen us (insert extreme sarcasm here). We danced in to an amazing song called "Mvua Inarutubisha Vitu Vyote" (The rain falls down on everything). Next was the song everybody was singing "Kwa Nini Leo Mnaimba Kwa Furaha" (For today you sing with happiness), followed by "Hosana" by Handel, and ended with "Ni Mwanadamu" (I am a person". This last song was accompanied by wanakwaya (choir members) using a kinu (a grinder tool) to make a beat and a stool being swiveled on top of a pot, while the rest of us did a traditional dance from the Fipa tribe. We were in a U shape, and as I mentioned before Caroline and I were the book ends, right in front so everybody could see the wazungu dancing the traditional african dance. I was so relieved when it was over, however Im not going to lie, my instinctual performance mode was in full gear as I was singing in front of a packed church.

We sat down and listened to the last choir sing. Everyone did very well, and they asked each choir to stand up and sing one more song. We awaited the results with anticipation. They started by announcing the last place kwaya, then fourth, the third, and then second. We were none of those. We received 230 points out of 300 points, the highest of all the choirs!!! We were the winners!!! ..or so we thought....They told us to stand up and be recognized because we performed the best out of all the choirs, HOWEVER, our teachers made a mistake and broke one of the rules. We were only allowed to have one conductor and our teachers switched halfway through. So we were deducted ten points leaving us in third place. Turns out that the first and second places get prizes, we ended up getting nothing but "pole sana" (very sorry) from everyone watching. As we walked home, literally everyone we walked by asked us how we did in the Siku ya Tamasha (the dar of the show). We said "tulishindwa" (we were overcome), but we explained what happened. Really we know we were the true winners, and we still pride ourselves on our stellar performance. There is always next year...