I have to start with two pop culture references…
Remember the episode of Friends where Ross gets a Cassio
keyboard and performs a concert for his friends? Remember how awful it was and
how proud he was and yet how embarrassed his friends were?
Remember when Will Ferrell in Elf sings to his father when
he first meets him because his father thinks he’s an Elf-a-Gram for his
birthday? “And I’m singing….cause I’m happy…I’m your son…You’re my dad…” The
words aren’t important, just the way it was sung.
Now put those two together, add a very loud microphone and
you have the church service that is happening down the hill from us. You need
to throw in a few Hallelujahs and also put the song on repeat for 20-30 minutes
(performed live mind you) in order to get the full experience but that’s pretty
much it.
I actually thought initially that it might be an auction
with the speed of speech and calling out but after the first hallelujah, I knew
that I was wrong.
Going back to the “musical” performance…
My experience in church is very limited. Apart from a
Christmas service, I do not attend. However, Christmas services in Kelowna are
spectacular. Go to Trinity Baptist and you see a full production with sets and
lights and costumes and well-rehearsed actors. Evangel has a great band. Last
year Mum and I went to New Life and as we got there, the singers were
rehearsing and the band was warming up. They were wearing coordinating clothes
and wanted to make sure that everything looked and sounded perfect.
The performance we are privy to here is far from perfect. I
was saying to Corey that it would be the type of thing you would hear at church
if one of the congregation members’ 6 year old son or daughter had just got a
new keyboard and had asked a friend to sing and they wrote a song especially
for church so would it be okay for them to share because they have been working
so hard? Everyone would smile and giggle and clap because they were so cute and
tried so hard. So much potential!
“Keep practicing and soon you will be able to perform each
week/sing with the choir/play with the band.”
Here this is the performance that comes each week. We roll
our eyes and shake our heads and wonder how it could possibly be ignored how
monotonous and off-key and repetitive the song is.
But maybe the Ugandans have something to teach us about the
importance of perfection.
If you go to London Drugs, all the tools are “professional”
quality. Get salon perfect hair! Chef quality
food! Professional carpet cleaner results! And we search for the items that
will allow us to be as perfect as we can be or to have a perfect home or a
perfect family. Even a perfect dog groomed with professional quality doggy
shampoo. Don’t go out without your make-up!
We are not allowed to just be average. If we can’t do it
perfectly then we might as well not even bother trying. We are controlled by
our fear of embarrassment. If we can’t do it perfectly, we don’t want to do it
at all because someone might laugh at us.
Here they don’t laugh. Here they applaud or encourage or
just ignore. Apollo, our lovely driver, often randomly does a little dance as
he walks to the van. James sings. Signs have spelling mistakes.
Water is life. Reflesh with us.
New salon openning soon.
But so what? It’s not as if we don’t know what the signs
mean. We don’t think Apollo and James are insane.
We had a meeting with Sam and Ahmed earlier this week. Sam
repeatedly said, “Be free.” I think that is the most important lesson Ugandans
can teach us Mzungu.
Relax. Be Free. Enjoy the moment and don’t worry about
perfection. Just be you. No-one minds.
Wouldn’t that be liberating??
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