Umucyo

This is Theophile. He's the one who started our Rwandan band.

 At the beginning of the school year, Theo saw me working with a student on guitar. He came to me and said, "I want you to teach me how to play Neil Diamond on the guitar."

First of all, I'm just learning to play guitar myself. 

Second of all, Neil Diamond??

So, we started playing guitar together. Our first song... Ten Thousand Reasons.

Theo's music lesson was noticed by Jeph, our PE teacher.
 

 "You are LUCKY" he said. 

So our band grew.

   

We added 

Jean Claude, Fils and Jean de Dieu

Consolee, Thomas and Dickson.

Our group includes teachers, para-educators, and maintenance staff from KICS.

 Before long, my little classroom was filled with exuberant sounds of Rwandese worship.

Our rehearsals and music lessons are interesting, as we speak in English, Kinyarwanda, and a little French. Most of our band members are new to their instrument and new to reading a chord chart, but we've learned how to communicate with each other well enough.



It took us a long time to name our band,
but we finally settled on
UMUCYO (oo-moo-chyo).

Umucyo means light. It fits well, because the band members have come through incredibly difficult times and shine brightly with the love of Jesus. Most of them were children during the genocide, and had their childhood stripped away from them, but they have risen.  I love looking around during our rehearsals and seeing their bright smiles as they sing with gusto about the work of God in their lives.

This is a clip of Umucyo doing 10,000 Reasons.

We're still rough around the edges, and don't always hit the right chords together, but we are learning and having fun in the process. I have to believe God is smiling too.


Since we started in November, we've gotten to lead our staff worship two different times.
And...
we performed at the school talent show.

Our hit song is the Beatles' Let It Be, rewritten to say
Numwami (He's the King).

 Sound check before the big show

 First public performance.
These guys rocked it and nearly took the house down!
I praise God for the opportunity to make music and lead worship with my Rwandese friends.