Djembé

The girls started taking djembé for an after school activity once a week about two weeks ago. I love that Sydaleigh's school offers so many daily after school activities. I wanted to get them involved in something sooner, but since we didn't have a vehicle for the first four months we lived here...we had to wait until the second half of the school year when I could actually drive them.

So, they are both taking Djembé. They have a hilarious instructor who dances around like a ballerina for the little kids. And despite the fact that this is an International School with English as the primary language...people rarely speak in English at the school. With the exception of their daily studies...everything else is pretty much French. So the instructor speaks to them in French which I really like, especially for Marvelly since she's homeschoolin' it with me this year, she doesn't get french lessons everyday like Sydaleigh...so it gives her an opportunity to be exposed to it more.

And I figure this is a good way to not only get the girls involved in some music lessons and teach them rhythm and counting, but teach them a traditional way that people make music here in Africa.

 They dig it.
After thirty minutes of drumming the class does some exercises while the instructor plays.

Here's some video of the girls drummin' African style.