The BIg Five

Usually, in Africa, “The Big Five” refers to the five African animals that are most difficult to track and hunt – the elephant, the lion, the leopard, the rhino and the Cape buffalo. But here at PIASS, we have begun to joke about our own “Big Five” – the five English hymns that are sung over and over again – “Trust and Obey,” “No Not One,” “Standing on the Promises,” “Surrender All,” and “Kumbaya.” These are the hymns the students know the best and so they are the ones that they sing at every worship service. Please understand that English is a relatively new language for the students. It has only been the International language of Rwanda for the past four years, so it is not unexpected that they would have a limited repertoire of hymns in this new language.

Last week, we decided to take the first steps to expand that repertoire. I had an old fashioned Hymn Sing at my house. I invited my students, any who wanted to come, and a few faculty members who are particularly interested in music, for an evening of learning new songs and then of light refreshments. Sixteen came. I had borrowed the hymn books from the chapel and the faculty member who teaches music joined us. Together we taught some of the hymns that the students didn’t know. We began with ones that they knew in Kinyarwanda but not in English, so the melodies were familiar, even if the words weren’t. They were surprised that they already knew “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Blessed Assurance,” or at least the tunes.  We sang them in both languages, as they tried to teach me the Kinyarwandan words and I worked with their pronunciation of English. They quickly caught on to “How Great Thou Art” and especially sang the chorus with joy, like many Americans do. “To God Be the Glory” took a bit more work, but one of the fellows picked up a good drum beat and that helped the learning greatly. Here a standard accompaniment in church is a single drum. For our purposes, my coffee table became a drum.  The enthusiasm for the singing increased as the beat sounded clearly.

We had agreed to sing for an hour and then to have refreshments. We went well beyond the hour and I finally had to call time, because I know that some had other commitments. We made the promise that we would have another Hymn Sing soon. The joy of the evening carried on in a relaxed fellowship time. But the benefit of the evening came on Sunday when for our small English service we sang both “Blessed Assurance” and “How Great Thou Art.” We are no longer restricted to the “Big Five.”