It wasn't all day trips ................Girls' Orphanage

For 2 afternoons a week, we volunteered to teach singing & computing at a girls' orphanage run by nuns in Margao.

Some of the "girls" were in their 60s! Once a girl has been accepted into the orphanage then she can stay as long as she wants. Some stay for life! The nuns were not much in evidence & it seems that the older girls are really responsible for bringing up the younger ones. We discovered, too, that very few of the girls were orphans - as far as we could gather, poverty & illegitimate births probably accounted for many of the girls arriving at the orphanage as babies.

Due to to the non-appearance of any of the young male volunteers, who were musically inclined, on the afternoons in question & due to a lack of organisation as far as the computing classes were concerned, in the end we taught singing together.

The girls already had an extensive repertoire & sang as a a choir of sorts in the chapel attached to the orphanage but they had never had any formal singing lessons & were keen to learn new songs. We taught them breathing & warm-up exercises. Several of the girls had beautiful voices but were not using them properly, with resultant croaks. We showed them how to use their voices without straining their vocal chords & taught them how to reach higher notes than they thought they could. They did find the breathing exercises & warm-up very amusing - the Singing Kettle's "I Like To Eat Apples & Bananas" was very popular & reduced them all to giggles every time.

We taught them round-singing versions of "By The Rivers of Babylon" & "Hevenu Shalom Aleichem", both of which they subsequently sang in church as well as in the concert. We also taught them "Sabbath Prayer" from "Fiddler On The Roof", "Crocodile Rock", & "Doh, A Deer". Considering we only gave 4 lessons, we felt all this was quite an achievement!

2 of the girls were particularly talented - Marita,who was so bright & bubbly with a superb alto voice, & Sheena, who had perfect pitch. It is unlikely that they will ever be able to fulfil their full musical potential due to their circumstances - which is a real shame.

Our time at the orphanage was an unqualified success, every minute of which we warmly enjoyed. It was lovely & a further learning experience for both of us - Fiona learned more about the art of singing & Howard learned more about the art of teaching.