Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

Rebecca and I went to see the African Children's Choir on Saturday evening. I first saw the choir about 15 years ago - a different group of children, obviously. The organisation is now 24 years old and the group we saw on Saturday was the 32nd choir. They currently have five tours going on - four in the US/Canada and one in the UK - and the money raised from the tours goes to help up to 7,000 children in Africa get an education.

The kids in the choir we saw on Saturday were all from South Africa, which was a nice surprise as Rebecca lived in South Africa from the age of 9 to her early twenties, so it brought back lots of good memories for her and made her feel quite nostalgic. Having seen the choir before, I knew that there was a strong possibility that they would reduce me to tears, so at least I went in prepared for that this time round. I didn't turn completely into a blubbering mess, though - I managed to hold it together most of the time. One of the chaperones introduced the choir by saying that almost all of the children had lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, and a couple of minutes later they came running onto the stage, singing, dancing, smiling, shouting, laughing... It really made me wonder what I have to complain about.

The chaperones who accompany the kids are all volunteers, and one of Jen's friends from university is a chaperone this year. She's one of the kids' teachers during the day and she makes sure none of them wanders off at night at the concerts - which is something that apparently they are prone to do, because they're all usually buzzing after a performance ;). Her husband is the sound and lighting engineer for the concerts, and once this tour finishes in December they will both go back to South Africa with the kids and teach in one of the schools that the choir's parent organisation, Music for Life, has set up.

It was fantastic to see results from the work that the choirs and Music for Life have put in over the last 25 years - the choir's conductor is a previous choir member, as is Godfrey, one of the chaperones who, as well as joining in with an incredible rendition of O Happy Day, also told us that his involvement with the choir meant that he was able to get good schooling and he's gone on to get a degree in Computer Science.

Check out their itinerary for concerts near you - you won't regret it. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika - God Bless Africa.