malesi and martin

we usually go in as a team of five to take our music and drama classes at st. giles school. today, my entire team had deserted me and so i had to do it all on my own, including playing the ukulele and andy's old and very well-stickered guitar. i'm not especially skilled in either music or drama, and so the prospect was a little daunting.

the first class, made up of five and six year olds, were particularly distraught about the missing team members and demanded to know exactly where they were and what they were doing. after the long explanation, i told them that i would call the ukulele 'malesi' and the guitar 'martin', so it was like they were there with us.

after i started playing the ukulele little R put her hand up and said 'it's like your holding malesi and strumming her belly!'. i told her i would ask malesi if she had a tickly tummy while we were playing this afternoon. kids are funny. 

in the second class, with year fives, we were talking about heroes and villians and we were sharing our stories. one boy said 'my dad is my hero because he goes to africa', at which point i was ready to hear a heartwarming story about starving kids with flies around their mouths. however, it was followed by 'he goes there to dig in the mines and sell the iron to the chinese'. i guess he's too young to understand the complexities of neo-colonialism.

i'll be glad to have the team back next week. i'm not that into stroking bellies.

(the guitar is a fascinating journey into the mind of a teenage andy lowe).