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Well, last Friday I had the opportunity to visit a second music school, namely, the Oakdale Kigali Music School. This school is definitely of a higher order than the Pacific Music Training Center, the first one I visited. They have good-quality full-sized keyboards, an actual upright piano, and some drum sets and cellos. They just started offering cello classes, which are taught via Skype by some lady in Germany. (The only problem is that the internet connection is sometimes spotty.)

The director, Aimable, said that they have a list of foreigners who want their kids to take piano lessons, but at the moment they have a shortage of teachers. So they are interested in having me work there once that can be arranged. Since they are a nonprofit organization, the arrangement would be that I could give the private lessons to the foreigners' kids, charge whatever I want, and then give a percentage to the school for the use of their rooms and equipment. So they will be getting back to me about this.

Later that day, Gérard called me from the Pacific Music Training Center to say, Brian, after our discussion last week in which you agreed to come work here, how come you didn't show up this week? So I replied, well, we didn't discuss any terms, and especially whether this was to be as a volunteer or as a paid employee. Because, I continued, I'm already an unpaid volunteer, teaching the Bible to others 70 hours a month at my own expense, so what I'm really looking for is emploi rémunéré. I have to eat somehow. So he asked if I could come to the school on Monday, which I did, to discuss this further.

Gérard said that the school is in dire need of teachers, but also funding. Isaac, the brother who teaches music part-time, makes about $60 a month. The full-time primary teachers make about $130 a month. So he was hoping that I could volunteer my services, but after our discussion he understood my position.

Since the Oakdale Kigali Music School is offering me the possibility of teaching piano to foreigners' kids, who no doubt are in a position to pay Western prices (like $30-$60 per hour), I told Gérard that, sorry to say, I will probably go to work for them. Though I may be able to volunteer at Pacific, say, once a month. However, there is hope. Gérard said that in June some representatives of a company from Hamburg, Germany, will be coming to Rwanda and, it is hoped, offer some financial help to the school. This company has already donated some equipment to the school. So if the school can get the needed funding, they may be able to pay teachers more, as well as hire higher quality ones.

One very touching incident occurred as I was walking across the campus: It was during the smaller kids' recess period, and about a half dozen of them came up and hugged me! Then, Gérard introduced me to the 4th and the 5th grade classes. In the 4th grade class, all the students got up and greeted me, as their guest, and then proceeded to sing the school song! From memory! I wish I had taken video of that, but I had forgotten my camera. In any case, since Gérard is now impressing me into service to take the school song and arrange it for brass and wind instruments, he has agreed to invite me to the special program at the end of the term in which all the students (100 of them) will be singing the song with accompaniment. So I will definitely get some video footage of that!