Music is the universal language

Thursday morning came and I knew I wanted to keep singing with my students from the Primary 4A classroom. Those kids have an affinity for singing, and when they open their mouths, I get a yearning to do it too. So I went through my song book and picked some songs I thought I might be able to teach them. I started with Lean on Me, a classic, and easy to learn. I walked into the classroom, greeted with the now familiar greeting, “Good morning Auntie, may God bless you”. I asked the kids if they wanted to learn a new song. The answer was a resounding “YES”! I sang the song through once, and asked if they liked it. They did. So they started to repeat the phrases after me, until they could do it by themselves. I wrote the lyrics on the chalk board and they copied them eagerly. At the end of the 40 minutes, they had the song almost down pat. It wonderful to hear them singing a song which is so special to me, and also putting their own inflections into it, singing with their wonderful Nigerian accents. They were excited to be singing it, and told me they wanted to perform it for morning assembly some day. As I was getting ready to leave they stood up and instead of saying their usual goodbye of “Goodbye Auntie, have a nice afternoon”, they said, “Thank you Auntie for teaching us a song.” It brought a smile to my lips. And best of all, as I was walking down the hall, I heard them keep practicing the song! As corny as it sounds, it brought tears to my eyes! I was so touched that they would sing with me.

One of the wonderful things about Lean on Me is how many places I have sung that song, places that I love. When I was in India, my group sang that song almost every time we traveled to a new site, as a greeting to all the people who welcomed us. We got that song down to a science, and it sounded so good, harmonies and all! Later I found out that the girls who lived at Visthar in India learned the song in Kannada (the language of Karnataka State). As staff as Camp Courage, we also sang Lean on Me to the campers at closing campfire. This song has special meaning to me, and feels so wonderful that I can bring what it means to more people.

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, we all have sorrow
But if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow.

Lean on me, when you’re not strong, I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long till I’m gonna need someone to lean on.

Please swallow your pride if I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs that you won’t mention

So just call on me brother, if you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem you’ll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me, when you’re not strong, I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long till I’m gonna need someone to lean on.