Uke

Four days ago, May 3rd, marked the one month prior to my departure to staging.  Much has already happened since that date, let alone since my last post.  For one, I finally received my staging information, which I will follow in another post shortly.  Secondly, I have been doing quite a bit of travelling to Houston and Austin to make my rounds and bid friends good tidings before I leave.  Thirdly, it was Cinco de Mayo a couple of days ago, so ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

To add to the excitement of me leaving in less than a month, I BOUGHT AN UKULELE!!!

I initially wanted to bring my guitar to perfect my playing, but my parents (Dad) convinced me it would be more than I would probably want to carry.  I was insistent on bringing a musical instrument, therefore, I decided to buy myself a lovely, little uke.  Yes, it was with my own money, so that may or may not have been my convincing argument.

One of the sole purposes of buying it now instead of getting a used one in Africa is because I wanted to start learning and playing now.  I absolutely love it and was overjoyed when I walked out of Guitar Center with it.  : D

I am thoroughly excited to play more once I am in Tanzania, though I have learned a couple of songs already.  The first one I learned was also the first song I learned on the guitar.  "Which song?" you ask.  Well, it is a 1950s song called, Why Do I Love You So by Johnny Tillotson.  I have yet to be able to sing and play it at the same time, though I am gradually getting there!  There are a few other songs I have been working on and have had slightly better luck at singing while playing; however, my skills are much too novice to share at the moment.  With the help of a wonderful gift from a co-worker (thanks, Colin!), I will be building on my ukulele song binder and will hopefully come back an expert ukulelist.  For now, I shall have to resort to carrying it around the house and bugging my family with amateur playing.

In case anyone really wants to know which ukulele I bought, it was a Lanikai LU-21 Soprano Ukulele.  And here are pictures!  [Yes, I know the first pictures on this blog are of my ukulele, but now you can imagine how ecstatic I am for having it!]