Ma’am, song! Oh-oh-oh-oh song! one girl excitedly shouts to every staff member she encounters. While these words look cryptic and indeterminable at first, it only takes a moment to realize that this girl wants everyone to sing the new song she’s learning in guitar class.
I’ve got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire ‘cause I am a champion, and you’re gonna hear me roar!
This weekly guitar class—currently taught by one of our volunteers—helps our girls refine their excitement for music and Katy Perry’s “Roar” is only one of the songs they’ve been practicing, though it might be their favorite. The girls who choose to take the class are all at different levels in their guitar knowledge—some have never held an instrument before, while others are steadily on their way to becoming rock stars—but they all like to make music.
Even outside guitar class, all our girls love to learn about, make, and experience music. During English, Assamese, and Hindi classes music has been a useful tool for the girls’ language learning. From B-I-N-G-O to their favorite Hindi dance number, music is a part of all life at Seven Sisters Home.
Once, in the middle of a heated round of musical chairs, a girl’s favorite song came on. She immediately abandoned the game to run in circles shouting My favorite song! My favorite song! Her glee was infectious.
In their free time, the girls gather around a caregiver with a computer so they can watch music videos in any language. Every time they set foot in a car, someone breaks into song. And you can always catch at least one girl humming something to herself as she walks down the hallway.
There’s just something special about recognizing music, in any form. To know that even the most mundane sound—from the girls’ footsteps running up the stairs to the sound of a bicycle rickshaw pedaling through the gravel and dust-coated streets—can be turned into something beautiful. Our girls are excited to be making music and learning about this beauty and as they learn, their roar gets louder and louder.
Louder! Louder than a lion. ‘Cause I am a champion, and you’re gonna hear me roar!