Every Song Has a Story

Here’s the one that occupied my morning…

I went to sleep and woke up super early this morning feeling very mediocre. The acknowledgement and understanding that things could always be much worse lends itself to the notion that you’re not feeling terrible per se, but at the same time, you know that you’re DEFINITELY not feeling good.

Fastfowarding infinite thoughts and several hours later, I found myself thinking about getting better. Just pulling myself up by the bootstraps and practice the KIM model as a good friend of mine would say… Keep It Moving! lol I decided, as I always do, that music should be a part of this process and I began to think about what I wanted to listen to. As I thought about my happiest days and what I was doing there, I fondly remembered South Africa. Those were without a shadow of a doubt my happiest days. When I was there, I fell in love with God and served the community and every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month felt right. I can’t describe it, so I’ll save myself the characters, but one song that I remember listening to over and over during those 6 months was Brooke Fraser’s “Albertine.” I was introduced to it one day in Cape Town when one of my American roommates and I were sitting by the pool. She started playing her guitar and singing and goes “do you know this song?” Almost seconds after I’d said “no,” she had left and come back with her iPod and I was listening to it.

There’s no way I could track my thought-process acutely enough to put it into paragraphy words that make sense to anyone but me… so I’ve chosen to take the “stream-of-consciousness-list” option. My personal writing invention that allows me to “get it out” in kind of a paragraphy format but not be held accountable if it doesn’t flow or some of my readers don’t actually understand it, lol. Not everyone understands stream-of-consciousness yet lists are easier to dissect than a paragraph. So there, an opportunity for everyone, lol. I digress…

My list of reasons for loving Brooke Fraser’s “Albertine”:

1. If we start with the artist, I love Brooke. She’s one of the lead singers in a Christian band named Hillsong. Hillsong is special to me. Before I moved to South Africa I had never heard of ANY Christian bands and wasn’t even remotely interested in the genre. But the girls I was hanging out with in South Africa were HUUUUUUUGE Hillsong fans and listened to them allllllllllllll the time. What’s even more interesting is as I learned more about Hillsong, and how they were so much more than a band, I started to love them too, lol. And here’s the real kicker, Hillsong is a really huge international church that started in Australia and they had just opened their newest church only 1 month prior to us studying abroad right there in Cape Town! That meant the world to my new friends and of course, we went! We went every Sunday, worship nights, conferences, and every event we could find cab money for. Church was FUN! Needless to say, the band, the church, the music… it all brings back the absolute BEST of memories. Table Mountain climbs, tutoring in the townships, University of Capetown, whitewater rafting down the Zambezi, Long Steet, tours through Kruger, Victoria Falls, needing money, riding the mini buses, being spoken to in Afrikaans, missing my family, and what I had to do to get through it all. So the fact that Brooke is a member of this band is… idk. It just makes me smile .

2. The song. From what I understand it’s about how one time, the band was away on tour trip in Rwanda. There, they visited an orphanage and Brooke fell in love with a little girl named Albertine. After learning more about the child and all that she had endured as a result of the genocide from 1994, she made a commitment to the girl and herself to tell everyone her story. She sings “Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead.” Because Brooke is one of the lead singers of Hillsong, you can’t help but come across her and her solo music as you fall in love with the band. And I identified on so many levels. There I was, on another continent, trying to figure out my life, but absolutely falling in love with the work I was doing in the townships. I’d become enamored by so many of my students there that they changed me. Having met them, seen where they live, taught them, and known their struggle, I too felt like I had made a commitment to do better upon my return to the States. I had been given a responsibility to go back and tell people what I’d learned. Through my experiences abroad, I chose my passions… people in poverty, children, education, and community building. So hearing Albertine, about a woman’s experience in Africa, while I was in Africa, about keeping your word to be responsible for injustices everywhere, all linked to inspiration from a child, as my students inspired me… sigh. It just fit. lol

3. In James 2:26, the Bible says “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” I’ve always loved that verse. Knowing that’s where Brooke got some of her message meant a lot to me.

4. I love how much this song still applies to my life. Here I am, 3 years after South Africa still trying to keep my word. “Now that I have seen, I am responsible. Faith without deeds is dead.” I really believe that. I’ve been blessed to be able to travel the world and experience things some people only dream of. To whom much is given, much is expected. Having been to 4 out of 7 continents can make a person feel so “lucky” that they forget how all this came to be. That’s why every time I travel, I always have two unspoken mandates. I MUST visit a church and a community wherever we are. I try for every country but every continent works too, lol. I have no choice but to go back and serve. Do you know how narrow these windows of opportunities were for me?! I made it on each trip and back on a wing and a prayer. (More like a fundraiser spaghetti dinner, donations from the NAACP, friends and family support, and “ARE YOU CRAZY”s from Mom and Dad). Anyway, I’m so blessed to have traveled and seen so much of the world, but now that I have seen, I am responsible… for sharing it, telling people about it, and improving it. That starts here in my own community, so I teach, a career I in love with in South Africa. I just kinda like that I’m trying to do my part in the world and this song makes me feel good about it.

Have a listen and read along with the lyrics if you’re interested:

Albertine

I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
there in her eyes what I don’t see with my own
rwanda

[CHORUS]
now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms, I cannot let go till you are

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Rwanda

[CHORUS]

[BRIGDE]
I will tell the world, I will tell them where I’ve been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine

[CHORUS]

I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine
I will tell them, Albertine

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