The Watoto Children’s Choir, which traveled from Uganda and performed at Selma High School (SHS) Tuesday night, has been on tour for the last three weeks and won’t return to Uganda until July, at which point they will have performed in more than a dozen U.S. cities from Texas to New York.

“It’s such a great experience,” said David Atukunda, Team Leader for the choir. “The culture is different, the weather is different, everything is different.”

The children who make up the choir, on top of traveling most days and performing most nights, are required to keep up with their education along the journey.

The students must keep up with their homework and take part in classes led by the adults on the bus, all of which are trained to teach.

“It’s a busy schedule, but it’s also flexible,” Atukunda said.

Further, the children undertake vocal exercises each evening before their performance, after the adults have set up merchandise stands and the elaborate stage plot employed by the choir, to ensure that their voices stay strong during the six-month tour.

“Children easily find their voice,” Atukunda said. “They don’t struggle as much as we do as adults.”

The children arrived in Selma Tuesday morning and immediately began getting ready for the show that evening.

“It’s not just entertainment because they tell their personal stories,” said Lesa James, an employee in the SHS Media Center and a vital part of bringing the Watoto Children’s Choir to Selma. “I’ve always loved going beyond Selma.”

James noted that 10 families in the city had volunteered to house and feed the children for the night before they load up and head to Gallion, Alabama for a performance on Thursday.

According to Atukunda, this is the scene in every city the children travel to and they relish the opportunity to spend time with new people in new places.

Soon, however, the children may be welcoming SHS students to Uganda – according to James, plans are already being made for students to travel to the East African nation and assist in building a village.

“We’re going to become a family with them,” James said.