Oh when the saints go marching in

We woke up to a great cloudy day today--because of the sporadic rainshowers, distant thunderclaps and occasional lightning going on, we decided to have a "clean the apartment" day, rather than venture too far from home on foot (it's not ideal, we've discovered, to get caught in torrential rain with a small baby and no shelter!)

Well, it was about 2:00 in the afternoon when I happened to be out washing our balcony. Suddenly, I heard, in the distance, what sounded like a parade--happy voices, singing, instruments. But what parade would be happening in the middle of the rain (yes, at this point, it was raining)? And could I possibly be hearing right? It sounded like they were singing "Oh when the saints go marching in!" I called inside through to the window to Adam, "Was there supposed to be some kind of parade today?" As the sounds became louder, he came to check out the scene with me.

We live on the second story, and our balcony overlooks a large courtyard/park area. As we looked through the trees in the park, sure enough, we glimpsed a colorful band winding their way through the park--people, raincoats, umbrellas and even instruments. Impressive! And yes, they were singing "Oh when the saints go marching in!" in English.

I don't know exactly why they came towards us. Maybe because I was videotaping them? Or, maybe because Adam had run inside the house to get a small African drum we found while organizing our closet today, and was now leaning out over the balcony railing, playing the drum to the band's beat?

Well, whatever the reason, here is a clip of the great little band who brightened our Saturday afternoon:

As it turned out, they were a group from the local Catholic church, Sacré-Coeur, and were out inviting people in the neighborhood to an event at their church this evening. It was fun to have them "stop by" beneath our balcony.