Well, it's day one of my time in Israel and I already have content to post! After sleeping off what I hope was all of my jetlag, I went with Paul and Daphna (the brains and brawn behind Ukuleles For Peace, as well as my kind hosts) to the Democratic School here in Hod Hasharon.

Though there are usually no Ukuleles For Peace rehearsals on Fridays, today was an exception and around 20 children and a few parents gathered in the staff room at the school for a little bit of practice.

I set up my recording gear and off they went!

I must say seeing UFP happen in person is quite an amazing experience. The enthusiasm of these kids is completely infectious and I spent perhaps too much time trying to learn the songs they were playing rather than paying attention to my recording gear! What's more, some of them are actually really excellent ukulele players (three girls stuck around to teach me how to play 'Dream a Little Dream' in a key I've never played it in before and they totally showed me up!).

Anyhow, from a recording perspective it was less than ideal as the fridge in the staff room added a lot of buzz and there was too much general background noise, but despite all this I captured some magic moments. I've posted one of those moments here - two girls from Tira singing an Arabic song (a capella) which they want the UFP orchestra to learn (in addition to songs that Paul Moore teaches them, the kids involved in UFP help decide which songs they want to learn and come up with their own suggestions). I'm sure this particular song will be wonderful once the ukulele chords have been worked out and the whole orchestra knows how to play it, but this little clip is pretty special.

More to come!