Satisfied n Tickled, Too (Delmar Lemming tribute to two heroes)

The Girls of Zway

Road to Zway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPqt66i618o

Road to Zway

Here are Mariana (right) with Clara (middle) and their Canary friend Irina (isletera) at an Ethiopian restaurant and dance club in the capital of Addis Ababa. Travel to an amazing country in the eastern Horn of Africa with a group of eager, enthusiastic young people who want to live and learn from the Ethiopian students and our host teachers, it is very worthwhile. So it was easy to write the song Road to Zway which I hope you like. Here is the song: 

ROAD to ZWAY 

by David Shea /Delmar Lemming 

Well I ve never seen your country 

Says the pirate to the guy 

Who is busy checking passports 

As we set our sights on Zway 

On the road to Zway

We've been yearning, ever burning

On the road to Zway 

You can fix that old two-wheeler

Said an angel with a sigh 

But we had better get back to choir 

And the mission house in Zway 

On the road to Zway

On the road to Zway 

We've been burning 

Ever learning 

On the road to Zway 

Comments on Clara in the Rain

My song Clara in the Rain is based on a real experience. A couple of years ago in the month of August, my daughter Mariana and her friend Clara (pictured above) and I participated in a summer school program in Zway, south central Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. In a violent thunder and lightning rain storm, we had to abandon our sports day and take refuge in the camp base where we were staying. Once all 15 volunteers were safe from the torrential rains, their "fearless leader" realized he had left his rucksack in the playground. Yikes! It was going to get soaked! Well, Clara only needed that excuse to go running back in search of the missing bag. That is the story and here are the lyrics.

Run Like Clara in the Rain

Bag left in the mission yard

Thunder, lightning, it was raining hard   

I told Irina, told Mikel, too

They told Clara, see what she might do

I’d like to run like Clara in the rain

               Refrain

I’d like to run like Clara in the rain

Feel such joy within my veins

Drench my clothes through and through

Run with Irina and Mikel too

I’d like to run like Clara in the rain

2”Hey,” says Clara “let’s have a little race”

Mad dash to the playground gates

Mud tromp down a pebble lane

Make that forgotten treasure claim

I’d like to run like Clara in the rain

3 Thanks for your kindness, that crazy spree

Muddy clothes, imagination free

I warned them but it was no use

That bag had just been their excuse

To run like Clara in the rain

Feel such youth within their veins

So ran Irina and Mikel

To catch dear Clara in the rain

4 Youth is contagious, joy is just

Laughter’s a bike that will not rust

Unless you leave it in the rain

Defy all sorrow, go a little insane

When you run like Clara in the rain