MARYSVILLE — For the students of Sunnyside Elementary, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interact with children from another culture, but for the school’s music teacher, Brenda Ehrhardt, the Sept. 30 visit from the African Children’s Choir was the culmination of a lifelong goal.

Adult choir leader Ronald Ssekabira introduced the 10 girls and eight boys who comprise the 41st choir since the group was started 30 years ago in Uganda.

The choir children, who ranged in age from 8 to 13, told the Sunnyside students what they wanted to be when each of them grew up, with career aspirations ranging from doctors, nurses and midwives to ministers, teachers and police officers, with a few divers, soccer players, and even a would-be astronaut in the mix.

“The goal of this choir is for even the most vulnerable children to be able to attain an education,” Ssekabira said.

Ssekabira took the time to educate the Sunnyside students about Africa through the choir children’s lives, starting with the fact that Africa is not one country, but made up of more than 50 countries, with new nations still emerging.

After eight months of traveling across America, what the choir children said they missed most about home was the food, including cassava roots, jackfruit and fried grasshoppers, with the last item drawing decidedly mixed reactions from the Sunnyside students.

Ssekabira explained how the songs and dances that the choir children performed related to hunting, fishing and folk tales, before he let his children teach some of the Sunnyside students how to play traditional handcrafted drums, and how to dance along with the choir.

“I’ve been teaching my kids about world music for years, but I always felt bad that they couldn’t experience the real thing,” said Ehrhardt, who raised more than $1,000 from 57 donors in three weeks to bring the African choir to Sunnyside. “It was so worth it. It’s just a dream come true.”