Sarah's Watson Year

A Cultural Weekend in Francistown

2008-06-21T19:50:00.004+02:00

Hello again!

I apologize for such a late update on my last month's adventures. I have truly begun the process of "research" in it's typical and professional form, hopping from one place to another, staying only long enough to make a few observations and conduct a few interviews before moving on.

After leaving Namibia I traveled back to Gaborone for a brief visit and to catch a lift up to Francistown with the party from Thornhill Primary School. Thornhill is a school that feeds into Maru-a-Pula, and especially feeds the marimba program at MaP. At Thornhill the marimba is part of the music curriculum from a very young age and the student performing band is both energetic and enthusiastic. Mr. Roy Nyathi, the marimba teacher, had invited me along to an event that he was attending as a clinician at the Clifton Primary School in Francistown over the last weekend in May. I arrived in Gabs to learn that Ayanda Khala, a good friend of mine from MaP, was also attending as a clinician, so the weekend looked to be a success from the get-go.

After a brief and bittersweet visit to MaP I set out from Thornhill Primary School in a bus with 7 children (grades 6-7), 2 Thornhill teachers, myself, and my friend Ayanda. We had a rather noisy trip to Francistown (only 4-5 hours of driving, but this seems longer when you're inundated with primary school children!) and arrived in the evening to be scattered off to our hosts' houses. I was staying with a lovely woman named Jan who teaches at Clifton and had a major hand in the organization of the Cultural Weekend.

In the morning it became apparent that this Cultural Weekend is the equivalent of a middle-school honor band or similar event. Students from about 10 primary schools all over Botswana had been selected to participate in workshops ranging from Marimba to Public Speaking to Puppetry--what a great mix of kids and teachers! The clinicians were enthusiastic and the kids somewhere between excited and apprehensive, but the first workshop saw the entire school come alive with enthusiasm for the arts. The marimba students were talented and good natured... all 17 of them! We used the set of marimbas from Clifton and supplemented with a few extra from other schools to have enough. In the end, it was a massive group with 4 soprano, 4 tenor (often with 2 students playing on each), 3 baritone, and 2 bass marimbas. Can you believe the volume you would get with all of those! But apparently, this size of band isn't that uncommon in the primary schools. I thoroughly approve because it gives far more students the chance to play, and especially to play on the larger instruments which generally get restricted to the more capable players.

We had a series of 6 or 7 workshops across two days, which was both intense and wonderful. Roy Nyathi lead most of the workshops, teaching three songs to the students, while I and another marimba teacher, Mr. Sibindi, each taught one. I had a great time with these guys, I taught them a very simple version of Babamudiki and they loved the rhythms and the interlocking of the parts. The kids themselves were a joy to work with--they were friendly, excited about marimba, generally talented, and just very sweet. I whole-heartedly approve of keeping grades 6 and 7 in the primary school, it just makes them more sweet and innocent and delays the corruption of character that high school encourages.
On the first night of the weekend we gave a "staff concert" where all of the clinicians and other helpers were encouraged to perform something for the students. We had been trying to prepare a little something on the marimbas for this concert, and actually we got a fairly large group to appear although only about four of us were marimba players. Those of us who did know how to play just went ahead and improvised around the chord structure, while the other musicians we recruited held down some simpler parts that kept the song together. After playing "Pata Pata" and "In the Jungle" we were the hit of the show... kids running up to take video and photos on their cell phones, the whole audience encouraging an encore. Unfortunately, that's all we knew! I found this to be a particularly interesting experience because I was completely exhausted by the time we got to the concert. After helping with and running 4.5 hours of workshops during the day and having very little downtime, I was ready to crash and sleep--not to perform a completely improvised show! But even with this drawback I had a number of people coming up to me after the show with odd comments, like "you really can play those things!" and "have you done this before? I mean, it looks like you know what you're doing." It's just another example of the stereotype that a short, white, American girl can't possibly play an African instrument. Personally, I enjoy breaking that stereotype for people... especially for people who play marimba. I think that it should be an inclusive instrument, not an exclusive one, and I really think it does them good to see someone playing who doesn't fit the mold.

At the end of the second day the children performed a concert--which was both painful, interesting, lovely, and bizarre. The 7 workshop groups were very diverse and not all of the disciplines were well-suited to performance (such as the visual Art group) but everyone managed to contribute to the show. The Puppeteers greeted the audience as they entered with adorable hand-made puppets, the Public Speakers introduced all the acts, the Artists had a clever showing of a piece-painting where they purposefully arranged the pieces in several different orientations before showing a gorgeous still life of a fruit bowl, the musicians of all sorts (Western, Marimba, Singers) performed, the Dancers put on a self-choreographed dance, the Actors performed a fable with adorable costumes and props, and everyone had a great time. Because there were students from almost every school in each of the groups they were all very supportive of one another and they put on a good show!

My one regret about the Cultural Weekend is that it didn't last longer! It's just my kind of event... and although it did make me a bit homesick for WIBC, All-State, etc., I had a wonderful time and learned a lot. It was one of my first chances to work intensely with primary school students as well as my first opportunity to work with the teachers there. But even though it was short, It makes me glad that such events take place on this side of the world. Now, if only they could get Tim Lautzenheiser to give a motivational talk on the first day....

Namib Marimbas

2008-05-22T14:54:00.006+02:00

My trip to Namibia has finally made its way to marimba! After a week of fruitless networking in Windhoek I managed to contact a man named Ferdinand who runs a marimba group at the Kuisebmond Secondary School in Walvis Bay. I actually made contact with him through a lady named Shannon Taylor who my friend Jaimie Adelson at Gobabeb referred me to... and who also happens to have graduated from Reed College in Portland! Such a small world. But this contact turned out to be a good one, which sent me trekking back to the coast to check out the group.

I met them at their home ground at the Kuisebmond Secondary School where they were in the process of reconstructing their instruments after transporting them home from Germany. The group had just returned last weekend from an international tour with where they had teamedup with a few of the local choirs. But their willingness to meet me and answer my questions was admirable after such a return, and very helpful as well! They played some of their songs for me, we jammed a bit, and they were more than willing to answer the strangest questions that I threw at them.

In general, the marimba culture here can be described as similar to that of Cape Town. This actually makes a lot of sense as it was initially church-sponsorship that brought the keyboards to these communities, as opposed to the groups in Botswana and Swaziland (I think) who obtained their marimba traditions through Zimbabwean immigrants. The "Namibian style" is a very powerful, upbeat method of playing the marimba with much syncopation and a strong influence from caribbean and jazz music. However, this is second-hand knowledge that you are receiving from me, because the Namib Marimbas are advocates of a more laid-back calypso/blues style. In many ways they are echoing the priorities of other groups from around Cape Town with emphasis on flexibility and player development. In some ways I feel that they misunderstood my question when I asked about student compositions, but the players do improvise variations around the parts they are shown and can even improvise acceptable melodies and chordal rhythms. For the most part, the music is loosely structured around a bass rhythm and a chord base, with at least one player playing a simple melody with improv included. The wonderful part about this is its flexibility for each player to reach his or her potential without being either held back or pushed too fast.

The students that I met were all male, although they assure me that the group is at least half female. It was interesting to talk with them about their experiences playing marimba because they came to it independently and in different ways. Some had connections through family, others through friends, but all were required to keep up good marks in their school subjects and all had a good sense of rhythm. Some would improvise freely, while others stuck to the part they were shown most of the time. Most of the music that they play is composed by their group leader and it is quite strongly influenced by jazz and blues. The music doesn't exactly swing, but it has a sort of laid back jazz quartet style to it that is undeniable. The rest of their music seems to be somewhat traditional or popular songs from South Africa and Namibia. But the music was also indicative of the personalities in the group--they seemed very laid back in general. This is a very different style of marimba player than you'll find in many other places!

Kuisebmond is a stunning example of a school that has taken a lesser-used activity, in this case music in the form of marimba, and used the limited resources available to create a dynamic community that is helping themselves. The marimba players play for all sorts of performances that bring in money--which goes to their books, school fees, tour costs, etc. I was surprised at the extent of Namib Marimbas' travel history and performance record given the limited resources available to them. That's another reason that I find them admirable... they're really using what they have to their best advantage.

Anyhow, a big thanks to the group for allowing me the chance to see what they do!

Chillin' in the Desert

2008-05-06T11:52:00.010+02:00

Following my Zambian adventure I popped down south to Windhoek. From there I travelled to Walvis Bay via a long-distance combi (which is always and adventure), where I got picked up by a crew of students and interns from the Gobabeb Research and Training Center for a rather exciting night-ride along gravel roads to a set of buildings that are literally in the middle of nowhere: Gobabeb. The goal was to visit a good friend of mine from Grinnell, Jaimie Adelson, as well as another Grinnellian whom I hadn't known as well, John Guittar, at their GrinnellCorps post in the Namib Desert. For those of you (like me) with minimal knowledge of Namibian Geography, here's a map showing the Namib. The desert is formed from a deposition of silt and sand that flows out of the Orange River. Because the river has no delta, for some reason which I haven't figured out yet, all the sediments from the river get pushed out to sea, where a rather strong current and wind system push them north onto the coast. This created the Namib, which is a true desert just large enough to be termed a "Sand Sea" at 34,000 square-kms.

Ok, so maybe the map didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but you get the idea. Gobabeb is situated on the edge between the Sand Sea and the Gravel Plains, on the banks of the Kuiseb river, which is ephemeral (doesn't run all year). Mostly, the river is an outlet for floodwater, but it supports a surprising array of vegetation and wildlife.

My visit to the Namib started off with a day-long excursion with the Namibian Geologists Association. Because Jaimie was supposed to be creating a teaching module about the Namib's geology she was accompanying them and taking notes, while I just got to come along for fun. And what a great trip!

The leader of the trip knew so much about the area it was almost unbelievable. And he wasn't too intellectual to dumb it down for us non-geology PhD's either, so it was a great trip. We got to see the river bed and how it changes and influences the geology of the surrounding area, the gravel plains, the sand dunes and fossil beds in the dunes, and some old diamond claims in the dune field. Apparently, the river is the only thing holding back the dunes on the southern side of the Kuiseb. Sand moves with sand, and not without it unless there are exceptionally strong winds. So every year the flooding in the Kuiseb bed washes away the side of the dune that's trying to make it's way north into the river bed, and the progress of the dunes is halted there. It's acutally amazing to think that this one river bed can stop the entire 34,000 square kms of sand from progressing over a stretch of 100 meters or less, but it's true. That's what creates the gravel plains on the other side of the river and what keeps places like Walvis Bay and Swakopmund from being overwhelmed by the northward progress of the dunes. Anyhow, enough of my geological ramblins. If it were that fun to be a geologist all the time I would abandon Chemistry! It was an absolutely fabulous day.

Beetle tracks on a dune

But other than that excursion I mostly just got to see life "as it is" in a place like Gobabeb. I was surprised at the amount of deskwork involved in a "normal" day out there... somehow you would think that more field work would occupy the scientists stationed in the middle of the desert. But it makes sense, in a way. The station is admirably outfitted with amenities that one wouldn't expect to find in the desert. Solar power fuels the station with more than enough electrons to keep their lights, computers, refrigerators, etc. running and water is sucked out of a deep aquifer just across the river bed. Internet and phone are available via a sattellite connection (although the reliability of this is somewhat unpredictable) and the workers have plenty of gas available for cooking stoves and ovens. They even have their own sewage recycling system to pump their used water back into the environment and hopefully recharge their aquifer. Overall a pretty impressive achievement for a place in the middle of nowhere! Even if it is run by nerds and scientists! And as an added plus, they have a nifty water tower that looks a little bit like an air-traffic control tower, or maybe a UFO. Definitely adds character to the place!

Trip to the Dunes with the Gobabebians

Most of my time was very sedate out at Gobabeb, but that doesn't detract from its worth. I absolutely love the sand dunes and the opportunity to be completely isolated from every other human being on the planet. You can laugh, shout, sing at the top of your lungs... and not a soul in the world can hear you. Except the multitudes of insect life, that is. Truly, you cannot appreciate the wonder of this place without visiting. The sunsets are exquisite--watching a sun set behind dunes has to be one of my favorite views of all time.

Especially when I'm sitting on another dune with a cool drink in hand, just enjoying life. Even just the view of the night sky would make a visit to this desert worthwhile--you can see every star in the sky. You can see the Milky Way so well that you can pick out the "Coal Sacks" where debris creates dark spots by obscuring our view of the stars, you can pick a planet out of the sky instantly by its luminescence, size, and color. You can even see starts that twinkle in all different colors like a disco ball. And shooting stars are so common you don't even remark on them after a few nights! A stunning view, and worth every instant that I spent staring at it. Unfortunately, my lame little Powershot can't capture such beauty... so you'll just have to take my word for it.

(Gobabeb in Fog!!)

Even in a week's time at Gobabeb, I wasn't able to see everything that the sight had to offer. Apparently there are scorpions inhabiting the trees in the riverbed that fluoresce when viewed under UV light, Welwitschia plants that get their water from condensing fog (they are pretty crazy, actually), higher dunes to hike around, much more of the riverbed to explore, and probably more that I'm not even aware of. But I'm glad that I got to spend a week there to get a sense of the place and the work that goes on there. It could have been my life this year, after all!

So many of you are probably wondering at this point (especially after I've gone on and on about how amazing Gobabeb is) whether I think I made the right choice by accepting the Watson Fellowship instead of choosing the Grinnellcorps position at Gobabeb. And my answer is this: how can we ever know for sure? I certainly have experienced a lot in my travels on the Watson that I never would have at Gobabeb... marimba being only the most obvious aspect. I also think that my time at MaP on its own weighs the scale towards the Watson, simply because I can't imagine a more fulfilling experience than teaching and playing there. But, on the other side of things I can see myself being very happy at Gobabeb because I tend to thrive in small communities where I can make a home for myself and dig in. In some ways I would have resented all the desk work because this is supposed to be my break from that sort of thing, but I also might have learned a lot of really crazy and interesting things about the desert. So all in all, I am not unhappy to have chosen the Watson, but I also respect the opportunities I would have had at Gobabeb. And as much fun as I would have had working there with my friend Jaimie, I think it's better for both of us to encounter new people and spend time away from our old friends from Grinnell. I don't think either of us is the person who walked away from Grinnell last May!

Since leaving Gobabeb I have been hanging around in Swakopmund on the coast. It has been a rather interesting week of just chilling in cafes, sitting on the beach, and reading a book or two. I have enjoyed myself immensely--Swakop has great cafes and restaurants. Unfortunately, as I left Gobabeb I was beginning to develop what I think was an ulcer in my esophagus. Gross, right? Well, it was also very painful for a while and lessened my enjoyment of the above mentioned cafes and restaurants, but now that I am feeling better I don't mind so much. I'm guessing that the whole episode was a consequence of my long-term ibuprofen use for my back problems combined with the doxycycline that I am taking as an antimalarial, but whatever it was, I'm glad that I'm mostly healed at this point.

Yesterday morning I decided that I wanted to finally do something with my time here, so I signed up for a Dolphin and Seal Cruise. What is that, other than the obvious chance to go out on a boat and see dolphins and seals? Well, it's a chance to drink a lot of alcohol (apparently, although not for me with my esophagus the way it is), eat seafood for lunch (also not for me... vegetarian), and have really strange encounters with other tourists! Don't get me wrong, it was a fun morning, but there were some elements of the ridiculous to it.

The first problem was my lack of warm clothing. I sent my warm jacket home with my parents in December because it was bulky (and the temperature was 100 degrees Fahrenheit every day) but it turns out that I am left with a combination of rather pathetic sweaters and one fleece as my "warm" stuff. Of course, until now that has been more than enough! But I had no hat, scarf, gloves, jacket, or even closed-toed shoes (left those in Windhoek... who would have thought I'd need them in the desert?). So it was a bit chilly at 9 AM out on the fog-covered Atlantic ocean. But it was easy to forget about this as a rather large, wet seal jumped up into our boat and slithered along the seats! Apparently they are trained to do come aboard so that the tour operators can show them off to passengers (I don't even want to think about the environmental implications of that one). So our guides fed the seal some frozen fish out of a cool-box they had on deck and explained about how the seals hunt, eat, etc. The funny part was when the guide tried to get the seal off the boat! They're trained a bit too well that there's free fish on board. Later on we had two or three other seal visitors... they would just haul themselves on board whenever we stopped to look at something. It made an interesting trip!

We also got to see some interesting things that weren't on the boat. The oyster farms were our first stop--the oysters are imported when still almost microscopic in size and fed on artificial phytoplankton until they're big enough to put in a net and string up on a platform in the middle of the sea off of Walvis Bay. Apparently the nutrient concentration in the Namibian waters makes these oysters grow to an edible size in 8 months, which is almost twice as fast as anywhere else in the world! They're supposed to taste good too, but I wouldn't know :). It's funny to put together all the bits and pieces I know about Namibia when I hear things like this, because I know all about the nutrients available in that part of the ocean from a great upwelling zone off the Namibian coast. But that's from back at Grinnell...

There were plenty of dolphins and pelicans where we went, too, and some adventurous seagulls who kept trying to steal the fishy bribes that we used to get them close to the boat. Overall it was an interesting trip... but not the best cruise I've taken. It was certainly an interesting way to spend a morning, though!

Every so often I run into situations (like out on this boat) where the nerdy-sciencey-intellectual part of me wants to break through. It's a bit funny that I've spent my whole life trying to gain knowledge and intelligence so far, and now I'm playing dumb. But people here get a bit uncomfortable when they realize that you're "a smart one" so I often do try to put them at ease and bypass that side of my personality. Last night was a stunning example... those of you who know me well won't be able to believe this! I was trying to find a nice restaurant to have dinner at (since I could finally eat again) but everywhere I wanted to go was booked solid. Surprising for a Wednesday night, but that's how it was. So I ended up sitting at the bar at a place called the "Lighthouse Pub and Grill" near the beach. It's a place I had been eying for a few days, so I was happy to try it out, even if I had to sit at the bar. So I pulled out a book--a nice one, actually: African Laughter-- and I was enjoying my Hunter's while I waited for my food and read about Doris Lessing's post-independence visits to her home in Zimbabwe. Now, apparently that's not particularly common behavior for anyone here in Swakopmund (not that too many people ever seem to go out for meals on their own, anyway) and I got accosted and greeted by a man who came over to the bar and sat down. He seemed nice enough, so I chatted with him for a while... only to learn that he was an American from Texas who was the CEO of an oil investment company called EnerGulf. So here I am... sitting, chatting with a middle-aged man who likes to hunt game (the more endangered the better), pollutes the environment with oil prospecting, speaks with a Southern accent, and is incredibly arrogant. Sounds like my kind of guy, huh? And as amusing as this is... this very moment I have had to refuse a call from his number. Ugggh. Maybe I should turn off my phone! I was too honest to give him a false number last night. But anyhow, it was just a weird situation and I'm hoping to just slip away into the mists without having to fend off any more invitations to come along on oil prospecting or hunting trips.

Anyhow, that's where I am and what I'm doing! I'm heading back to Windhoek tomorrow for some shopportunities... I need a winter jacket! Or at least some sort of jacket :). And I can bum around there just as easily as I can here. Maybe I'll even get some work done on my transcription project--you never know!

PS--more photos on their way!

Into the heart of Zambia....and back again!

2008-05-02T16:21:00.007+02:00

Well, plenty of things have happened since I last had a reliable Internet connection! So lets start at the top.

Firstly, it was harder than I had ever expected to leave Maru-a-Pula at the end of the term. The staff, students, marimba kids, and everyone else had become such a family to me that I was almost heartbroken to have to leave them. And it's always the case that at the end of your time in a place you learn what you would have liked to know at the beginning! Some of my students were absolutely heartbroken to have me leave as well... which I hadn't expected at all! Especially some of my Form 1 theory/recorder students who hadn't really been my main focus during the term. But I will sure take a lot of good memories away from MaP with me!

I also need to thank my friends and colleagues at MaP for making my stay such an amazing part of my fellowship year. In many ways I could not have asked for a better situation. The marimba was fabulous in every way--I will not hesitate to say that it is the most intense and enjoyable marimba experience I have ever had! The students in the group were a lot of fun and I enjoyed playing with them and learning from them. In some ways I was a sideline because I wasn't able to come on the US tour with them, but they still included me and made me part of their family, which I greatly appreciate. Some of you may already have heard about the fiasco in Johannesburg with this touring group, but for those of you who haven't I have to post something about this.

Since Alport Mhlanga arrived back in Gaborone in late January he and I have been working practically non-stop on a renovation of the performance marimbas. There were many details to be attended to from re-stringing to tuning to modifying the buzzers, and we must have put in over 100 hours of work simply on the instruments themselves in addition to all the rehearsal time, administrative work, finding costumes, etc. This wasn't Alport's first overseas tour with a MaP marimba band, so he had all the details sorted out and planned for, up to and including the packing methods necessary for the instruments so that they could all fit as luggage on the airplane for no extra charge. After a sleepless night of taking marimbas apart and strapping the pieces together in all sorts of strange ways, the band hops into a bus and tows their equipment to Johannesburg to get on their flight. Now, unfortunately, there had been a change in the baggage regulations regarding metal and wood since the last MaP tour...which meant that while the students could get on the plane, their instruments stayed in Johannesburg. But was that the end? Well, it could have been! An emergency call went out to practically every percussionist on the East Coast in an attempt to track down 10 Zimbabwean Marimbas with F#s, up to and including the marimba player from the pit orchestra of Broadway's The Lion King. CBS actually ran a news clip on it! And the most surprising thing of all is that they actually found marimbas! Apparently there was a die-hard marimba player who had moved from the Southwest with her set of marimbas in the New York areas and she was able to save the day. What a crazy thing! I'm told that the tour went well, so it must have been ok, but I sure wish I had been there to help sort out that mess!

Instead, I had hopped into a car with one of the PE teachers from Maru-a-Pula who is from Zambia. We started at 3:30AM and drove the whole day, stopping only at the border post to get the appropriate clearance for the car. We made it all the way to a town between Livingstone and Lusaka before stopping for the night--that must have been the longest day of driving I have done in a while! We also were hindered by several stretches of road where the potholes have completely taken over. It was actually amazing to see the extent to which the road has deteriorated... the only way I can think of to describe it is resembling the surface of the moon! But we made it, in the end. Little did I know that these potholes would be my downfall in a little over a week's time!

The next morning we attended the retirement service of a lovely old nun who taught at the teacher-training college where my friend from MaP had lectured several years back. This lady was a great friend to her, so we both attended the service and the celebratory meal afterwards. What an interesting event! There was a traditional choir there from the Northern Province who sang the most beautiful songs!

I am trying to upload a video, but I haven't had a lot of success with that in the past. I also enjoyed eating with my hands :) as is traditional here. It really takes some skill to get this non-finger-food into your mouth without spilling it everywhere and looking like a total spaz. It was quite fun, though!

After that it was straight on to Lusaka, where we arrived quite late. We stayed the night with a friend of my colleague and that was actually very cool. I enjoyed seeing her home and meeting the family and it was really nice to crash for a night in peace. However, I was greatly mistaken when I thought that this was the "difficult" part of the journey... as it turned out I was dumped on a bus to Mongu in the Western Province the following morning without any real directions, no airtime on my cell, and the vague idea that I was supposed to ride the bus to the end of the line and then look for a friend of my friend's named Frieda. I was a bit more than apprehensive about this, but I really shouldn't have been, I suppose.

The bus ride itself was definitely an experience! I found that there was a large distance to cover, not much space on the bus, very few rest stops, and in general just few conveniences. Lucky for me that I don't ever get hungry when I travel these days! But I met a really nice man on the bus named Father Francis. He was actually a catholic priest and we had a lot of good discussions on my way out West. In fact, he was able to give me contact information for a man who is part of the Lozi Royal Family and used to play the Shilimba (Lozi marimba) for all sorts of things. But that's jumping ahead of myself. After arriving and finding this contact of mine in Mongu I got to attend the last day of the Kuomboka Ceremony.

The Kuomboka Ceremony takes place annually on the banks of Limulunga. The ceremony celebrates the end of the rainy season each year by displaying the return of the chief to the wet part of the region. He is paddled by a collection of young tribesmen in an oblong-shaped boat under a canopy with a large replica of an elephant on top. His wife and minister also got boats, with other animals adorning the tops. After a rather elaborate ceremonial trip downriver to Limulunga, the Chief disembarks and presides over four days of traditional music and dancing provided by his people from all over the area. I missed out on the first bits because I only arrived for the last day of the ceremony, but I did get to see a lot of traditional music and dancing on the last day. It was really an interesting spectacle! Firstly, the outfits were different than I had expected. The men actually wore skirts--supposedly this is from the Scottish colonial influence, but I was just confused. They aren't kilts, but actual knee-length skirts with a sort of elaborate red/black/white patterning. But they are very proud of these outfits, so there must be something more to them!

The dancing is hard to describe, so I will simply put up some pics (all poor quality, I'm afraid, as I was taking them from behind a few rows of people!). But I can describe the local Shilimba in more detail. The Lozi call their marimba a "shilimba" and it is played as a solo instrument or with two to three players. This differs from the Zim-marimba tradition in which each player has their own instrument and several instrument play together because there will only ever be one shilimba on the stage at a time, but there could be anywhere from one to three players on the various ranges of the instrument. In general, the players used a "split-hand" technique rather than a rolling technique and the rhythmic texture was very thick. A single melody did not arise from the instruments, the focus was on the texture and complexity of the music. For those of you who are marimba players, think about the main tenor part to Nehmamusasa and then add in a few more players on similar parts! The left hand will generally beat out a bass line while the right hand plays around with rhythm and what they hear as melody, but if a player is left-handed he may just stand on the opposite side of the marimba so that his left hand can play the higher notes instead! That was quite fun to watch. The shilimba also never plays alone. It is an instrument that is so interwoven with the singing and dancing that accompany it that they are one and the same to a local.

The following day I looked up Dr. Lewanika, my connection from this man I met on the bus, and got to question him for about an hour on the practices and traditions that surround the shilimba. Turns out there are several uses of the instrument, ranging from everyday entertainment to secret-code-like communication with their shaman during ceremonies. That was the most interesting thing about it to me--the music and the vocals were inseparable to this man, who had played the shilimba as a youth. Apparently it is also part of the smoke and mystery surrounding the shamans, because Dr. Lewanika kept describing the music as a necessary part of the shaman's movement--the player had to be sensitive to signals telling him when to play, otherwise the shaman's movements wouldn't be as full of weight and he would lose the intimidation factor.

That interview marked the last of my days in Mongu and I boarded a bus back to Lusaka the following morning. My intention was to stay several days in Lusaka, but I found once I arrived that there was very little to see or do. I spent a day walking around, seeing markets, etc. but didn't feel like giving it to much more of my time. I then boarded a bus to Livingstone, where I thought I should stop by to see Victoria Falls on my way south to Namibia. But against my better judgement I decided not to pre-book my bus ticket because it would take a rather arduous walk through the blazing afternoon heat. I was assured that I could just show up in the morning at the bus--which I did, except that it was fully booked. So instead of getting on the reliable bus where they gave you bottles of water and free cookies I ended up on a bus run by Marks Motors...normally a pretty reputable company as well. I had an interesting trip for the first several hours... of course, having to fend off the too-enthusiastic young Zambian men who are always asking for your phone number, but nothing majorly inconvenient.

But then we hit that lovely patch of road that I described from my trip northward as looking like the surface of the moon. About 1 km into this disaster-zone we hit a pot-hole too hard and the bus ground to a halt. Now, if I hadn't been on the bus for the entire day, if the bus hadn't been infested with cockroaches, if I hadn't had to fend off one particular 20-year old guy for the whole journey, I might have been more lenient and patient with the drivers. But as it was, I was tired of nonsense. After the first three attempts to fix the bus failed (there was a leak in the break line that wouldn't let the bus move) and my oh-so-friendly 20-year old Zambian hailed a passing pick-up for a lift, I decided to jump in as well. So there I am, with my huge backpack full of clothes, small backpack full of computers and other random stuff, and no jacket, bouncing along in the back of a pickup along the worst road imaginable. And surprisingly, it was a lot of fun! There were three other Zambians with us who were also out of patience: two older ladies and an old gentleman. They were hilarious, debating how far it was to Livingstone about every two minutes, chatting with me about my trip and about how I had found Zambia, and just being amiable. The best part was that this annoying fellow I have been describing was silent for the whole trip! I think he was intimidated by the older crowd, and maybe that I was so comfortable chatting with them. But in any case, I certainly enjoyed the trip. As my one and only experience hitch-hiking, I would say that it was a success. And it is surprising how normal it is to hitch a lift in Zambia... the normalcy of it makes the risks lower and the utility higher. But the most important part was that I made it to Livingstone as planned and didn't have to put up with yet another bus break-down!

My time in Livingstone was much less eventful. I went to see the falls the day after I arrived, and it certainly was a stunning sight to see. There was much more water than I remembered from my visit in December--so much, in fact, that you needed a raincoat to cross the bridge onto the island where you view the falls! I have never seen so much mist in my life, and despite my raincoat I managed to get soaked through.

Something else that I didn't know was that on nights when the moon is full you can come back to the falls in the evening to view a "lunar rainbow" that the moon casts in the mist of the falls. This idea intrigued me to the point where I had to go see it--despite paying extra admission--and it was definitely worth it! What a cool thing... a rainbow in sort-of pale shades of white and gray, no real colors to speak of, but cast so strongly in the mist that you could see the full arc. I guess there's no reason why that shouldn't be possible, but it is definitely something I had never thought about before. I wish I could post a picture, but it's not something that photographs well with a tiny automatic camera! It is definitely one of those sights that has made me wish I had the knowledge and equipment to do some real photography, though!

I spent the next few days bumming around in Livingstone before I calculated my budget after taxes and realized that I have way more money than I should at this point in my fellowship year! To celebrate, I took a micro light over the falls--basically that's a motorized hang-glider that you go up in with just a pilot and you! And what a view, I can tell you! I was pretty nervous... that genetic fear of heights does still have a hold on me... but it was worth the terror. Check out the photos and I'm sure that you'll agree about the view! They don't let you take your own camera up, so all the photos are from a camera mounted on the wing of the craft and don't quite do the view justice, but still. I also got to see a better view of the canyon than I had ever seen before and I learned a fair amount about the geology from my pilot. He was pretty cool--he even let me fly the thing for a few minutes! That was an adrenaline rush, I can tell you!

A few days later I got on a bus and headed for Windhoek, Namibia, where my next post will pick up from. Whew! These posts do pile up when you're away from the internet!

The End of Term is Coming!

2008-04-04T14:11:00.002+02:00

And boy are we ready for it!

Please don't misunderstand my sentiment here... I am absolutely thrilled to be participating in such a music program as Maru-a-Pula has to offer. But at the same time, one can only go so many weeks without a decent night's rest! I have been working 10-12 hour days for the past two months and I am tiiiiired. Luckily for me, I also have an amazing friend amongst the Maru-a-Pula staff who has offered to take me north to Zambia with her when she goes home for the school holiday next Saturday. This really is lucky, because otherwise I would be sitting around here in Gabs (which goes completely dead over holidays...everyone goes back home to their villages, etc.) twiddling my thumbs and wondering how to accomplish anything up north. So, unfortunately, there is no rest for the weary as we are departing next Saturday morning at 4 AM! But at least there will be less stress and pressure at that point.

We had a nice music meeting today--our last of the term. It was so nice to hear how much they have appreciated my help these past months. I have greatly enjoyed this chapter of my travel year and it is wonderful to feel like I am able to give something back as well. I am just tying up the loose ends at this point... which is a bit sad. One of my classes was devastated to hear that I was leaving (they had obviously forgotten since I told them at the beginning of the term) and they all came up to give me hugs at the end of class. What sweethearts!

And the marimba tour is hurtling full-speed-ahead towards their departure on April 12th. I am sad that it didn't work out for me to go with them... I really feel close to a lot of the players at this point and in some ways it's like abandoning your family at the time they need you the most. But since HQ is adamant that I cannot come back to the US for anything, there isn't much that I can do! I will have to concentrate on having fun in other places doing other things. At least Zambia promises to be a unique and interesting experience!

One hiccup that I have encountered this week is a computer crash. Yes, my beautiful pint-sized laptop is having Windows Vista issues and won't start up properly. Now, the IT guy at MaP is trying his best to fix it, but he's been under so much pressure to get other things done before the end of term that it's been put on the back burner. :( At least it looks like I should be able to recover the files off of it--and at worst it will just need a clean wipe of the hard drive and reinstallation of all the programs I had on there. Such is life! It would have been much worse if this had happened anywhere else.

And that's all the news from this side of things! Please cross your fingers for me that the elections in Zimbabwe come to a peaceful conclusion!!

Over and out!

To Pretoria and Back Again

2008-03-26T16:00:00.003+02:00

Last weekend we had four days off due to the Easter holidays. Luckily for us, Botswana hasn't gotten to the stage of politically correctness for religious holidays to be renamed for seasons of the year, so we got a few days off of school and I got to take a nice trip with my friend Julia down to South Africa.

We chose Pretoria mainly because it was within a half-day's drive, contained many shopportunities, and was safer than Johannesburg. I am a bit embarrassed to report that we spent the majority of our time there in one huuuuge shopping complex called the "Menlyn Park Mall" where we had our hair cut, saw several movies in the cinema, ate at lovely restaurants, and shopped 'till we dropped. But as much as this seems counter to my normal mode of living, Botswana has changed me! I now appreciate the availability of clothing stores, music stores, decent cinemas, etc. And I am happy to report that my wardrobe is now replenished and no longer looks shabby and worn out. Since I really have worn my clothes into threads, it was about time for some new ones! Now the only problem is finding someone to help me hem a new pair of trousers (yes, I said trousers. You have to be careful here because 'pants' actually refers to underwear!).

We also hit a craft market on sunday morning, which was intended to be a brief stop on our way home. Unfortunately for us, we arrived back at the car after a lucrative circuit around the market to find the car battery completely and utterly lifeless. Now, normally this is no problem.... but Julia had only recently purchased the car (it's rather old, a '96 Corolla) and we discovered that there were no jumper cables in the spare tire. Well, what did we do? Of course, there were two or three oh-so-kind parking attendants who were only too willing to look at the engine and look speculative while telling us absolutely nothing.

One point for South Africans, though, is that two nice men stopped their cars/shopping trips to take a look at the car. The first man tried to be helpful and pulled off the lid of the fuse box to have a look--after which he said it wasn't our battery at all, but a burnt-out fuse. This may sound like good news, but on Easter Sunday there really isn't a prayer of finding a repair shop open in the whole of the country! So we trekked down to the petrol station on the corner to search out a few new fuses (with our fingers prayerfully crossed) only to find that they didn't have the right ones...which was the start of our next adventure with a South African who took a look at the engine/fuses/battery and declared that the fuses were fine and the battery's voltage was fine (he actually carried a toolbox with a voltmeter in his car!) but he couldn't speak for the current. So it was either the battery or some wiring problem (which you can imagine wouldn't get fixed on Easter Sunday). Hence our second trip down to the petrol station for jumper cables in the hope that the battery was only run down.

Our third adventure with nice South Africans involved another car who we stopped to ask for a jump. We maneuvered the car into range of the cables, connected the leads, and turned the key.... to find that the car was still completely dead! But to forestall panic (I already had the travel guide and my phone out to call the backpacker about further accommodation) the nice guys who owned the other car told us to just give it a minute. We waited, and waited, and turned the key again.... and bingo! The car starts up and we're off to Botswana without switching the car off for anything!

It's funny how we had such a great trip, yet the most memorable part will probably be that interesting hour where we were stuck in the parking lot with a dead battery. But sometimes it's situations like that where you really learn about a place's character! I'm not sure whether people would have been so friendly if not for the rather ridiculous image of us as two young blondes getting help from two rather shabby looking car-guards. I suppose that I will never know... unless I end up in that situation again, which I hope I don't!

Isn't it supposed to be summer?

2008-03-17T21:06:00.002+02:00

Yesterday it rained non-stop for at least 12 hours. RAINED!

Today it was COLD. COOOOOOLD. Two-sweaters-two-pairs-of-socks-drink-hot-tea-and-still-shiver cold!

Isn't it supposed to be 90 degrees and sunny? This is the only place in the world where I've ever gotten a real sun tan!

Please take the rain back to the hemisphere it belongs in, we're not quite through with the summer yet. Thanks!

Performances at Maru-a-Pula

2008-03-16T13:41:00.008+02:00

In the last week the marimba band has gone into "performing mode" here at Maru-a-Pula. We had our first short "show" at assembly on Wednesday morning. It was only two songs, about ten minutes, but it was very interesting! It turns out that some of the students aren't so practiced at performing, and the songs started out quite a bit faster than they normally go...but overall it was a decent performance. I was much more nervous than I expected! I have gotten to the point in the past where I just don't mind performing, but for some reason it was different in front of the MaP community. I think my nerves can be attributed to my first performance in front of some of my very close friends amongst the staff, but still I was more unsettled than I expected.

The students hate performing for their peers, but that is completely understandable. The MaP students are lovely as individuals, but in groups they are a terror! Somehow they lose all respect for authority and for everything else when you put more than ten together in the same place... and in the past groups have been actually boo'd off the stage during assembly (Can you believe that's allowed!?!). So I understand why the marimba students would be shy of performing for this less-than-supportive audience. Luckily, for our show we received exactly the opposite response from the crowd. As soon as the curtain was drawn the students went mad--they were screaming and shouting their friends' names in support. Now, that's not exactly what you'd encourage at a live music show either, but I'm not going to complain! I even heard my name being called out! Turns out it was my Form 1 students :) who are always a bit over-enthusiastic anyway. Some of my other friends confessed that their first reaction to seeing the group was: "who's that white kid? Oh, wait.... that's Sarah!"

Later in the week I went to see the Thornhill Primary School marimba teacher. He is a very nice Zimbabwean man named Roy Nyathi, and it turns out that he was a student of Alport Mhlanga's back when AM taught at the Zimbabwean College of Music! Roy seems like a good resource for my project and I am planning to spend a bit of time there next week viewing lessons and attending a rehearsal of his performing band. I also got to see their band perform for a regional swimming gala at the school on Friday evening. They were an interesting group! All of the songs they perform are full of energy and enthusiasm--to the point that the students get up and dance during the performances sometimes! But more on the Thornhill group another day when I've spent some time at the school.

Where to from here?

2008-03-09T13:49:00.000+02:00

Where to now?

Well, many people have been asking me the “big question”: where am I going after Maru-a-Pula?

The answer is not particularly simple or well-thought out, but I am beginning to form some more realistic plans. Most schools in the region are on holiday from the middle of April to the middle of May, which means that this time of year is going to be a traveling time for me. I am thinking of heading north to Zambia (with HQ’s permission, of course). There are some pros and cons of this tactic… the pros being that I haven’t been there and it’s a completely different marimba culture. The major drawback is that I don’t have any connections there yet… although I am working on it. My thought was to go north to Lusaka for a couple of weeks to see if I could dig up any schools or marimba players in person. After that, or maybe sooner than later if it turns out to be unproductive, I want to head even farther north to Tanzania. I don’t actually know a lot about that area yet, but I would sure love to visit there and I know there is some marimba to be found. So… that’s the holiday. Hopefully I would get to swing back down from the North through Namibia and celebrate my and Jaimie Adelson’s birthdays with Jaimie at Gobabeb.

From there it is very likely that I will go back to Johannesburg to visit a school there for a month or possibly two. One of the former marimba teachers from Gaborone has moved to a ritzy private school there. He is reputed to be a very good teacher, so I would probably enjoy his teaching.

From there I plan to hit a marimba festival in mid-June in Mafikeng—the International School of South Africa has invited Maru-a-Pula to participate and it would be a fun event to attend. From there it’s on to Grahamstown, SA to visit Andrew Tracey at Rhoades University and hit the Grahamstown Festival at the end of June.

From the 1^st of July my lovely friends Samantha Worzalla and Julie Edwards are visiting and we’ll be doing some traveling until the end of the month. Conveniently there is the South African National Marimba Festival in Johannesburg on the 25^th of July, and my flight home leaves on the 29^th. So that’s the year in a wrap! Although, it is interesting to me that the majority of my plans for the near future are up in the air while the farther off plans are much more concrete! But that’s life sometimes.

The only other wrench that has been thrown in the wheels is the uneasy political situation in Zimbabwe. I was planning to visit there beginning in April for one or two months, but it looks as if there will be a travel warning issued for the duration of my stay in Africa. Oh, well! The irony is that I now have contacts and everything that would make a visit there a complete breeze from my end… providing that I don’t get shot at the border J. But I am still hoping that the travel warning is lifted. I would much rather go there than Johannesburg!!

So that's something to chew on for a while....

over and out1

Khama Rhino Sanctuary (Take 2!)

2008-02-25T21:56:00.000+02:00

Hello to everyone back home!

This weekend was a long one thanks to the mid-term holiday break and the Maru-a-Pula staff have scattered themselves throughout Southern Africa. To do my part, I hired a car with a friend of mine (Julia Shore, another volunteer teacher and my next-room neighbor), borrowed bits of camping gear from everyone I know on staff, and hopped about 350 kms NE to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. Now, my most avid readers may recall that this was the site of a rather unusual camping experience when my tour group attempted to stay there in December--luckily things went much more smoothly this time around! No swarming Afrikaaners, no movement of tents and belongings, etc.

In fact, even from the planning side this trip was a breeze! Apparently it's not high-season for tourists anymore, because when I called on Tuesday to book a campsite for the weekend I got the choice of any campsite, and only two of the 12 or so sites were occupied while we were there. We had a bit of a scare with the hire car because we left the booking of that quite late, but in the end the cheapest place did have cars available and we got one for a good deal. The only problem we anticipated was the 2WD/4WD problem, but renting a 4x4 was out of the question, so we decided to give it a go in the Corolla and dig ourselves out if we ran into too much sand.

Our drive was smooth, but a bit long without aircon. Luckily we found a variety of interesting local radio stations (interesting in many senses of the word) to keep us entertained, despite the rather noisy rush of air past the open windows at 140 kms/hr. Unfortunately our map was a bit deficient and we had a few tense moments on unmarked back roads (most of the roads in Botswana seem to be unmarked) before arriving at the rather tall and imposing gate of the Sanctuary.

Our first day there was also very exciting in many ways--the campsite we were given turned out to have a rather large and busy wasp nest in the central tree, the roads were completely unimproved sand tracks (our poor rental 2WD!), and the mosquitos were out in force--but we had a great time overall. On our game drive that evening we saw heaps of game and didn't even get stuck in the sand! I was driving (unfortunately?) and we did get a few scratches on the sides of the car... this was cause for nail-biting until the bill came earlier this week :).

One of the other Maru-a-Pula teachers brought her family the following day and we had an interesting time chatting with them and looking around the park with them... they have a lovely daughter who was just a delight to play with. One incident in particular was worth mentioning... we were lounging in deck chairs beside a tiny swimming pool all morning with a rhinocerous in the distance (a bit idyllic, actually) when our friend from MaP says "Guys, did you see the rhinocerous there?"

"Oh that one, he hasn't moved for hours"

"No, I don't think so. Look again!"

And there he was, a rather large black rhinocerous less than 10 meters from us (black rhinos are the aggressive, irritable sort), staring us right in the eye! We had no idea whether to move out of the way, stay very still, or just panic... but eventually some of the wardens came out and asked us to move around to the other side of the swimming pool--apparently all the rhino wanted was a drink of water! I'll post a picture of this soon, it's rather unbelievable unless you see it with your own eyes!

But other than a few nice meals, a rather ridiculous amount of time spent trying to boil water (my fellow camper was somewhat unexperienced with fire-building), and some wildlife in our campsite, nothing much happened. It was amazingly refreshing to get away from the MaP campus, though... even if it did take the majority of the next week to readjust to the school schedule.

Six Months and Counting...

2008-02-17T10:34:00.001+02:00

Dear everyone,

Unfortunately I have been experiencing some wrist pain (probably from too much marimba) but it means that typing is usually a painful process. I know that this means you are all left stranded without updates from me... so I thought I would post my second quarterly report that I sent in to Watson HQ about my experiences at Maru-a-Pula School. I will try to keep posting more often in smaller quantities, but I am becoming unreliable so I apologize if that falls through!

So here goes!

Dear Watson HQ,

First I would like to apologize for the tardiness of this quarterly report! My life has become very busy (in a good way) and there have been other obstacles as well, which you will hear about in the course of this report.

Since my last report I have spent a great deal of time at Maru-a-Pula School (MAP) in Gaborone, Botswana. I chose to visit MAP because the marimba teacher here, Mr. Alport Mhlanga, is an internationally renowned marimba composer and a good friend of my former marimba instructor in Portland, OR. My arrival went very smoothly, but the month that I spent at MAP during November/December was only partially productive in terms of my project. Firstly, this was the end of the MAP school year and many of the students were involved in an extensive examination process, limiting the time they were able to spend on extra-curricular activities such as marimba. Secondly, many of the classes themselves were winding down at this point for the end of the term, making my classroom research less valuable.

The one upside of my time at MAP during this month was my interaction with Mr. Mhlanga. Because of the examinations that were happening, many of his regular classes were not meeting and he was able to spend more time with me in private sessions. He is an amazing composer! Even with the frustrations of last term, I learned that my former marimba education was very limited. It turns out that the style of marimba I had been taught in Portland was very right-hand dominant. I knew that already, especially after playing in the classical percussion ensemble at Grinnell, but I didn’t know that so much of the marimba world played with a more equal-handed style. I know that might not make much sense, but essentially I had to learn to lead movement across the keyboard with my left hand instead of my right hand… which is difficult and unfamiliar in the same way as trying to write with your off-hand. At this point I have gotten much better at it, but I’m afraid that there is still a long way for me to go! It’s just a combination of a lot of small things, like the fact that I am used to doubling notes with my right hand only, and only in a downward direction, and now I’m trying to learn with both hands in both directions… well, it’s changed the way I think about marimba! Suddenly I am combining my classical sticking techniques with my African music and it seems strange. But it does make me very glad for my classical training at Grinnell! I do consider myself to be a proficient marimba player, but I would be much more behind if it weren’t for my classical experience at Grinnell.

Since my return in January I have had less private time with Mr. Mhlanga, but I have gained a lot in terms of student rehearsals and class time. Mr. Mhlanga was absent from Maru-a-Pula for the first two weeks of the term because he was on a contract as a visiting artist at Williams in the US, and during this time I taught his classes as a substitute. This was really an amazing experience for me. Not only was I a “real” full-time teacher for two weeks, but I gained a lot of respect from the other teachers and the students at MAP. Because I am so young-looking (especially to people here in Botswana) I was often mistaken for an exchange student or a teacher-aide last term, but after my stint as a full-time music teacher I felt that the community here understood me much better. It is nice when people recognize that you do more than photocopying and filing J although it really doesn’t matter to me as long as I get respect from the other music staff. During this two weeks I taught classes to middle-school aged students in music theory and in marimba playing. Luckily, my stint at MAP before the Christmas holiday meant that I knew a few of Mr. Mhlanga’s tunes to teach to the classes, and this all went very well. It was actually hard for me to give up my students when Mr. Mhlanga returned… I have gotten very attached to them.

Mr. Mhlanga’s return also coincided with the beginning of after-school activities. Maru-a-Pula believes in a spirit of service and self-involvement, so the school day ends at 1:00 pm and the afternoon in occupied with extra-curriculars. Marimba ensemble is one of those extras and normally there are three or four groups that each meet once per week for about two hours. Because MAP is sending a student ensemble overseas in April (this is the trip that I requested permission to go on) the schedule has gone a bit haywire. There are only two groups that meet now, one of young students who are still in their second year of playing, and the professional-quality group that is being trained for the tour. The tour group rehearses on four afternoons per week for four hours, as well as two to three hours on Saturday mornings. It has been amazing to work with this group—I have learned many new tunes from them and I am helping to teach them as well. Most of the time I play as if I were part of the group, but as we get closer to the tour departure date I will have to stop so that the players can get used to the sound of their performing ensemble. The group is an interesting mix of students. They range from 15-18 in age and also range in ability level. The selection criteria for the tour were musical ability and appropriate temperament, so there are some very sweet kids with more modest talent that require extra practice. There are also some pretty amazing players who were part of the previous performance group from Maru-a-Pula. It is very fun to play with these players, especially on Saturdays when we workshop with only the advanced players. During those sessions we learn parts and songs that will be taught the following week so that we can help teach the others.

Let me go on for a moment about how amazing Mr. Mhlanga is. He might possibly be one of the most naturally talented musicians I have ever come across! Not only that, but he is fully trained as a classical guitarist and knows more music theory than most university professors. I think he enjoys having me around because I am a classical audience in some ways and he can tell me all about the chord progressions with suspended 9ths and minor 7^th chords modulating to bizarre key changes, etc. But I am also enjoying it, even if I’m barely keeping up on the theory side of things, and he has inspired me to start composing. I haven’t gotten very far yet, but since I have never EVER felt the desire to compose at all, I think it’s a big step. He has fundamentally changed the way that I think about marimba music and about the people who play marimba. There are so many different sides to his humor and personality that I am continually perplexed (and amused too… you should hear some of his jokes!). He is also a very proper person who exemplifies respect and loyalty. And aside from that, I really think he’s a musical genius. He just knows how things will sound before he plays them and he has an ear that you’d never believe. He can pick out a wrong note on one instrument in a deafening chorus of 15 marimbas. I have also been very impressed at how well he adapts the music to his players. Each song is molded to suit the ability level and even the personality of each player. On top of that, his rehearsal style is very sneaky. Instead of saying “OK, it starts like this and then you do this and this and this” he just starts rehearsing the form from the beginning. Each part he teaches is played within the form it will eventually be performed in. It’s amazing how quickly he can bring a group along without any of the stress or frustration that normally comes into the rehearsal process. I am learning a lot!

One of the greatest challenges I have run into here has actually been physical. I am having pain in my wrists (especially my left… surprise, surprise) and it is probably caused by so much Marimba playing. I started feeling this pain when I was here in November, and I had thought that a month off would cure it. That didn’t happen, but I am being very careful to ice every evening and wear braces when I can. Unfortunately, my wrist pain is also aggravated by typing, so I have been spending as little time at the computer as possible. That has made correspondence much more difficult, especially because my wrists just can’t handle typing after a full day of marimba. Weekends are really the only time I can type for extended periods of time, and they do hurt while I type so I end up cutting most computer work short even then. That said, they seem to be holding up fairly well this term with the ice and braces. I can’t wear braces while I play marimba because the wrist motion is essential to marimba technique, but with the treatment I have been giving them they aren’t getting worse and sometimes I think they’re building strength and actually getting better. Of course, this is still a concern for me and I am keeping a close eye on the pain. The last thing I want is to come out of this year with tendonitis!

Overall, my marimba experience here has been incredible! I am literally playing or teaching marimba for 8 hours or more every day, and even though I thought I would get bored of it I find that I am still learning new things all the time. The department has asked that I stay until the end of this academic term so that I can finish teaching some of the classes that are still mine and so that I can continue assisting Mr. Mhlanga in his classes and afterschool rehearsals. There is a music festival here in the first week of April that I hoped to return for anyway, so I am planning to stay through the term (ends second week in April). That way I can finish the preparation process with the tour group and see them off to the US. Watching these students pour their hearts and lives into the marimba for the tour has been amazing.

My time at MAP has also been highly education in a cultural sense. I have learned a lot from the students here and made some really good friends. I am living in an annex off of the girls boarding house (approx. a quarter of the students are boarders) and eating in the dining hall. It’s not the greatest living situation but it does put me in close contact with many of the students. I have gotten them to come out and play Frisbee with me, to chat about their families and lives, to talk about their perceptions of race and of the US and all sorts of other things. The MAP students are really special… they are more like US students than they know in many ways, and incredibly different from students in Cape Town. I love talking with them about South Africa and hearing what their perceptions are and what they think about the current political situation. I have made some firm friendships among the staff as well. There are a few staff members especially who I eat lunch with on a regular basis and I am hoping to keep in contact with when I leave here. There is a lovely “Hakuna Matata” mentality here that somehow doesn’t get in the way of competence and actually completing one’s job, but makes for lively personalities. One of the PE teachers has become almost like a brother to me—he is a fun person with integrity and a strong sense of commitment. I love watching him interact with his family (who are just lovely) because he exemplifies what I consider to be the positive aspects of Batswana culture and he’s open enough to chat about even the most culturally sensitive topics.

While I was traveling over the Christmas holiday I had expected to take a break from my Watson-ing for a while, but it turns out that it’s become my lifestyle and I can’t just leave it behind that easily! I traveled to the North of Botswana, South to Lesotho and Durban, back to Cape Town for a week, and to Johannesburg and Kruger National Park. It was, firstly, an amazing trip. Covering such a large geographic area in a short time gave me a shock to see how different the cultures were in such similar areas. We visited a Batswana village near Maun and got to know some of the locals who work as mokoro polers in the Okavango Delta, I visited a Zulu village near Durban, I got to know park rangers from Mmphumalanga near the Kruger Park, and I interacted with plenty of Afrikaaners in between. What an interesting hodge-podge of cultures! Being up North in Botswana made me really interested in visiting Zambia. Apparently it is a very poor country and it might be hard for me to find an appropriate school to visit, but there is a slightly different sort of marimba played in the Eastern part of the country. I am planning to follow up with some of the teachers here at Maru-a-Pula who are Zambian expatriates to see if they have any connections with schools there.

My plan from this point is to spend the rest of the term here at MAP, then to head to Zimbabwe for perhaps a month. I am connecting with a few schools in Bulawayo through teachers that I know here at Maru-a-Pula, but I am waiting to approach Mr. Mhlanga for his advice until the tour arrangements have settled down a bit. That should be very soon, I am hoping. The only problem that I foresee is the school holiday period following this term. I believe that schools in Zimbabwe also follow the same term schedule, so I may take another trip (not as extensive as my last one) into Namibia or possibly Zambia if I find any information/connections leading me there. I have also been suggested to investigate Mozambique, but I am hesitant because the official language is not English. Again, I am planning to do more research.

Thanks for your attention and your help along the way! I will keep you posted as my plans for April take shape.

All the best,

Sarah

Merry Christmas?

2007-12-26T14:19:00.000+02:00

A belated Merry Christmas everyone! And a happy and prosperous New Years to you as well. I am finally back in Gaborone finished with my travel adventures for the summer break and it's been wild!

Leaving Gaborone I yet again got stuck for hours on the side of the road as my Intercape bus broke down mid-way to Johannesburg. Luckily for me, I didn't have to be there precisely on time! Although, I am a bit tired of the Intercape buses. Too bad they're the only real service between Gabs and Jburg!

The morning of Dec 7th we set off on a tour to Victoria Falls and Botswana with Bundu Safaris. What a great trip! The rain threatened the entire time, but somehow it only rained when we weren't doing anything anyway. Now, because it is the rainy season there is less potential for viewing wildlife (they don't have to congregate around the water holes) but we still had a pretty good sampling! Elephant, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, all sorts of antelope, wild dogs, hippopotamus, secretary birds, warthogs and more. It was my first time seeing any of these animals in the wild so I was pretty excited. Some of my friends who had been on Safari before weren't quite as stoked about it, but we all ended up having a good time anyway.

Our first stop on the tour was actually Victoria Falls in Zambia. I wanted to go over and see it from the Zimbabwe side as well, but that would have cost a lot of money and it happened to be raining that afternoon, so we only saw the Zambian side. But don't get the wrong impression, it was still a beautiful sight! Apparently it's one of the seven natural Wonders of the World.... and I have to agree with whoever decide that. It is so beautiful!! Even in the "low-water" season it was spectacular. I would post photos now but I will have to wait for my next internet session, but remember to check back!

The next day we went white water rafting on the Zambezi (Class 5 rapids). I've never been rafting before and this experience was both thrilling and really fun! Apparently this is the best time of year to raft the Zambezi, even though it isn't the best time to view the falls. When the water is too high or low the rapids get pretty dangerous and the rafting companies close down, so I'm glad we went when we did! The water was warm, the rapids were exciting, and there weren't many rocks to hit by accident when you flipped the raft. Five out of six contact lenses survived the trip (both of mine survived... barely), we only flipped once (unfortunately... that was the best part!), and there were free drinks on the ride back. Man... what a great time! The only drawback was the intense hikes in and out of the canyon to get to and from the river. I'm surprised that no-one got injured on some of these spots! but overall, that rafting trip is one of my highlights from the tour. I didn't have any "near-death" moments like some of my raft-mates, but there were certainly a few where I wasn't sure we'd be coming out the other side in one piece. I can't wait to try rafting on other rivers!

That was all for our time in Livingstone and at the falls, but I also found Zambia to be a really interesting place in general. The overall level of development in Zambia is much lower than in either South Africa or Botswana and the landscape is different as well. The border was much more like what you would expect from an African country. The dirtiness and sketchiness of the immigration office was complemented by litter and exhaust fumes, trampled ground, and a huuuuuge queue of trucks waiting to cross the Zambezi on the ferry. Supposedly there is a bridge being planned, but in the meantime the truck drivers simply have to wait three or four days in a line before crossing the river. Seeing Zambia made me fall in love with the landscape and the people there... I am really hoping that I'll be able to travel there on my Watson. There is a significant marimba culture in part of the country, so I'll have to start pursuing my contacts there :).

From Zambia we recrossed the Zambezi River into Botswana and headed towards Chobe National Park. Now, the Chobe is one of the great rivers of Botswana (if such a dry place can have great rivers) and the park is situated on the edge of the Okavango Delta. It is an absolutely beautiful park, and the beauty is only increased by the amazing wildlife roaming the shores of the river. We arrived mid-day and spent an absolutely miserable hour getting camp set up in the pouring rain... which luckily tailed off in time for our cruise on the river. The cruise took us from the campsite into the Chobe park, where we could see Namibian shores as well as Batswana. But the exciting thing wasn't looking at two identical stretches of land that officially spoke different languages, it was, of course, the wildlife viewing from the boat. Now, what is so great about a game cruise rather than a game drive? Well, the best part is that the boat is so quiet. Really, it's amazing. Because the animals aren't looking for predators in the water, they basically completely ignore the boats... especially when the driver turns off the motor and just lets the boat drift. We saw the most amazing elephants bathing in the river, playing with each other, and spraying water everywhere! We also saw some pretty amazing hippopotami (that just seems like the wrong plural...) and crocodiles both in and out of the water. Overall, a pretty amazing cruise. That's not even to mention the birds and antelope, or the other animals that we got glimpses of from the river. But it's not so much what we saw that was so incredible (none of these animals are very amazing sightings), but the things we saw them doing and our proximity to them. The next morning we set off on a game drive through the park, but it wasn't really that much better than the cruise. We did see some warthogs, giraffe, lion tracks, hyena, and wild dogs... and a very cool situation where the hyena was hiding downwind of the dogs, just waiting for them to leave their kill. And LOTS of hornbills (aka Zazu from the Lion King). My only regret is that we couldn't spend more time in the park!

Next our day long drive brought us from Kasane to Maun, home of the famous Maun Carnival and the launching point for the Okavango Delta. If you take a look at a map of Botswana, the Delta is both deceptively small and large at the same time. Looking at the size of the country you'd say it was pretty small. But if you instead think about the size of the Delta relative to, say, any other natural feature in Southern Africa, it looks huge! And I tend to agree more with the huge part after seeing it firsthand. We spent three days actually in the Delta itself, which was an amazing experience. On the first morning we met our "polers" or guides, who poled us into the delta on their mokoros (sort of shallow wooden canoes). The water in the Delta was so amazingly clear that the polers would just lean down and take a drink when they got thirsty. We boiled our water in camp just to be safe, but it turns out that the water probably wouldn't make you sick anyway, it's just that clean. The mokoro trip took the better part of two hours, and halfway through we even saw a lonely elephant grazing on a tiny island not more than 50 meters away (and it was an interesting experience trying to stand up in the mokoro to see over the reeds!). Once we arrived on our more substantial island, we set up camp and made lunch. This was our roughest camping the whole trip. Water came from the Delta, the toilet was a hole in the dirt, and anything in the coolers went warm after the ice melted on the first day. But somehow we had a wonderful time anyway :).

The best part of our Delta experience was, well, everything! We got to swim in the channels of the Delta where the water was never more than a few meters deep (and luckily wasn't home to any crocs or hippos), take bushwalks around the island looking at plants, tracks, and whatever animals we happened to find, learn to make woven bracelets from reeds, play cards with our polers, and just generally have a great time. On the second night we went out on a "sunset cruise" on the mokoros, and about fifteen minutes into the trip the weather turned into a huge storm! We had to stop the boats, brace for the storm, and then speed back to camp in the calm period just before the storm hit. We got soaked, of course, despite the umbrellas and raincoats, and spent the next few hours huddling around the fire sharing umbrellas and trading songs and stories with our hosts. I think it was more fun than what was planned!

After returning to civilization in Maun, four of my fellows and I went on a scenic flight over the Delta in a little 6-seater plane. We had a great time, it was absolutely gorgeous from above! And for once we could really see animals when they couldn't see us. The only fly in the ointment was that my friends seated in the back got really motion-sick, so I don't think they enjoyed it as much as they might have.

The last stop on our itinerary was the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, which we arrived at late in the afternoon after yet another long day of driving. By this point we were all pretty tired of the big yellow truck... but after setting up our tents for what should have been the last time we hopped back into the truck for a "game drive" through the sanctuary to see some Rhinos. Now, if you don't know the history of the Rhinoceros in Southern Africa, the short version is that they were poached to such a large extent that extinction was a real danger for both the Black and White Rhino. The government of Botswana thought that this was unacceptable, so instead of just watching the last of the Rhinoceros fade into children's stories and history books Sir Seretse Khama created the Khama Rhino Sanctuary and had the entire country's remaining animals transported there for safekeeping. The fence around the sanctuary was more to keep out the poachers than to keep in the Rhinos, but it meant that there were enough rhinos protected for the population to start to recover. At this point they have started resettling some of the animals into the wild because the population of White Rhinos has recovered quite well, but it was a near thing!

So on our little trip through the sanctuary we were lucky enough to see a whole family of White Rhinos as well as a lonely old Black Rhino (the names really mean nothing.... 'White' was actually a Dutch misinterpretation of the word "wide" after the shape of its lip and 'Black' refers to the name of the place where the Black Rhino was first seen). That was pretty exciting, but upon return to camp we discovered an army of arrogant South African families running amok in our campsite. Naturally, our response is "what the hell?" and we try to talk to them. Now, apparently the army of South Africans was instructed to use this campsite and didn't bother to go talk to reception when they found it already occupied. Instead, they had taken it upon themselves to simply move our tents out of their way and continue assembling their armada of campervans and other luxury travel devices. SO what are we to do when the arrogant Afrikaaner says he won't move? We go to reception ourselves. And get told that we'll have to find a new place to camp because the other group had a booking and yada, yada, yada. Well, we weren't so psyched to take our tents down in what fading sunlight remained, so instead we yelled at the receptionist enough to get everyone angry, and in the end we opted to not stay at the Sanctuary at all. So off we went, packed up our tents, and traveled down the road another hour to Palapye. The only problem with this scenario is the massive amount of animals on the road after dark. Not interesting animals, but domestic herds of cattle, goats, and donkeys. Yes, donkeys. But that story will have to wait for another time. Aside from all the anger though, we did get to enjoy the amazing DJ services of one of the Australians on the tour... involving an ipod, earphones, and the truck's microphone. You see, the truck didn't have any other way of playing music than holding earphones up to the speaking mic :). And we all felt much better once we finally had some dinner in us!

And so we arrived back in Johannesburg ten days after we left with some really strange stories to tell! And with over 3000 pictures in total. You'll understand, then, if it takes me a few more days to sort all those photos and get a few posted online!

But was there any time to rest? Of course not! Because the following day was just enough for laundry and some necessary shopping (and haircut, thank god) before I took off for Maseru, Lesotho to meet up with two friends from Grinnell: Katie Jares and Megan Straughn. But you'll have to excuse me if I leave that story to tell tomorrow! Tonight it is time for bed.

Upcoming Adventures

2007-12-03T18:47:00.000+02:00

This next month will see many changes!

First off, I'm leaving Gaborone on Thursday and meeting up with some friends in Joburg. From there we're all going on a tour of Botswana. First up to Victoria Falls (which isn't actually in Botswana) for some spectacular views, then the Okavango Delta and the Chobe National Game Reserve for some actual wild animal viewing. I'm pretty excited to actually see lions and elephants and everything else! That's a 10 day trip.... bringing us back down to Joburg at the end.

From there, with only one day of recovery time, I'm off to Lesotho to travel with Katie Jares and Megan Straughn. We're hitting up the highlights of Lesotho before heading off to Durban, South Africa for some quality beach time and a visit to a Zulu village. I'm pretty stoked for both of these... and in addition there is a "beer trail" of local breweries that sounds pretty amazing. From there we're off to Pretoria for a day before they continue up North and I split off to Cape Town to meet up with my parents.

We're spending a bit less than a week experiencing the highlights of Cape Town and surrounds, then jumping on a flight back to Joburg where we'll visit the archeological "Cradle of Mankind," see the infamous Apartheid Museum, and watch the off-Broadway "Lion King." After that we join up with a three-day tour to Kruger National Park for some more game viewing... following which my folks jump on a plane back to the US of A and I catch a bus back up to Gaborone for more quality time at Maru-a-Pula.

You may imagine that internet access will most likely be limited during this ridiculous month... but I'll try to post if I can! If not, I'll see you mid-January!

Whew! I hope I survive it!

Thanksgiving with the De Sole Family

2007-11-28T19:41:00.000+02:00

Alright, after the famine it is time to feast! In both the literal and figurative senses. I know that I have been lax about my blog updates in recent weeks, so here you get two updates in as many days. But in addition, this post is all about my Thanksgiving dinner... which was literally a feast after surviving Maru-a-Pula cafeteria food for a month!

Last week I bussed down to Pretoria (now officially named Tswana--but violently opposed) to meet up with the De Sole family. Natalie De Sole was visiting her parents, who are American and Italian but stationed in South Africa, and they invited me to join them for the weekend!

Unfortunately, my bus broke down three times on the way to Pretoria. Three times! I don't know how to describe this saga, except to say that we were stuck in the middle of nowhere waiting for a local mechanic for two hours when we broke down the first time, and then another hour after our second brake-down. The funny part is that the bus only managed 10 minutes of progress between these first two inadvertant stops! Luckily for us, we finally made it to the convenience store for water and some calories... we were a bit cranky at that point, though! It was very hot out, and we were stuck in a disappearing bit of shade under a tree. With concerned mothers telling their children not to go into the shade because there might be snakes. Great, huh? Actually, it was very interesting to observe the other passengers. Some of them just accepted their fate... (after all, as they say in Blood Diamond, "This is Africa") while others made a big stink about the delay. I would have been more upset myself, except that I didn't have a bus or plane to catch at the destination. But anyway, I have become much more relaxed about that sort of thing in general.

We finally made it to Johannesburg Station (3.5 hours late) where we let off many of the passengers on our bus and continued on (or back, as it was) towards Pretoria. Unfortunately for us, the bus broke down again... and right smack-dab in the middle of the freeway entrance ramp! So not only were we stuck for another hour waiting to get the bus moving, but we were also blocking the entrance to the freeway and making the inevitable 5pm traffic jam even worse. Luckily, we did eventually make it to the station... about 5 hours late overall... and even luckier for me was the patience and good-nature of the De Sole family about all the confusion! And the dinner they served (home-made pizzas, italian-style) was absolutely fabulous, so it was a really nice end to a rather frustrating day.

The rest of the weekend was busy but less frustrating :). On Thanksgiving itself Natalie and I accomplished some shopping at the Menlyn Park shopping mall in Pretoria. Now, this is basically a monstrously large shopping center, but somehow my usual impatience didn't surface during this shopping experience and we managed to find all the right shops. And what was even more strange? I actually found clothes that fit! If you've ever been shopping with me, you'll know that I have a very, VERY hard body-type to shop for... being both short and Norwegian-shaped doesn't agree very well with American ideals of fashion. But apparently it does agree fairly well with African styles, and we had a very productive morning. It may seem like I'm going on about this in unnecessary detail, but it's just that I'm so excited not to be forced into wearing every hot-weather outfit in my wardrobe twice each week :).

Thanksgiving dinner was very nice as well. We were invited to the home of another US expat (something to do with either the Embassy or USAID, I'm not sure which) and it was a nice evening. A bit strange... there were many families there of mixed nationality, which was wonderful from a social standpoint, but I don't think I've ever celebrated Thanksgiving with so many people from outside the US! And I've certainly never schmoozed with Embassy folks before, so it was a really interesting experience. The dinner was lovely and I got my yearly pumpkin pie fix, so all in all I am considering the holiday a success.

Friday morning the De Sole family and I took off for Mphumalanga, which is basically the province North and East of Joburg. Our destination was the Blyde River Canyon, which is a beautiful spot! Overall, Mphumalanga is a beautiful province and much more like my home climate in Portland. In fact, it was cool, misty, and even rainy almost the whole time we were there! But despite all of this it was a beautiful spot. The first day was mostly driving to reach the area but we did stop to view a nice waterfall with a fun name (Mac-Mac Falls).

We stayed over Friday night in a cute town called Pilgrim's Rest. This was an old gold-mining town that has been converted into a historic tourist town. Very cute, despite the somewhat overpowering feeling that everything is made especially for tourists. In fact, you hardly see any evidence that there is a real town at all, and many of the employees have to live over the hills in a poor district that wouldn't be acceptable to the town's image. We had a nice dinner there (although my fish and chips came as a whole fish fried up in batter... at least I couldn't see the eyes gleaming at me because they were covered in batter!) and stayed the night in a historic hotel. It was fun... Natalie and I had a footy bathtub in our room and lamps that were converted old oil lamps. There were also candles and matches around the room which I thought were decorative until the power went out briefly at the restaurant we dined in for dinner. So there is at least one aspect of the rustic mining town left!

The best parts of Pilgrim's Rest were the jacaranda trees and the cemetary. Jacarandas are beautiful big trees that cover the ground with a beautiful carpet of purple flowers, and there were jacarandas lining most of the streets in the town. That leant a very idealistic feeling to the place, it was beautiful and very peaceful. The cemetary was fun because it was the historic cemetary and had graves from as far back as the 19th century. The story goes that a robber was killed in the nearby pass and they had nowhere to bury him, so they put him up on the top of the hill (you can actually still find the grave, it is marked oh-so-cleverly "robber's grave") and that was the start of the cemetary. It's a really interesting place though... lots of infants (very sad), men in their 30's (mining accidents and "skirmishes"), and interesting grave stones with prayers, etc. There are many nationalities represented, as you would expect in a gold-mining town that experienced a gold-rush) and many languages on the gravestones. There is also an interesting insight into the peoples' culture because the graves are all clustered together around the Robber's Grave except for the Jewish graves. They are in their own section that's separated by a row of shrubs. So apparently being buried next to a Robber was better than being buried next to a Jewish person? Interesting.

We headed off towards the Blyde River Canyon the next day, stopping at a few very lovely viewpoints. The problem was, even though the viewpoints themselves were beautiful, we couldn't see the views themselves for the fog! We did wait very patiently and get a few nice vistas when the fog would momentarily clear, but it wasn't the picturesque place we'd imagined from Pretoria when planning the trip. Instead, we had some interesting conversations with the ladies and gentlemen selling crafts in the parking lot, and Natalie's mother had an excellent time learning to play some wooden shakers and dance a bit :).

The nicest views of the day were at the Bourke's Luck Potholes, which were at the junction of two rivers. They are really interesting geological phenomena, and the best part is that you can view them from literally any of the 360 degrees that you choose. We were gawking and taking photos when Natalie's father pointed out a baboon... which was climbing among some boulders in the middle of a rushing river as if they were nothing. And it proceeded to jump across a VERY large gap to what looked like sheer rock wall, then scamper at least a hundred meters up the wall in less than 30 seconds and howl at us all for invading it's territory. Such a cool sight! I haven't ever seen an animal do something that impressive in person before. I was too busy gawking to get any photos, so you'll have to do without on this one. But believe me, it was amazing.

At the end of the day we stopped in a cute little cafe for lunch (Natalie's parents don't seem to need to eat ever... so our meal times were a bit odd!) where they made their own ginger beer. That's a drink I approve of, although it's a bit strange if you're expecting root beer! And that was it except for the drive home. During which Natalie and I may have almost driven her parents crazy... for all our chatting and singing and pillow-fighting (yes, that's right).

We ended the weekend on Sunday morning at yet another Pretoria mall. But this time we weren't in it for the shopping, we were looking for local music. And we found some good stuff! I think between the two of us we bought six or seven CDs.

Luckily for me, the return bus trip was uneventful. The only odd bit was that I hadn't actually arranged a lift home from the bus stop in Gabs. I anticipated a slew of taxi drivers harrassing me as I stepped of the bus (as there had been the first time), but the only one there got snapped up by someone else, leaving me a bit stranded. I did eventually get ahold of my friends at MaP... and crashed in my bed, only to wake up very few hours later for Monday morning classes!

Mosquitos with Striped Legs

2007-11-27T15:08:00.000+02:00

Yes, that's right. The mosquitoes here do, indeed, have striped legs.

White stripes on black legs... it's a bit creepy looking actually, and while they're not as big as the buggers from Minnesota, they certainly pack a punch! And by that I mean they are eating me for lunch on a regular basis, or perhaps a midnight snack would be a more appropriate meal! I am really having terrible trouble with that. But luckily my body is adapting to their poison and the bites now fade really quickly, so I'm not constantly scratching like I have fleas :)

The mosquitoes aren't the only little buggers around with more than four legs. There are a ridiculous number of spiders here--correction, REALLY REALLY LARGE spiders--and they seem to enjoy hanging out in my bathroom! I am the only person living in my building, so I am also the only one who gets to take care of these things. Luckily, I have been informed that they are probably not poisonous... how comforting! And then there are the myriad moths, flies (who are so persistent I think we could learn a lot from them), millipedes, scorpions, cockroaches, termites, and other friends that all happen to exceed my allowed number of legs. If you ask me, anything more than four legs is trouble once you leave the hypothetical world and are talking about real life!

But aside from my non-mammalian roommates, life here in Gaborone is pretty good. I am living in an annex off of the girls' boarding house at the Maru-a-Pula school and eating meals with staff and students... turns out this is a very good deal for my budget! With the money I'm saving on room and board I'll be able to buy a laptop. How exciting! Actually, you can check out my future Watson-mobile at this link: http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=U810. It's going to be great... it will let me access all my data much easier and I'll be able to finish my transcriptions without relying heavily on the technology available at the schools I visit. AND it's just about the smallest laptop EVER.

Work has been a bit crazy! I have been teaching music appreciation courses to groups of Form 2 and Form 3 students (that translates roughly to 6th and 7th graders) and we've been having fun. I just got my first batch of papers to mark (grade), so it's been exciting to be a "real" teacher instead of just a practical teacher. Although, my attention to detail might actually make life harder for the students because I'm a picky teacher. When I assign a task, I expect to get what I asked for! But aside from this torture that I'm putting them through, we're having a good time.

I don't usually have a full schedule with these classes, so I've been spending some time covering for other teachers that are absent. I've done some History classes, some Drama, and I'm helping out in Phys Ed when I get the chance. So far we've done golf, kickball, and (of course) ultimate frisbee. I love this part of my day actually, it's a relief to get out of the classroom for a while to see the sun and just interact casually with the students. Not that I'm an expert at much when it comes to PE, but I do know the basics :).

The Maru-a-Pula school is surprisingly American. Now, maybe you'd expect this from the fact that the Headmaster is an American, but I have been reassured that this has been the case since long before he took over here. The school is very casual compared to most boarding schools in this part of the world... the uniform is very casual and the students don't even have to tuck in their shirts! This is a BIG deal here, believe me! And the school day ends early, 12:45pm, followed by mandatory after-school activities. I think this seems very American... most other African schools I've seen focus purely on academics. But there is a bit of necessity there too, since the school is only partially air-conditioned and it is just simply too hot to continue with classes after lunch. But the consequence is that we start EARLY. I haven't ever had to be up so early since high school myself! Staff briefing is at 6:50am each morning, and breakfast is at 6:10, so if I want to eat in the morning I have to really kick-start my day. All-in-all it has been quite an adjustment for me!

Marimba has been going very well so far. Although I had a bit of a slow start because of a long weekend and then the end of after-school activities for the term, I have spent increasing amounts of time with Alport Mhlanga in "lessons" during the afternoons. Whoooooo, it's so amazing to have the personal attention, but man is it intense! I've never been pushed so hard or fast on the marimba, and it's crazy to move on as soon as I get a grasp on a part or an exercise. For some of you, you'll probably laugh at this, but I'm not used to studying the marimba as such an academic instrument! It is good for me, though. I'm learning all sorts of things, mostly exercises for my left hand to catch up with the facility of my right hand. Turns out that marimba music is only right-hand dominanat in the Pacific Northwest, it sure wasn't in Cape Town and it isn't here! So my lame-duck left hand has to catch up. The problem is, I've developed a sore wrist and I don't know what from. It might be the marimba, but it also might be the typing that I'm doing. The school computers aren't set up well for prolonged typing because the keyboards are too high. But anyway, I'm coping with my wrist and doing the best I can!

In my spare time I have been borrowing a friend's mbira and tinkering around on it with the marimba songs that I know... it's almost hypnotizing sometimes with those circular pieces like Nehmamusasa where you can't always tell even where the beginning of the cycle falls. But I do chuckle a bit thinking of the F-perspective and the C-perspective now and again :).
I have also been dropping by the Chemistry tutoring sessions every Thursday afternoon to get my nerd-fix... which is always fun for me. And three weeks ago Saturday I went out to a town called Otse where there is a school for mentally and physically disabled children. This is a regular service activity run by MaP and it was fun to go meet the children and play with them a bit. It was also nice to see some of the countryside.

For Thanksgiving I got to go on a real trip, though! Natalie De Sole was in Pretoria visiting her parents (who are stationed there since last year) and I was invited to join them for the weekend. This is a whole story on its own, so it will get its own post... but it was a great weekend.

My wrist won't let me type any longer, so that will have to do for now!

And that's the news, folks!

Grrrrrr

2007-11-15T20:17:00.000+02:00

My apologies to everyone who is waiting for me to post on my blog more about Gaborone and the Maru-a-Pula school. Unfortunately I just wrote a very long post that got deleted by blogger just as I was about to publish it... and I haven't got the patience to type it all up again just now. So, more tomorrow or over the weekend. Sorry, everyone!

Sarah

Gaborone

2007-11-02T12:16:00.000+02:00

I have finally moved on to my second location--the Maru-a-Pula school in Gaborone, Botswana. Thanks to my wonderful contact at the school, Alport Mhlanga, they have me all set-up with a room in the boarding house, meals at the dining hall, etc. Now, this isn't the best arrangement sometimes, especially because it is very quiet in the "adult" area of the boarding complex, but I think it is still better (and cheaper) than finding a room on my own. Unfortunately, the dining hall doesn't cater to vegetarians... and they look at me a bit funny when I ask them if this or that dish has meat in it... but overall I think I'm happy with the arrangement. The only downside is that there aren't any cooking facilities available to me to supplement the dining hall fare, and the location of the school isn't convenient to any of the major commercial areas in Gaborone.

I've been sticking to campus for the most part since I arrived late on Tuesday night. This weekend will see me jumping right into Gabs, though, because it is actually a four-day weekend. That's a long time in a place you don't know at all! But the only scary bit are the combi taxis, which are similar to the minibuses in Cape Town. I'm not so intimidated of them as a form of transport, just that I don't know which route to take which direction, and I'm not so sure of myself with just jumping on. But I hope I'll figure it out this weekend--I certainly won't have much else to occupy me.

The weather has been a funny combination of hot and cold--the rain comes suddenly, without any warning, and just pours buckets of water. This is pretty unusual, I have been told, especially at this time of year, but it is nice because it makes everything nice and green. Apparently, this school campus hasn't seen so much green for ages! I am always impressed by plants that can survive in such harsh climates. And maybe I will also envy them in a few days if it gets seriously hot! I don't know how bad it gets, but I have been warned several times. The other problem with that is my wardrobe... I don't have too many nice teacher-y outfits for super hot weather.

I've gotten to see a bit of marimba so far, and I'm teaching some music classes to kids in grades 7 and 8. It will be interesting to see how my "professional" schedule shapes up over the next week or so! But the long weekend really puts a kink into that, because you can't establish a schedule when half the week is cancelled. Oh, well!

More updates next week, and hopefully some pictures as well. Wish me luck!

Non-marimba?

2007-10-11T17:06:00.000+02:00

Well, this post will mostly be dedicated to the non-marimba activities that I have filled my life with here in Cape Town! Although I started off this project full of marimba ambitions, I have found that there is simply too much music and culture here to ignore the rest of it... and yet again, I have discovered how completely ignorant I am. It turns out that most musicians here don't play just one instrument... they play marimba and also drum, or steel pans, or mbira, and so on. The result? Being only a marimba player in this music culture has made me feel a bit less worthy in the world of African music! And my classical background is only marginally helpful in restoring my reputation :).

Last week (edit: two or three weeks ago) I spent a lot of time tutoring English and Math at Sithembele Matiso Senior Secondary School in Nyanga township.

My learners are the most lovely group of kids, they are in 11th Grade and they have some, but not lots, of English. Each one of them has this thirst to learn, though! They really try to catch each bit of information that you throw out to them. This makes it a bit ironic that most of the exam texts that we read are about how English language is the key to passing exams, getting ahead in life, etc. And the rest are about other "cultural" problems. Sometimes it's like everyone is afraid to use the word "race," even when it is warranted to describe a particular problem in the townships... and even on this blog post, I hesitated before writing it because you never know when someone will take your words and twist them in a way you didn't intend. Anyway, these learners are lovely. And they start their year-exams at the beginning of next week, so they needed all the extra boost they could get from us!

This past few weeks I have attended steel drum lessons run by a wonderful man named David Wickham. He heads up the Steelband Project, which is an organization that both teaches and performs on the steel pans. Apparently, the steel pan is another instrument that is attributable to the infamous Tracey family. I got to meet Andrew Tracey last week, he was in Cape Town to check out the Steelband Project and I chatted with him for a while. I am hoping to set up a visit with him at Grahamstown University later in the year to see his collection of African musical instruments and check out the International Library of African Music.

Anyway, the Steelband Project is doing great things. The rehearsals that I attend are bands of underprivileged youth--one group is part of a catholic youth project that takes in students off the streets, and the other is a group of kids from Langa, the oldest (and most musical) township in Cape Town.

These photos are of the street youth playing steel pans... they get so into it! And it's a very different sort of thing from the marimba. When kids play marimba they get excited because they are moving and hitting a big instrument and making lots of sound. The steelpans are much more delicate, so when these kids enjoy their rehearsals it is really the music itself that they're enjoying. Very cool to see!

The steel pan is constructed in the conventional manner for mallet instruments. Instead of having a linear pitch/space relationship, with adjacent notes sounding adjacent pitches in the scale, the steelpan pitches progress around the circle of fifths. This makes a lot of sense in terms of chord patterns and progressions, but it sure wreaks havoc on my melodic brain! I have played a bit at a few of the lessons and I was completely terrible at it until my brain shifted over to "circle of fifths mode." Regardless, it was quite fun.

I also spent a morning picking the brain of my drumming instructor from the drum circles that I attend in Observatory every week, Patrick Dilley. I went to his flat to look at some drums (which I have a beeeeeaaaauuuutiful one of now! See my photo below!) and we ended up talking music and drumming and musicians and Africa for the whole morning! It was very instructive to get inside his head and hear what he thought about the musicians in the area. Apparently there is a problem with integrity and loyalty in South Africa... any musician who sees an opportunity grabs it, whether it means switching to a rival company and disregarding years of training and assistance or even moving overseas. Makes sense to me, actually, but it still blows for him. I got to play on his balafon while I was there... it's a West African marimba-like instrument with gourd resonators. It was a beautiful instrument but the pentatonic scale really threw me a curve ball. I couldn't seem to find any melodies that were compatible! Too bad, really... but maybe I'll just have to travel to Ghana and get some training :).

A few weekends ago I went to the famed Castle of Good Hope. Actually, it's not really famed at all... it's just a castle in the middle of the city. But it was worth the visit, if only to get the view from the walls. I really enjoyed the museums on the Castle grounds and I might go back to take one of their guided tours. It's one of those places where there's not much to see but there's a great deal of history that makes the sights more interesting. That Sunday we went out to drive a beautiful road called the Franschoek Bus. The road goes out around Franschoek and through some gorgeous scenery. It was a cold day, so it felt nice to be warm and cozy in the car. We even got snowed on for a few minutes! It was very slushy snow, though.

Since then I've also been on a tour of the Winelands outside of Cape Town. The wine industry here is flourishing, but I think it is still trying to find it's identity. Unlike most wine regions, there is no specialty wine that is grown in each region. Instead, all the wineries simply pick a few to specialize in. That means there is a wide range of wine tasting available to a tourist here, but it makes me wonder what grape really grows best here, or if the microclimate of each farm is really so different that you can grow anything you want in different areas. Somehow, I think that as the wine industry matures here in the Western Cape there will be a specialty emerging. We had a good time on the wine tour, but the weren't stunning. Many of the reds from the region are too fruity for my taste and the whites too... tasteless. But there were also some jewels hidden in between... the Pinotage is very nice from some of the farms and I had a wonderful Mourvedre. Anyhow, it was a nice tour!

Goodness... there is still so much more to say and I am out of energy to type it. So I think I will leave the rest for another post... which will come soon, I promise!

Smile and Say Hello

2007-10-06T23:24:00.000+02:00

I was thinking today that it has been quite a while since I posted to this blog in leisure... so perhaps it is time for me to share some of my ponderings.

For quite some time I have been thinking about the simple poverty of the wonderful people that surround me. And more than that, I have been thinking about the blindness that is bred into the wealthy so they don't see a problem in their fellow South Africans' way of life. And yet, despite this divide, there is such politeness here, such manners. There is a wonderful sense of respect and propriety. Not everyone carries this sensibility, but the good seem to outnumber the bad. Even when you encounter a beggar on the street, he or she will start by saying something incredibly polite, "excuse me, lady, but may I ask you a question?" The contradictory nature of this question is a bit comical if you think about it, but still--very polite.

amaAmbush Marimbas is located in the Azaad Independent Youth Services Center in District Six. Now, for those of you who have not been to Cape Town, District Six is an area just outside the city center where a township community was brutally evicted. Because of the racism and terror that are a part of South Africa's past, this site has become a memorial to the problems facing the country. Much of the district remains open land, grassy space with the remnants of paved roads in places, but it isn't really cared for by anyone. There is a rickety wooden sign as you walk past one of these grassy areas notifying the public that this site has been selected for a memorial park to commemorate the struggle. The sign reads "A nation of people, not races" and everyday I think about how the sign's state of disrepair erodes its real message. But I have been distracted from my original purpose in describing District Six. The area itself is not very safe because there is all this open land--meaning no houses or shops. Across the road on my walk to work is the City Campus of Cape Peninsula University of Technology, but it doesn't really improve the safety of the area because it is simply a long fence from the street I commute on.

When you meet someone on the road in this area, you take a good look at them. Most of the time when I don't trust someone walking towards me I simply cross the road and take myself out of their way. But sometimes you get so caught up in being cautious and mistrusting people. I know that every now and then I simply need to remind myself that the good people outnumber the bad ones and that all I really need to do is keep smiling and saying hello to the people who deserve a bit of kindness.

The other day I met someone who completely backed up this belief. I was walking away from Azaad when I was overtaken on the sidewalk by a dark-skinned man pushing a toddler in a small stroller. The first thing I thought of was, 'is this a gimmick? Is he going to mug me while I'm thinking how cute his boy is?' Instead of an undercover mugger, he turned out to be a very nice man named Matthew. He first said hello and asked me about Azaad, as he had just seen the students leaving for the day and was curious about the center. Now, Azaad is run-down enough that I think anyone would be curious about it after seeing loads of teenagers leaving... it just doesn't look nice enough to be a university. But anyway, we started chatting about Azaad and he asked me what I taught there. So the conversation turned to the marimba and we talked about traditional music and Zimbabwean music, and it turns out that he has family in Zim. And then he asked me what I was doing in SA and I asked about his family, and in the end we had a very nice chat. Surprisingly, he even offered to give me the address of his family in Zimbabwe so that I would have a safe place to stay if I visited. What a nice guy! And I was worried about being mugged.

Now, for those of you who are worried that I will be jumping into a car to race off to Zimbabwe with a guy I hardly know, don't fret! I am (surprisingly) a bit smarter than that. But I think it's an excellent example of the kindness that exists here on an everyday basis. It's so different than back home, where we never would have had that conversation at all, and certainly not ended it with such a generous offer.

Azaad offers another example of the daily kindness of South Africans in the most unlikely place! My students are rough characters there, but they are so polite to me. Even though sometimes they're typical teenagers and talking during your explanations or joking around in the corridors, they will still turn around and say hello when I approach, ask me how I'm doing, or offer to hold the door. Now, perhaps that's because I'm a marimba teacher and not an English or Math teacher, but I think it is because these students understand the concept of respect. Even when they don't act respectfully towards you, they at least know what they're doing... although that doesn't make disrespectful behavior any less disrespectful!

Everyone I have talked to at Azaad worries about how I will cope with the classes. It's funny, really, because I haven't really had any serious trouble with them at all. Over and over, teachers, marimba folks, the cooks, caretakers, etc. tell me that these students are "a rough bunch" and ask me how it's going for me--in such a tone of concern. Maybe they think I can't handle the gangsters... and maybe I can't. But the wonderful part about it is that the students themselves take care of me too. I don't know how I have managed to come off as a delicate little thing, but my students really try to help me by managing their unruly peers and letting me know when someone's trying to pull a fast one on me. The classes I get are almost always engaged by the marimba, with at most a few that are indifferent musicians or troublemakers. And the ones that are really involved understand that the screw-ups only take away from their chance to play and learn marimba. I don't think that any of them will ever read this blog, but I hope that they know how much I respect them for having the guts to stand up to their peers. That is the hardest thing to teach back home...and I know that helping me with a class isn't the same as holding up to peer pressure involving gangs or drugs or anything, but it is a step in the right direction. Maybe it is my youth that makes them want to help me. Maybe it's that I'm short, female, white, blonde-ish, etc... but whatever it is, I sure appreciate their help and respect them for it.

Every now and then I will meet a random person on the street who turns out to be absolutely wonderful, and it will remind me to have a bit more faith in people. Although safety is a concern here, I think we can get too caught up in it. Do you ever wonder if the people you meet on the side of the road can tell what you're thinking? Sometimes I wonder what my face is telling people. When I squint in the sunlight, do I look stressed or afraid of them? When I'm tired, do I look arrogant or bored? You never know when the person you encounter on the road might be a mugger, but you also never know who they are at all. Maybe that person will grow up to cure cancer or AIDS. Maybe they will be the next Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. You can't know if they deserve your inadvertant glower or grimace, so why not smile and say hello?

Townships, teaching, marimbas, and more!

2007-10-02T17:35:00.000+02:00

Well, it has yet again been a busy few weeks for me here in Cape Town!! I have finally nailed down my travel plans (more or less) so I am leaving by bus close to the end of this month for Gabarone, Botswana. For those of you who, like myself, are confounded by the pronunciation of that name, the "Gab" is said almost as an "Hab" sound... very gutteral and deep in the throat. Then the "rone" is sort of like "rhone-ay" if that helps. Maybe it is more confusing... but I spent so long trying to get it right that I feel the need to record the pronunciation in some form on this blog!

Last week on Monday it was a public holiday in South Africa--technically it was "Heritage Day" but there was a double designation (potentially unofficial) as "National Braai Day" which was much more exciting to the general populace. None of the South Africans that I know could tell me how you were supposed to celebrate "Heritage Day" but they did know how to gather around a Braai (a barbecue over a wood fire). So my house full of internationals had a full-blown Braai in our tiny backyard... and since none of my housemates had the benefit of several years' camping experience to guide them in building a suitable cooking fire the task fell to me. Several hours later I smelled of both campfire and meat grease... not my favorite combination! But I do enjoy tending a fire. The funny thing about this holiday was that it set off a rash of braaiing among my housemates. They have now been to either three or four braais in the last week and a half... and they always want me to tend the fire! Luckily I was able to duck out after the second one. As a vegetarian, I get tired of cooking loads of meat for others :).

Tuesday was exciting because I got to work in the amaAmbush marimba building workshop, helping to finish up a double set of marimbas to be delivered to a local prison for a new band. I mostly did detail work: pasting letter labels onto keys, installing a few screws and rubber grommets, and stringing the finished instruments.

It was very interesting to get inside the workshop like this because it is a very different process from the way we build marimbas back home. And the instruments themselves are different (as you can see from the photos) so it was nice to get a chance to examine them in detail at various stages of the assembly process. Next I hope to get a chance to speak with the folks that make the keys for amaAmbush and talk to Greg (who has been described to me as the mastermind behind the company) about the design process behind the instruments amaAmbush manufactures.

Things just kept coming last week--which is a good thing! So I'm taking this one day at a time :). Wednesday I taught a marimba lesson to a beginning-intermediate group of kids at the French School here in Cape Town. They were cute little buggers, and did in fact speak some (if not perfect) English. The lesson was a bit hectic because the venue was a very warm gymnasium and the kids were both overheated and over-energetic. Also, these kids didn't have the same instinctive grasp of music that I have encountered among most of the groups I've worked with. For once, they were having problems similar to most US kids with rhythm and finding a "lock" with the other parts. I tried to teach a bit of Nyungwe (sp?) but they found it more difficult than I expected. I get to teach another lesson to them this week and I am looking forward to it. I hope it all goes well!

On Thursday I went out to the Philippi township to attend a celebration at one of the SAEP-supported Creches. A Creche is a sort-of preschool mixed with daycare that is provided at very low cost to the community. The kids range from 0-6 in age and are completely adorable. They don't speak more than ten words of English, but they are so expressive! The faces on these kids are just hysterical when they're excited about something.

The Noluthando Creche was celebrating the completion of a new building and toilet block to supplement the tiny government-building they'd started with years ago, and it was a lovely event.

The toilet block is the silver building on the left side, and the red building is also brand new.

We planted trees to symbolize the major donors for the new construction and listened to the children sing the National Anthem. Then e all had some lunch (prepared that morning by some of us from SAEP) and played with the children a bit before heading off home.

The whole event was lovely, and it was so motivating to meet some of the Creche mothers who had basically built the whole project from scratch with their passion and ambition as the main ingredients. SAEP works with nine Creches, and not all of them are nearly so well looked-after these days. It's a combination of SAEP resources and creche cooperation that really makes a difference.

Friday I taught marimba all day at Azaad (see photo of the center below... doesn't it look like a prison?) with one of the drum teachers from amaAmbush, Zama. It was a pretty fun day, but not all that different from my previous work there so I won't go into it in great detail. I'm going back this week to work with the same group of students, so maybe we'll get started on a real song this time!!

Friday night Julia Bradley-Cook was in town from Windhoek with one of her work-buddies and I got to take them around to the waterfront for some dinner and dessert--altogether a nice night! We also went out in Observatory the next night with a few folks staying at her hostel but the night wasn't anything special because we were all so tired! Julia had spent the day touring and had an early flight back to Windhoek on Sunday and I was just come off of a long day of marimba at the Diemersfontein winery in Stellenbosch with the amaAmbush performing band, so we had a pretty chill night and called it fairly early.

The marimba gig Saturday was out at this incredibly gorgeous winery... I just couldn't believe how picturesque it was.

The gig itself was interesting... it was titled "Pinotage on Tap" and was a day full of live music and free-flowing wine. Each guest was gifted a provisions bag upon entry with a sandwich and a wine glass, and there were wine barrels tapped all over the winery where you could just walk up and fill your glass any time you liked. Of course, being the entertainment we weren't allowed to drink until after our performance, but it was a fun day and nice wine at the end of it. amaAmbush was hired on to perform as a "welcoming" band as the guests arrived as well as taking a half-hour spot as the warm-up band for Prime Circle, a big name in local music here. I enjoyed the whole day--I wasn't actually performing but I got to take photos and video, listen to good music, and chill with the marimba band during the down time. Altogether a good education!

Whew! If you're still reading you deserve a medal. I'm only through one week's worth of activities and still going. So this week... Sunday evening we went to watch South Africa cream the US in a Rugby match. Unfortunately, this match was actually held in France, but it was certainly interesting to watch it in a pub filled with South Africans! Rugby is still a "white" sport here, as opposed to Soccer which is mainly a "black" sport, but still they are very good on the world stage and get a lot of national attention.

Monday morning a few of us from SAEP took Joe Ballard from the Clinton School of Public Service into the townships to have a look at our highschools and creches. The Clinton School is a potential source of volunteers for SAEP so we wanted to give Joe the fullest understanding of our program that we could, and it was interesting even for me to get toured around the schools by the principals. Each one of the principals identified a different problem as the "main roadblock" for the school, and it was really interesting to note the diversity in discipline, organization, and facilities in the set of schools. Many of the schools that we visited were much nicer than the schools I am generally working in, so I got a bit of an education myself!

This photo is of Nyanga, the township that most of our schools are in.

This photo is a typical shack/house in Nyanga. Most of the learners I work with live in conditions like this.

Today (I can't believe I've made it so far in one sitting on this post!) I went out to Sithembele Matiso Senior Secondary School to tutor English again to the Grade 11s. We haven't been out there for several weeks because of mock-exams and the school holidays, but it was nice to see the learners again. They are getting to know me enough that we have personal relationships and they are so motivated! We had a relatively small group today because the trip was put together mid-day, but it was a wonderful lesson. I am hoping to go out again on Thursday because the students have exams in two weeks and they need all the last-minute help they can get. The students tried to teach me a few Xhosa words today, but I think I have forgotten them already! I am trying to learn them one-by-one... but I am terrible at language so it is a slow process for me.

But, I do know how to say "nkosi!" which means "thanks!" for reading my blog! I hope all is well back home!

Stone Dragon

2007-09-23T13:56:00.000+02:00

This week I spent most of my time at a camp run by Stone Dragon, an organization committed to educating and inspiring youth. One branch of the organization runs camps for school classes, somewhat like our Outdoor School program in Portland. These camps aren't always based in science education, though. In fact, the camp I went on this week was titled "Camp Candy" after the song "Candyman" by some pop star that I can't remember (pathetic? Maybe.). It was supposed to be themed as a 1940s-1950s camp...why, I have no idea. Apart from our group names, which were borrowed from bombers and anti-aircraft artillery, there wasn't much evidence of the theme at all.

The real objective of the camp was to take the group of students, who came from an incredibly privileged background, and give them an opportunity to step outside of their everyday mediocrity and discover something about themselves. The rift between the rich and the poor in Cape Town is so wide that these students were quite thoroughly unaware of the opportunities they scorned on a daily basis. Not that we changed that over a three-day camp, but perhaps we at least let them appreciate what they posses. The Foo Fighters song "Best of You" was the real theme of the camp, and we spent three days trying to get each student to recognize the bonds and pressures that hold them back and keep them from presenting the best of themselves. Very deep for 16 year-olds!

The campsite was absolutely gorgeous, it was the Rocklands Centre witch is just a bit farther than Simon's Town. It was a beautiful setting and also very well-suited to the activities we had planned, or maybe our activities were planned well for the site. I don't know which! Check out the view from my cabin:

If not for the powerlines you could have taken postcard photos from this site!

I had a funny experience my first night there, which was technically volunteer training but actually ended up being chill time. We were moving in our equipment and getting set up, but someone forgot to close the door to one of the buildings and a baboon came in! Luckily we weren't in the building at the time because the baboons here are quite dangerous and not afraid of humans. In fact, they are quite the pest because they have opposable thumbs and are clever about opening doors and things. We had to keep everything not only closed but also locked to keep them out! This one proceeded to unzip my backpack and eat my dinner (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) and then smear peanut butter all over everything while pulling all the other objects out of my bag. It was quite thorough... but luckily baboons have no use for wallets or cameras, so the only casualties were my dinner and a few stains on my other things.

Once the students arrived in the morning I had the privilege of working with the smallest (and most classically "popular") group of girls. They were actually lovely people, once you got them to start acting like people, but the rest of the time it was all about their clothes and cellphones (which were forbidden but used sporadically anyway). In fact, my girls may have changed their outfits more than 6 or 7 times each day. Does that seem ridiculous to anyone but me? But they would, in the same breath, say something like "I don't need to wear makeup at camp." It's a funny form of blindness, but one that I hope some of my girls were able to see through by the end of the three days.

The rules at this camp were also ridiculously loose. Or, rather, the rules were normal but the enforcement was nonexistent. I seemed like a dictator, I'm afraid, because I was always trying to enforce rules that other leaders were ignoring. In the end nothing bad happened, although we did apprehend a few students trying to sneak out for a smoke, so overall I think it was a success.
How else was it different to a camp you might attend in the States? Well, for one thing, nobody was worried about lawsuits, etc. to the same degree that you have to back home. The level of physical contact between leaders and students surprised me... not that it was inappropriate or harassment or anything, it's just something you don't do at home! And the level of concern over injury was very low. Many of the games that we played had the potential for serious injury... and, in fact, there was a broken collarbone, a sprained ankle, and a few other minor bumps... but it was almost expected. The "no-holds-barred" attitude made for an interesting experience!

There were also activities that seemed brutal compared to what we enforce on our campers at home. As a team-building exercise each cabin group was instructed to carry a 2-meter telegraph pole (which is very heavy!) on a 7 km hike straight uphill and back. Normally this would be a 14 km hike, but there wasn't a convenient route off the main highway to walk the kids on. As a catch, the groups were never allowed to set down the pole. So the six of my girls (whining as loud as any of the larger groups) fought each other and bickered about the pole and about each other and suffered their way through the hike. Now, they pretty much had a horrible time and I think that is mainly due to their attitude, but I just didn't have the energy to spend smoothing over every conflict when they had already taxed me to the breaking point. So I hope that in the long run they will take a lesson away from the activity. I know some of the other groups had a much better time of it, but they also had more people. The sadistic side of me wishes they'd had to carry it for the other seven kms. I think they would have learned more that way because they would have actually reached the exhaustion point instead of just the ornery stage :).

Another surprising moment occurred the evening before the "Leviathan Long March" as it was called. My girls had been on activities rotation with a particularly naughty group of boys, who had splattered paint all over some very beautiful and irreplaceable rocks at the campsite while "painting" their telegraph pole. Since the campsite was not ours to ruin, many of the leaders spent hours scrubbing the rocks with turpentine to remove the paint. My girls, although not the primary instigators of this mischief, were punished for their complicity by washing dishes. Now, there weren't many dishes to start with, it was a job that should have taken about ten minutes if they had simply gotten down to business. Unfortunately, though, they felt the need to whine and complain about how it hadn't been their fault, etc. and then react as if very disgusted by the dishes. Now, some of the dishes weren't exactly pretty, but not really bad at all. And in the course of enforcing this punishment on them I discovered that not a single one of them had ever washed dishes before. Can you believe it? Never! And a pot that had been used to cook oatmeal was the "most disgusting thing" they had ever seen. I almost couldn't contain my amusement when they bickered about who had to touch it. Luckily, one girl in the group was a bit more practical than the rest and finally just did the job.

But don't get me wrong, I really liked a lot of my girls. They were a bit too cool for their surroundings, but many of them were quite lovely once you broke through their popular exteriors. And I wish that I had been able to do more to help them enjoy their camp experience, but I have been a camp leader enough to understand that some groups just aren't open to change, and especially aren't open to it when surrounded by their peers. So I am hoping that each of them at least learned something and I'm not stressing too much.

Since then? Well, I've been sleeping! You may or may not have ever done something like this before, but leading camps really takes it out of you. Even if it weren't for the long hours (6am-1am or so) the energy expended to keep everything running smoothly is enough to make sure you sleep well at night! And luckily I actually get a day off this weekend to rest :).

Busy Week!

2007-09-11T11:01:00.000+02:00

Well.... There is nothing for it but to divide this post into segments as well... good luck!

Teaching Marimba at Azaad Youth Center

Last week on Wednesday I got called in to teach the Azaad classes for amaAmbush. If I haven't already explained Azaad, it's a project that takes in post-high school youth from disadvantaged areas and teaches them practical skills like cooking, sewing, etc. amaAmbush runs one of the many classes that are taught to these students, normally covering marimba building, drumming, dancing, and marimba playing. The students would normally have been at a building workshop that day, but there was a big event on Thursday and the instructor was busy with the preparations, so I taught his classes instead. Of course, my limited experience in building marimbas was insufficient for this purpose, so my workshop ended up covering only marimba playing. I was a bit nervous coming into the lessons because each one was so long. The day is divided into a morning and an afternoon session, each of which had 2:30 hrs of instruction with a short break in the middle. Now, that is a lot of marimba for beginners! And these students really were beginners :).

Luckily, my morning class was the same group of students that I had met and taught a bit the Friday previous, so they were excited to see me and things got off to a good start. It was mostly just difficult because the students progressed at such different rates. Some of them learned quite quickly and were ready for more, while others had a great deal of difficulty with the basic parts. So, we bumbled through a couple of tunes and called it a morning. While we didn't perform anything masterful, they had a good time and learned some of the fundamentals. It was a bit of new ground for me as well, because I ventured into teaching chords and improvisation--something I haven't done before! Luckily it went quite well and the students really liked it.

The afternoon group was an entirely new set of students for me, and two of them had little or no English comprehension... which was an adventure, of course! Luck was on my side again, though, because marimba is not a particularly language-dependent skill. This second group was particularly talented and we got through more than the morning class, even with the language barrier. In fact, I was having such a good time that the ending siren took me completely by surprise. But some groups are just like that--and you never know in advance!

All-in-all it was an interesting day because it was a good opportunity to compare the South African "average student" to the folks I have taught in the States. When you're starting from absolute zero the differences are easy to identify. For example, the students here are naturally gifted rhymically, while they have great difficulty with remembering melodies. This was a surprise to me at first, because it is exactly the opposite in the states! I taught first an amaAmbush tune and followed it with Ncuzu (sp?) from Portland to see how they would do with each one, and it was certainly an experience. An interesting, if challenging, day!

South African Principals' Association Conference

amaAmbush was exhibiting at the SAPA conference at the Cape Town International Convention Center last Thursday, so I had two full days of marimba. The organization had a general booth in the exhibition area and were also able to perform for the principals at the start of the talks and speeches.

This wasn't just any performance, though, it was a massive one. amaAmbush coordinated with many of their teaching schools to bring both the students and instruments to the conference... resulting in a marimba band of around 35-40 marimbas, at least 10 drums, and altogether maybe 60 or so players (most of whom were high school students... so you can imagine the mayhem!). The sound was quite overwhelming, and it was lucky that amaAmbush teaches in such a standardized fashion or the group never would have been able to coordinate the changes and beginnings and endings of each song. At the same time, there were so many people on stage that I'm not sure you'd even notice if a few people didn't move with the rest of the group. I was able to perform with the group, and I will eventually have some photos that I can put up... but not yet, sorry! This time I wasn't the photographer.

The conference itself was an experience because it was an odd mixture of genres. The principals were interesting to talk with because some of them were very formal and professional, and others were less so (although they dressed the part). The exhibition area was a funny combination of "african" and "professional" with amaAmbush on one hand, and textbook/computer software companies on the other. Anyhow, it was good people watching.

Drumming

I have been hearing about a drum circle in Observatory since the day I moved in, and I finally figured out where takes place. So last Thursday night I showed up at this laid-back club in Obs and joined in. As a bit of background, I have really never been taught to drum. This might seem a bit odd to those of you who know of my Percussion Ensemble days in Grinnell, but I was always channeled into the mallet parts and didn't get much experience with hand-drumming. So I showed up at the drum circle and was handed a drum... and with the other fifteen people who showed up, beat the heck out of the thing for two hours. We were shown a few basic hits (tones? sounds?) and left to learn by repeat-after-me. This is just my style! I am pretty decent with rhythm and I like to think of myself as decently coordinated, so I had a great time. It was a bit challenging for me to use my left hand in such an active manner, since most of the music I have played is very right hand dominant (or I can make it lead with the right even if it isn't supposed to be that way :) ).

I had a great time! I really hope I can learn more drumming while I'm here, but I'm still trying to find and economical way to do that. I don't know if I can really learn enough at these drum circles... but I'll go for the fun of it anyway!

Music Lesson at Oscar Mpheta Senior Secondary School

Friday morning, Charne (one of my SAEP colleagues) popped her head into the office I was working in to ask, "what are you doing this afternoon?" Well, turns out I was headed to Oscar Mpheta to fill in for a couple of music volunteers who had just phoned Charne to cancel late the previous night. The learners in the townships don't generally have music and arts as part of their school curriculum, so one branch of SAEP is focused on coordinating volunteers to teach these subjects after school. Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of a lesson plan left for me, so I was on my own!

Luckily (again... seems last week was a luck week) I had exactly one music lesson that I could whip out of my back pocket for the afternoon's class. It's a fun mixture of clapped rhythm and a song from Ghana that teaches some basic concepts like rhythm and harmony. The group of students was wonderful, as well. They were so willing to learn and also very excited about the chance to sing. This sort of lesson can really fall through the floor if your students aren't singing enthusiasts, but their energy really added to the fun of the lesson and made it successful. I might be going back this week... depends on the schedule as usual.

The Beach

Now, normally I wouldn't even bother posting about my picnic at the beach on Friday, but I have some really nice photos of it. Since there aren't any other photos so far in this post, I figured I would throw in a few just for good measure :).

Soweto Gospel Choir

On Saturday I had tickets to go see the Soweto Gospel Choir at the Baxter Theater. And it was maybe the best concert I have seen so far in South Africa! The choir was incredible... full of energy and very tight musically. But it was more than that as well, because there was so much motion and dancing involved in the music that it was really amazing to watch as well as listen to. Their costumes were cut in the style of traditional African dress and the riotous color on each one was stunning. Most of all, the confidence and joy with which the choir sang was touching and totally worth the price of the ticket.

It was interesting to look around at the other audience members as well. More than half of the crowd was white--and I had expected a much stronger black presence because the choir is a grassroots black-music organization. But perhaps the price of the ticket was a discouragement for many who otherwise might have attended. There was a whole row of black adolescent boys sitting in front of me, and I could tell that their tickets had been paid by someone else because they were so unenthused about the concert. The one directly in front of me was wearing a rather tall hat, so I asked him to please remove it once the concert had started. He did take it off reluctantly, but later he solved his problem by wearing the hat and slouching so low in his chair that the hat itself barely reached the top of the backrest. I was sad to see that he and his buddies weren't appreciating the music, but I think it is good that they were able to attend anyway. Maybe something like that will eventually crack through their "tough" exteriors.

Bafana Bafana vs. Zambia

On Sunday I had another "cultural experience" when I went to the South African national team's game vs. Zambia in the Newlands stadium. The place was insane.... almost sold out and the whole crowd was more excited about the game than even the most enthusiastic crowds in the states! Of course, the crowd was a bit rougher as well. In fact, we had to go through about three security checks on the way in, far more rigorous than the standard "open your bags" check in the states. We even got patted down at one of the check points!

The amazing thing was the noise level. The stadium was bigger than PGE Park in Portland, for those of you who know it, and for those of you who don't, just trust me that it was big! And almost all the seats were filled, including people sitting on the stairs in the aisle ways. There were so many of those obnoxious plastic trumpets that you couldn't really tell when they were all blasting because there was such a loud undercurrent of their belching tones. And that's just the normal noise level... when something actually happened on the field things got ridiculous!

The game itself was a disappointment because Bafana Bafana did not play well at all, and ended up losing to Zambia 3 to 1. But it was their fault--they had a terrible defensive line and Zambia capitalized on every offensive chance they got. The referees were a bit shoddy as well, they didn't keep good control of the game. There was only one almost-fight, but it was a rough match! Lots of diving and asking the referee for favors. The game in general was an excellent example of the "problem with African sports" which is an excess of talent and lack of teamwork. But regardless of their play, it was amazing to see the loyalty that the team commanded from their fans.

This Week

Has been somewhat more calm than the past few! I have settled into a routine that is more regular, if a bit less exciting, than the craziness of the past several weeks. I am spending mornings in the SAEP office working with the gap-year interns on English and Chemistry, and going to amaAmbush in the afternoons. This week I've just been transcribing marimba songs for them, but hopefully I will have a bit more variation in the future. I've been enjoying the transcription process though--it's been a challenge to make out the parts from CD recordings, but the more transcribing that I do the better I get at figuring out intervals and rhythms. For the intervals I can't help but say a silent "thank you" to my theory teachers at the summer music camp that I used to attend :). All those tricks I learned are really helpful now!

Next Week

Should be back to my normal craziness!

Tomorrow I am attending a rehearsal with a community marimba group that is inspired by.... if you can believe it.... the marimba movement in the US! I am pretty excited to see how our music has translated itself to Cape Town, so hopefully that should really be fun.

Sunday morning I take off for a four-day-long camping trip with a group of high school students. It's a very Outdoor-School like organization that tries to motivate students and get them excited about sciency and environmental subjects. I'm excited to go even if it turns my schedule upside down next week!

Thanks to anyone who made it this far down the post! I hope that the beginning of fall is treating you all well back in the states!

Weekend Events

2007-09-04T14:53:00.000+02:00

Well hello again! I know that I left off with a massive post about marimba music, so I thought I would update yet again with some more vacation-like material!

Saturday night I went to see the University of Cape Town Big Band in concert in their University hall. It was an interesting concert because the band played quite well as an ensemble (you'd think they would, being the premier jazz band in the premier university in South Africa) and the vocalists were absolutely amazing... but the soloists from the band itself were pretty lame! Now, it's been at least four years since I played in a jazz band and I don't think I could ever solo to save my life, but I can recognize a good solo when I hear one. And these just weren't up to par. Too many notes, and I could tell that they were too nervous... they didn't take any time to enjoy the spaces in the solo along with the licks. But it was a good concert overall, and I'm glad that I attended. I wasn't such a fan of the African pieces that the conductor himself composed, though. Sad, because I wanted to like them more than I did. It's been such a long time since I played any classical music! I miss the precision of it :).

Sunday I attended another event at the Baxter Theater, a dance festival for amateur groups. It was really interesting! I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but there was hardly any "african" dance. There was an interesting mixture of posh dancing schools and community (township) dance projects, though. I don't know if any of you who read this knew me back at Lincoln High, but our dance team couldn't hold a candle to these folks (we had a kick-ass dance team, too)! Many memorable performances. My favorite had only two dancers, one young woman in a flowing red dress and a young guy playing the guitar (actually performing the music). There was such a dialog between the music and the dance because the music was actually a part of the dance... very cool!

Anyhow... I think I am finished relating my weekend adventures for now! In the future, you ask? Well... there is an interesting concert by the Soweto Gospel Choir that I would looooooove to attend, and I might be volunteering on an outdoor school-like excursion for a weekend as well. Keep checking back if you're interested!

Maaaaaaarimba

2007-09-01T16:04:00.000+02:00

Hello again!

This week has been a busy one! Because I suspect that this is going to be a massively long post, I will attempt to spare you by dividing my writing into sections so that you might read about only the subjects that interest you. And of course, if you would rather skip straight to the photos and bypass my ramblings, you can find them (as usual) at www.grinnellgallery.com, under the name "parkersa." So here goes!

Marimba

This has been a busy marimba week for me! After successfully making contact with amaAmbush last Friday I was scheduled to spend Wednesday through Friday in a sort of 'jobshadow' of the company's operations manager, Tracy (notice that there is no 'e' in 'Tracy' :) because, of course, 'e' stands for 'eeew'). This turned out to be a great deal of fun, and incredibly informative as well. I was joined by a Grade 11 student named Kelly who actually was completing a jobshadow assignment on Tracy. Kelly and I accompanied Tracy to lessons at a variety of schools, played marimbas with in the amaAmbush band room, and did some office work as well. I have tried to separate my impressions into categories, but it's not the easiest thing, so please forgive me if there is overlap!

amaAmbush Instruments

The instruments that amaAmbush builds and plays on are a variation on the standard marimba that we play in Portland (see photo below). The keys aren't tuned quite as precisely as ours (at least, they aren't now... perhaps they started off more in tune and have lost pitch!) and aren't as uniform. The average key is also less wide but thicker than the ones we are accustomed to, so it's a bit harder to hit the key full in the center. The more I play on them though, the more accustomed I get to the differences in keyboard structure.

Something I haven't gotten used to yet is the range of the instruments. The bass instrument is close to the same as ours in terms of range, but there is no baritone instrument. Instead, there is a tenor with similar range, an alto instrument that is like the top of a tenor smooshed together with the bottom of a soprano, and a soprano instrument that only goes down to middle C but extends up to the E above our usual high C. You might imagine that this plays havoc with our Zim-style parts! Things don't generally fit where they are supposed to, so I've had to do a bit of improvising.

As you can see from the picture above, there is also a different resonator system on the amaAmbush marimba than our PVC-pipe system. The structural parts of the marimbas are built at the Azaad Youth Center in a workshop that they use out back, and the box-type resonators have individual box-shaped compartments for each key to resonate in. This part is machine/computer cut for precision, while the sides of the boxes are cut and assembled and the legs/etc. built and attached at Azaad. The instruments come apart quite differently from ours! The keyboard lifts right off, and then the legs can be detached as well. That leaves the boxes to pack quite easily against each other and the keyboards can be packed separately. The main idea, I think, is to make the instruments as indestructible as possible.

The mallets are also much heavier than the yellow polymer mallets that we use in Portland, with a thicker shaft and larger mallet head. The heads are made of black rubber, and remind me a great deal of the mallets we used to use at Sellwood when I was just starting out on the marimba. I think that the extra mass is necessary to resonate the thicker keys of their instruments, but I find it much more difficult to play quick intricate parts with them. The mallets also break fairly often--whether that is because the wood is less strong or because the style of playing is more violent I couldn't say.

Playing Style

As may be expected, the music played here in Cape Town differs in both structure and content from the Zimbabwean style that we play in the states. The instruments play largely the same roles, but in different fashions. The bass is the heartbeat of the band and keeps everyone together. The tenor is the "meat and potatoes" instrument, often playing chords in drag triplet rhythms to fill in the chordal base of the song. Small variations occur here, but the tenor is there mostly as utility player and not as a curiosity or as the star. It's rare (but not completely unheard-of) for the tenors here to play a rhythmically challenging part such as we find all over in our Zim-based music. The alto is the melody instrument in the standard three-piece performing band, and the soprano will often double the melody in four-piece school ensembles. The result of this structure is a sense of power that is conveyed through the volume and intensity of the parts, a feeling that mimics the sense of standing in front of the speakers at a rock concert. Different, but also very cool.

In teaching, the style is quite different because it is focused around chord patterns. There are letter names at the top of each key and the teachers communicate through chords to the students. It's an interesting concept because we spend so much time emphasizing the absence of standard music education in our marimba playing. But it is effective, if slightly harder to grasp at the outset.

When performing, there are often four or five players but only three play on the marimbas. In concerts that I have seen it is common for a fourth player to be on drum and the fifth on shaker or tambourine. They play very actively, with continuous movement and plenty of energy. I laugh sometimes to think about how some of my marimba compatriots back in Portland would react to it! It takes more confidence to play this way and it certainly livens up the performances!

The Music

The pieces are generally quite short here in Cape Town compared with our marathon performances of pieces like Nehmamusasa! On average a piece will last between 1:30-2:30 minutes, compared to at least 5 and sometimes 10 or 15 back home! But I think it's a difference in concept and not a statement on endurance or anything like that. The structure of a marimba piece here is very straightforward, and the melody player (which they don't call the 'lead') has control of the group but not the extended solos that we get. In general, a piece starts with the chords or the bass and the melody joins after a few cycles. The melody is stated once or twice (there are usually only a few melody lines) and the singing begins, sometimes accompanied by a change in rhythm from the players. This rhythmic alteration is termed the 'change' and it can come as an independent section as well. There will often be a solo section for the professional groups, then the melody is restated and the piece ends. Not the extended leads that we are used to!

The chordal structures of the songs are also quite different. In the Zimbabwean-style we play mostly among the standard C, F, G and sometimes D chords, but here they utilize the A and D much more. I thought that different chords would be the result of an F sharp key, but really I haven't used that key at all and the chord structures are still different. The phrase structure is also extended so that some of the minor and diminished chords fit better into the music. In general, the cycles are much longer than ours. They're not quite on par with Siyakudumisa or Nhemamusasa, but definitely longer than Zendikiawa or Skokiana.

All signals are vocal, usually indicated by the band leader who shouts "melody!" "change!" "play!" or "end!" in the appropriate enthusiastic style, of course! I can think of many marimba folks back home who would love for all our signals to be vocal! It certainly simplifies the memorization side of things!

I have heard the songs here referred to as the 'Xhosa-style,' but I'm not entirely sure what that means because I haven't heard any other Xhosa music. The groups here aren't shy about adopting popular music either! I have heard make-shift arrangements of several tunes that I thought to hear only on the radio such as "Take 5" and "Clocks." Sometimes the chords don't quite work out, but the arrangements are amazingly good for the fact that some of the accidentals are missing!

The music is, in general, very free. I sometimes feel that the music we play on our marimbas in Portland is losing its essence because we constrain it with so many signals and rules and confine our thinking to one part and then specific variations. One of my hopes in traveling this year is to free up my sense of the music and gain confidence in improvisation. I was just starting to get comfortable with that before I left and I am hoping to develop that aspect of my playing. In some ways, it's very liberating to teach this music to players here in Cape Town, because they don't know the songs at all. So there are no expectations for certain signals/variations/etc. an no comparisons to other players' leads.

My 'Jobshadow'

The first day of my jobshadow was spent largely playing marimba with Kelly and Tracy and observing Tracy's lessons at two all-girls private schools. It was really great to play and jam with Kelly and Tracy--they were quick to pick up parts and willing to teach me some of their pieces. I got to record some parts to a few songs and I am hoping to transcribe them when I get the chance. The lessons we attended were also quite interesting. amaAmbush auditions the students for places in the school bands based on two criteria: energy and ability. This was apparent in the lessons as every one of the students was both capable and enthusiastic. What a contrast from the township schools, though! I am glad to see the other side of education in Cape Town, and it makes me even more glad that I am able to help out even a little bit in the townships by tutoring. The lessons were interesting because Tracy 'conducted' by drumming, something that I have never tried but worked well. It kept the pieces moving at an appropriate tempo while imbuing the music with energy. It's a bit more subtle than the Hosho that we play, because the sound of the drum lies 'underneath' the music instead of layering 'on top' like the higher rapping of the hosho gourds.

On my second day I spent some time transcribing amaAmbush songs--a process which is never quick for me, but is also very revealing of the differences between our musical styles. There's nothing like a written rhythm to exemplify the different meter and emphasis in the Xhosa music. I hope to do more of this when I have time, because it's both useful to amaAmbush as well as to me. I also attended a lesson that Ross taught at a high school in the Heideveld area (a township that is slightly better off than most). This was the same school that I attended a performance at the first day that I got involved with amaAmbush, and it was a fun lesson. I got to listen a bit as well as teach a bit, but it was difficult because there was a language barrier (Afrikaans was their best language and I can't speak a word of it) so I couldn't tell if they understood me or not. I believe that there are some photos of this lesson but I don't have them at the moment, so you'll have to check my grinnell gallery account for those a bit later.

In general when I have taught here, both to students and to more accomplished players, our Zimbabwean parts seem quite difficult to grasp. I think it's a difference in rhythm. We're used to short parts with intricate syncopations, while the standard here is simple triplet-syncopation with longer chordal patterns to remember.

My third day was spent as a participant/teacher of a drumming/dancing/marimba workshop at the Azaad Youth Center. The Azaad center is a post-high school institution that attempts to teach matriculated students from disadvantaged areas practical skills that they can use to find a good job. One side of that is marimba, so I got to sit in (and participate in) this workshop for Azaad youth.
We started off with some African Dancing taught by Zama (see above), a teacher affiliated with amaAmbush. I think that drumming was to be the subject of the day, but the teaching drums didn't arrive, so we were left to dance and play marimbas. I did participate in the dancing (surprise anyone?) but I don't think I was very good! It was fun, anyway. I am learning to be less shy about making a fool of myself--for better or for worse :).

Sorry about the blurry photo... there were lighting issues in the room. I am the gal in the green shirt in the back, and Zama is the one demonstrating the moves.

Kelly and I also got a chance to teach some marimba to the students... their very first time playing a marimba! I don't have any photos of me teaching, but I will try to remedy that in the future!

Life in Cape Town

Edit: This is the second section of this post, as promised!

OK, well, if you've made it this far into my post you definitely deserve a medal! Looking back over what I've written (not particularly elegantly this time) I realize that it's turned into a summary of my marimba research thus far. Now, if you happen to be looking for the world's leading expert on the differences between marimba culture in Portland, Oregon and Cape Town, then you're probably hanging on each and every word of my drawn-out exposition. If not, I apologize for the excessive scrolling that was necessary to reach this portion of today's post!

If you didn't read the earlier bits about marimba, the salient points are the following: I spent three days at amaAmbush Marimbas playing, teaching, and observing marimbas. It was really great, and I hope that there will be more to come!

Meanwhile, in Cape Town, I have been living life as usual. With a few exceptions. Today was the first day of Spring, although you'd never know it from looking at the sky! Cape Town weather is always a mixed-bag, but today was particularly gloomy and dark. Luckily, we had a clear night on Wednesday (even though it was, technically, still winter) when the moon was full for climbing Lion's Head (see pics below). Lion's Head is the second or third largest mountain/hill in the middle of Cape Town and is reputed to be one of the best hikes around. The hike isn't too long because there is a road that climbs half-way up the gentler part of the slope before you start the walk.
According to the park rangers that we met on the trail, you aren't actually supposed to climb up Lion's Head after sunset, but nobody in our group was aware of that fact before we were half-way up the trail. At that point we thought that the ranger would make us descend without reaching the top, but some smooth talking (I never did figure out exactly what JP said) got us permission to finish our climb if we promised to be careful and also hurry back. I'm still not sure how we were supposed to do both of those things at once!

But the hike was beautiful in the dark with the city lights stretched out around us, interspersed with the menacing dark shapes of Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, and the Bay. You could see so far, it was both amazing and gorgeous. The pictures certainly don't do justice to the view, so I will have to recommend a personal trip for beholding the true splendor of the city lights on a clear night. And the full moon as well--it was so bright! Every time we circled to the 'dark side' of the mountain you could hardly see the trail, but it was bright and clear on the moonlit side!

Luckily, nobody got hurt even though there were a few tricky spots and a few accidental slithers coming down, nobody was mugged (this is a ridiculously serious problem here... last week a woman climbing Table Mountian was mugged and everything she had with her was stolen... including her clothes! She had to walk down the mountain in nothing but her bra. Now that is serious mugging!), and nobody was arrested for illegally entering a national park after hours. All-in-all, a good night!

Other Musical Endeavors

In the absence of good marimba activity I have arranged a number of other activities in the past month. One of them I have mentioned before: the musical production put on by students from disadvantaged high schools. I attended another rehearsal session this morning, and it was lovely. The students are feeling more comfortable with me around, and I am getting to know a few names and faces so I can offer more intelligent conversation than the standard variations on 'Hi, where are you from?' So I spent the morning doing vocal and physical exercises of various sorts and learning to enunciate my vowels clearly, hold a pitch, and various other things that I have undoubtedly learned before but never remember well :).

The most interesting part of the session was the students character brainstorm. They were provided with a storyline starter at the end of last week's session and asked to brainstorm a charachter to fit into the story. The characters that the students came up with were amazingly detailed and intimately related to the social problems inherant in township life. I won't repeat any of them here because I haven't gotten their permission, but the range of characters spanned religion, drugs, prostitution, familial abuse, pregnancy, and almost any other vice you can imagine. Very sad to think that these students may know people just like the characters they created, but it is also uplifting to think about these students and their motivation for changing their own status and way of life.

Unfortunately, I don't have permission yet to put up any photos from this rehearsal, but I will check into it and perhaps I can post some in the future.

Conclusions

Well, there's plenty more to say but I'm afraid that there's nobody left to read it! And I am so tired of typing... I'm currently writing on a German keyboard (belonging to my housemate) where many of the keys are actually in unusual places. So for now, that's all you get!

I will try for brevity (and perhaps more levity) in the future!

Pious Adventures

2007-08-26T13:06:00.000+02:00

I went to church this morning for the first time since I've been in Africa. It was certainly different and interesting! I normally attend Catholic services when I go to church back home, but I couldn't find a convenient Catholic church here. I'm sure there is one, but I haven't yet figured out where it is or how best to get there on a Sunday morning. So instead I decided to attend the service at the Methodist church on the corner near my house.

The congregation was quite small... maybe thirty people in a church that could hold over a hundred. And 90% of the congregation must have been over the age of 60. But it was a very friendly, personal service. It was quite obvious to me that the whole congregation knew each other, and for example, when we rose from our pews to "offer the sign of peace" to each other, I think I shook hands with literally every other person attending the mass. And I don't know how much this is a function of the service being Methodist vs. Catholic or in the US vs. Africa, but the congregation was much more active in the service than I had expected. People rose to tell the congregation about the good and bad news in their lives, to announce important family happenings, and to remark on the activities of the church organizations. I can't even explain how all the details differed from my expectations, but it was certainly an interesting experience.

I think next week I will try to attend an Anglican service at a larger church about a 45 minute walk from my house and compare the two. That is, as long as I can get myself out of bed so early on a weekend to walk that far! And sorry to disappoint all my marimba friends, but no Siyakudumisa hymn this week. I'll keep looking!

Rising Hope

2007-08-25T15:30:00.000+02:00

The one-month anniversary of my departure was on Thursday, and it was certainly one of my lowest points so far. At that point, every marimba prospect that I had in the works was either stalled or defunct... Oscar Mpetha Secondary School no longer has a band, another band was in Germany, and my interactions with amaAmbush were two-weeks stale. In fact, I was pretty much convinced that the only thing I was learning about on my Watson was how to fail. But I think that this was perhaps one day too early for me to be despairing--or maybe the despair is itself and integral part of the Watson experience--because beginning early Friday morning things began to come together at a surprising rate.

Oscar Mpetha's marimba coordinator agreed to meet with me on Monday about starting up a new set of learners on the instruments (although the instruments themselves may need some repairing), and I am hoping for that connection to be relatively quick to start up as well as being reliable. Second, my housemate Akibu from Nigeria invited me along to an event he was helping with on Saturday (today) involving at least some Nigerian drumming and dancing. And third, I heard back from amaAmbush about plans for next week. So, all-in-all, I feel like the victim of some terrible coincidences timing-wise, but I'm very happy that there seem to be prospects again.

Isn't it funny how life works in waves and cycles? I feel like I've been bouncing back and forth between excitement and disappointment constantly since I've been here. As a consequence, though, I am feeling less naive than at the outset. But I suppose that is the recent disappointment talking :).

I attended the drumming/dancing event with my housemate Akibu this morning as planned, but it turned out to be somewhat different than I had expected. Akibu speaks English with a strong accent (to my ears... but mine's probably equally difficult for him!) so I hadn't really inquired about all the details of the event. It was a group of South African high school students that are in the process of creating a musical production centered around societal issues of inequality and abuse in township life. The students are a culturally diverse subset of a larger, city-sponsored student organization studying these issues and trying to help the students rise above this destructive sort of culture.

Anyhow, the group is in the early stages of creating this musical, and in the brainstorming process they are doing vocal exercises, drama workshops, and lots of musical activities that focus on group bonding and skill development. During part of the session, Akibu led a few of the students in drumming and then taught simple Nigerian dancing to the rest of us. Although I felt silly doing it, I joined in and had a good time. I can attend again next week if I choose to, and I think I will do it if my schedule permits. Even though it is not marimba, I am interested in how this group is using music and the arts to focus their energies in a positive manner. Their lessons were quite fun today, but sorry, no pictures! Maybe next week :).

What else is in the news? Well, Akibu also cooked the house some Nigerian dishes for supper last night--which was definitely the first time I had tried any! He made a mashed bean dish that was tasty, though difficult to make out the ingredients, and that was eaten with fried bananas and boiled potatoes. I suppose it doesn't actually sound all that exotic the way I am describing it here, but I was pleasantly surprised at the flavors.

So life here promises to be a bit more active than it has been, and I am certainly going to begin pursuing other options if my current set prove to be less exciting than I had hoped. I have just learned that Blogger has added video uploads to their blog options, but I didn't bring my cable with me to upload anything, so that will have to wait for later. In the meantime, since I feel bad leaving you all without any pictures at all, here's a photo of Observatory, the suburb I am living in :).

Hermanus

2007-08-21T16:49:00.000+02:00

This weekend a number of my housemates and I went to Hermanus-the touristy whale-watching capital of the world. Or at least, of South Africa. The point of the trip was to watch for the Southern right whale, which famously feeds of kelp and calves in the bay just off the coast of this small town. And when I say "just off the coast" I really mean it! We had whales swimming within 50 yards of the shore, even though they weren't very active for most of the day.

Actually, we took the "scenic route" on the way, in both the literal and figurative senses of the phrase. It took over twice as long to get there (our navigator misread the map) but we drove on a beautiful, twisty road that hugged the coastline.

This is a picture of my housemates about halfway there when we stopped to admire the view (and, maybe, catch a view of whales!). It was amazing, though, how complicated everything can get when you have a group of people who don't speak their mind. We had several incidents where life was much more complicated simply because nobody would speak up!

However, as soon as we arrived this was all rendered unimportant as the lilting melodies of a marimba band floated towards us across the parking area. And, lo and behold! A marimba band had set up in one of the grassy whale-watching areas. It was actually really great. I got to listed for a long time while watching for whales, and while just listening! It was really fun to watch the audience as well, because the tourists were quite taken with the music. In fact, the band was making quite a good haul what with tips and CD sales from in front of the band. But some people just don't have any manners! There were some tourists who would walk right up behind the performers in order to take a photo from over their heads or from right beside them, not even allowing any room for them to perform! Kinda ridiculous if you ask me. It didn't seem to bother the performers as much though, probably a function of the generous tips left by the same tourists.

The band, Ilitha Lelanga, played mostly original music. In fact, whenever I talk to anyone here, they all look at me a bit funny when I ask that. Their faces say, "of course we do... we're professionals!" and I always feel a bit silly asking. But they also co-opt songs from anywhere else they choose--"Take 5" is a good example. I got to talk with them a bit between sets, and they were very surprised to hear that I played marimba in the states! It was actually quite humorous to them to picture me playing, and especially playing in a group of seven instruments. They only play with three or four down here, but they sure do make a lot of noise for all that! To them, seven would be an unbearable racket. Actually, hearing what they do wtih three I am surprised that seven isn't unbearable! But the parts are different here, more filled out, so I think that probably compensates.

This group played with a bass drum and a tambourine, and even the occasional cowbell! It gave them a semi-caribbean flavor, which was reinforced by the music itself. The tempos were more laid back than usual and the phrases were quite long--the music "lilted" more than other music I've heard. I'm going to try and upload a video onto youtube but I will have to figure out how that works first! In the meantime, you can check out more of my photos at www.grinnellgallery.com, just enter "parkersa" to see my albums.

The whales were pretty amazing as well. They didn't do much for most of the day, and then suddenly at about 4:15 in the afternoon every whale in the bay began to breach (sp?). They jumped straight out of the water and fell back in sideways with a splash in that classic whale-like pattern. Now, my description may be misleading because I think there were only three or four whales in the bay at that moment, and they only jumped a couple of times each, but it was still very cool to see it! I think my photos are pretty terrible, this is the best one I got :).

In the marimba world of Cape Town I am still pestering amaAmbush to get back to me. I am supposed to be shadowing one of their teachers this week, but she hasn't gotten in touch with me. It's really unfortunate from my end because I can feel the opportunities slipping by with each day that I don't hear from her. I will persevere, though, and keep calling, emailing, texting the office (at polite intervals, of course) until I get some kind of response. I am a bit perplexed that this is taking so long, because they seemed so excited to get me involved at first! Anyhow, I will keep on chugging.

The school that SAEP was going to set me up with for marimba has actually lost its marimba band because all the students who knew how to play graduated last spring. So, now I am at a loss on that side of things, but there is the possibility of starting the band back up. In fact, I am going to look into that as soon as I can, because it would be really a fun way to get involved with marimba without stepping on anyone's toes.

That's all for now!

My Turn

2007-08-18T11:56:00.000+02:00

OK--so my week here in Cape Town wasn't nearly as depressing as my last post, and I feel obligated to update again so that everyone doesn't worry about my state of mind too much :) .

I spent yet another week as an intern at the SAEP office. The good thing was that I stayed busy for most of the week. The bad part was that my marimba work still has not gotten off the ground. I tagged along to a marimba performance by amaAmbush last Sunday, and took some good photos and audio recordings. It was actually a pretty fun event, despite the awkward venue!

The band was playing at the Roosevelt club in downtown CT, which was a sort of bar/restaurant that was attempting to start a tradition of Sunday afternoon braais (barbecues). However, the city basically shuts down on Sundays--no shops are open, no restaurants except the really fancy ones do any business because nobody is walking around in town on a Sunday. This particular club decided that they would attempt to capitalize on this fact by finding a niche as the Sunday afternoon hang-out. And as a draw? Live music and questionable food.

Initially, they set us up in a small outdoor tented area just outside their main bar area. This was incredibly tight, with the players on one side practically dipping their elbows in the buffet dishes and the players on the other side creating a danger zone in the couch seating.

The performers at the middle-left are Ross and his little sister. Ross is the director of amaAmbush (the whole organization, not just the band). On the far left and second-to-right are two township high school students (one is in Grade 12, the other I'm not sure, but may have already graduated high school) and the guy on the far right is a marimba-admirer-turned-player from one of the townships. These performing groups are made up of "whoever's free" from amaAmbush--they don't have to rehearse or anything! Pretty impressive if you ask me, and I enjoyed meeting and talking with these guys.

So once the space crunch was recognized we were quickly moved out to the sidewalk outside the club (see below). The irony here is that the club actually hired a music group that it could not fit into its building, for a non-existent audience.

Aside from the odd setup, the second irony was that the club asked for the band to be there around 3:00 pm and the band was to play 2 half-hour sets. However, since very few customers had made it to the club by then, the manager asked the band to just sit around until they had an audience. Turns out they had to sit around for over an hour! And then only one set was played, and the club continued to blast its pop music inside the bar throughout the performance. Quite odd, all around.

The music they played was really interesting, though! Many of the songs are traditional Xhosa melodies that have been adapted to marimbas, while others are popular tunes like "Take Five" and "In the Jungle" that even Americans would recognize. Because the band was only made up of three marimba players, each part is much more "full" than the parts we generally play in the States. Instead, the two instruments have to compensate by playing parts with many more notes. The tenor almost always plays some sort of quick-rhythmed chord part, often made up exclusively of drag triplets (in the style of Babamudiki for those of you who know it). The soprano gets to play whatever strikes his/her fancy, but it is almost never a rolling part and almost always has split-handed character to it (right hand high, left hand stays low, complex melodies result!). There aren't as many interesting rhythmic patterns that come out in the soprano and tenor instruments, but the resulting music is incredibly powerful because of the quick chordal nature and considerable volume of the soprano and tenor. The bass parts though--they are way cooler than ours! I apologize for inventing my own marimba terms to describe the music, but I don't have a way to post a recording just yet. All the recordings I took this weekend are high-quality sound files so they are too big to upload. I'll try to make some simpler recordings soon for public consumption!

I haven't had any marimba since last weekend though, and I am unhappy about that. I'm learning that in Cape Town you just have to be assertive or you won't get anything done. So today I am supposed to start being assertive :).

If you want to see more photos of the gig, there is an album posted at my Grinnell Gallery account. You can it them at http://www.grinnellgallery.com/viewAlbum.do?aid=4c8d8b5a130b973501146f5bd54876a4 . I have to warn you that all the photos are fairly similar, though!

A Moment of Introspection

2007-08-16T17:29:00.000+02:00

For anyone who is expecting this post to be a tale of adventure and frantic activity--stop right now! As the title suggests, I am in a contemplative mood and this post will be a simple meandering through my thoughts and impressions.

I was struck today by the similarities between the day to day life of Cape Town to that of the US, and even to that of Australia. Cape Town is the famed tourist destination in South Africa, a tribute to the "developing" part of the third world because it seems to be on par with the Western world. But there is a different feel to the air here, a subtle flavor of fear mixed with defiance, an abstract pride in the qualities that the first world would classify as faults. When someone is late to a meeting they laugh and call it "Africa time." If you are mugged walking home from work your family and friends just shrug it off as "carelessness" on your part. The newspapers lament almost daily about the crime and poverty that define the South African nationality, but nobody sees change happening. The reality is that there are many Cape Towns. There is the Cape Town that parties on Long St. and basks in the sun at Camp's Bay, returning to their clean house every evening to lock the rest of the world out with the front gate, the gate outside the front door, and bars over every window. There is another Cape Town, where aware individuals look around them in the suburbs and realize the shortcomings of their way of life--the crime that keeps them captive in their home, the self-sufficient attitude that ignores the struggle of the people all around them--yet they do nothing. There is yet another Cape Town, in which the people view their surroundings with open eyes, attempt to change what they cannot abide, and still fail to make a significant difference. And then there is the Cape Town of the townships.

The townships are real, they are more real than anything. All the photos you see are real, true to life images of the daily suffering of most black South Africans. But the people in the townships, they are not the stereotypical images of poverty and suffering that we of the first world lament when we care to think about it. They are wonderful people. Many of them have jobs, decent clothing, enough to eat, and live a relatively normal life. With the exception, of course, that they are living in shacks built from wood, metal sheets, and whatever else they can find. Now, almost 14 years since the end of apartheid, there are a smattering of high school graduates from the townships attempting to break into the educated workforce and into the tertiary education system. If they make it, these individuals will begin to erode the racial segregation unofficialy enforced by the country's demographics.

On Monday afternoon I tutored English to a class of 11th Grade learners at Sthimbele Matiso High School in the Nyanga township. These students were staying after school of their own volition because they wanted to learn to speak, read, and write the language of the educated South Africa. But not all of them did. There are two Cape Towns in the townships as well: the Cape Town that recognizes the new opportunities available in the post-apartheid world, and the Cape Town that accepts its role in a racially and economically segregated society. This last version of Cape Town is the one that gets to me. I have met so many motivated students that realize what opportunities are there for them and grab hold, hanging onto any small piece of knowledge and skill they can find, that it is somewhat depressing to see the rest of the young learners fall into their role as the lowest societal class. Opportunity passes them by because they are content to live out their lives on the bottom rung of their community. The learners in the English class that I taught were a mix of both worlds, and it was almost enough to overwhelm me to see the two attitudes in the same classroom.

It made me think of our own school system in the States, where students only go to school because they "have to" and cheer for every day that they can steal as a holiday or vacation. But really, many of the learners here lament the days they were forced to remain at home because of a massive teacher strike. They lust after the kind of education that our students take for granted and even resent. I don't think I will ever resent my education or my teachers, who were trying so hard to help us get ahead in the world. Really, there is no benefit to them except to have benefited us.

This post has become much more glum than I had intended, and I think that there are lessons here but I am dwelling on them too much. The wonderful things that I have seen are the balance to the others--the students ready to spare nothing to learn whatever they can, the marimba players that are earning money as well as having fun in constructive ways, the introspection of the communities (despite inaction). But my final conclusion is that this world, this array of Cape Towns, is not so different from the array of lives in my hometown of Portland, and it is not so different from what I witnessed in Australia. People struggle to get by, and it is just a different part of the population that ends up on the bottom in each area. Things are so black and white here, but at the same time they are a wonderful rainbow of possibilities. Where will South Africa take itself in the next decade?

Activity, at last!

2007-08-11T11:51:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been an interesting week and a half since my previous update!

I have, first off, been to many exciting places and seen some really cool things. Last weekend I spent a day traveling the coast south of Cape Town with my housemates, and we had a great day at Boulders Beach and the Cape of Good Hope. Boulders Beach was really fun because it is the home of an African penguin colony, and the cute little buggers toddled in and out of spaces between boulders and the water... adorable!

After spending an hour or so with the cutest penguins at Boulders Beach, we moved on to the Cape of Good Hope for a couple of nice hikes. This is, of course, the most southerly point in Africa and it was fun to stare off across the ocean in the direction of the south pole. There is just something a bit magical about being at the end of the world, with nothing between you and Antarctica. Now, this is actually the second time I've been able to say that, because I had the same experience in Australia on Kangaroo Island. However, the moment did not lose any of power for me. I think I will now have to put Argentina on my list of future travel destinations (not on the Watson, but some other time) just so that I can say I've been to all the most southerly points in the world. And Antarctica, of course, but that's a tough one to swing. I'll have to become a brilliant environmental scientist to get a trip there, I think.

Last week also turned out to be quite busy work-wise. Not that SAEP actually found much for me to do. I really ended up being most useful as a handy-man type figure, hanging paintings and cleaning up the offices to impress our "important visitors." Thursday and Friday were actually holidays for the schools as well, so no work for me then!

My HUGE breakthrough came completely by mistake. I was looking up a marimba band that I had a lead on here in Cape Town when I stumbled across another that was described as "one of the best marimba bands in South Africa"! So, of course, I had to follow up on it. Turns out that this group, amaAmbush Marimbas, is exactly what I have been hoping to find here in Cape Town. They are a group that performs regularly but mostly they build marimbas and teach in various schools around Cape Town. What's more, I contacted them and got an immediate reply. I am so excited! I got to meet everyone there and play a bit on their marimbas, which was fabulous. They don't have the range of the ones we play in the states and the bands are comprised of fewer instruments (at least, the amaAmbush bands are) but it is real marimba with completely new music, and they are totally excited to get me involved.

So, life actually seems quite perfect at the moment, except for the nasty cold that I am suffering from! But I think everyone gets this cold... at least, all my housemates assure me that they got it a few weeks after arrival as well. But sniffles aside, I hope that my next few weeks will be much more marimba-active than the past few! I just got an invitation to come along to a gig tomorrow where the amaAmbush performing band is playing, so that ought to be a lot of fun too.

And how could I forget to mention my near-death experience? Thursday was a day off from work, so a few of my housemates and I decided to go hiking on Table Mountain (picture to the right, the tallest peak). That seems great, right? Except that our guide (one of my Dutch housemates) didn't do an adequate job of preparing us for this trip. It wasn't actually a hike at all, at least half of it would be better described as a climb. We had absolutely no safety gear and had to scramble up rock faces and sheer cliffs, sometimes with the help of a chain that had been hung to assist on the really impossible parts. My fear of heights nonwithstanding, this was definitely the most deliberately reckless thing I have ever done, and potentially the most dangerous. I can't believe that this was an official route up the mountain, and I have no idea why my housemate thought we would be able to do this just for fun (the photo on the left is of my climbing buddies, but this wasn't even one of the dangerous bits)! Luckily, just as we were coming to the last really difficult part of the climb we were overtaken by two very experienced climbers who had been on the route many times before. This was especially lucky, because even though we were almost at the top a cloud had just swept over the mountain at our elevation and the last chain was becoming slick from the moisture in the air. I have never in my life been so terrified, and I think I will never do anything like that again without safety ropes and an experienced guide. Actually, I think that next time I will take the cable car to the top of the mountain!

But that's about everything I've been up to so far! More of my photos can be found on GrinnellGallery (which you do not have to be associated with Grinnell to view) at http://www.grinnellgallery.com/viewAlbums.do?uid=4c8d8b5a126bfb160112b6e8ea8a1a17 (or just go to http://www.grinnellgallery.com/ and type "parkersa" into the "read" box on the left side).

"Normal" life

2007-08-01T11:25:00.000+02:00

Well hello again,

I have started work (this is my third day with SAEP) and I am slightly disappointed to report that so far I haven't gotten out of the office! I was promised a trip into the schools this afternoon, but I haven't heard much today so that might be a wash. The office is boring, unfortunately, because there really isn't much for me to be working on here. Actually, everyone else seems quite busy, but they haven't gotten used to me yet, and so I personally don't have too much to do. A blessing? No... I love sitting around at home, but sitting around in an office when you don't even have any personal space is just boring. My coworkers are really nice, though, and I have high hopes that they will become good friends.

I also moved into my "permanent" lodging yesterday. I am staying in a shared house for medium-term residents. It's pretty inexpensive, and so far my housemates have been really wonderful. I haven't had much of a chance to move in and get settled yet, but I hope that I will get to do that more tonight.

I still haven't uploaded any photos, and I apologize for that! I have only taken a few (it's not particularly smart to carry a camera openly around here... makes you a pretty nice target for theft) but I promise to get them up soon. My landlady has a computer that we're allowed to use at her office, so I will try to do that after I get settled.

Other than that, I am just living life in the "same old" routine. Except that I haven't been here long enough to have one! I really hope that things get a little more active around here soon. If they don't, I might consider moving on earlier than I had planned.

Getting started

2007-07-28T15:15:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone!

It is cold and raining here, just like Portland in the winter except that none of the buildings here have any heat in them! That makes me want to stay in bed a really long time in the morning, even though I should get up and do things :). My backpacker is REALLY noisy on weekend nights, too! The partying seriously goes on until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. But I hope I'll be out of there and into other lodging soon. Now that I'm up and out I think I will browse a used bookstore because I am almost done with the books I brought with me. And somehow, nothing feels better than curling up with a cup of hot tea and a book when it is gross and rainy out (not to mention unsafe after dark).

For anyone who is interested, I now have a cell phone and you can email me to get the number. There is a way to do free international calling, but I left that info at home so I'll have to email it to all of you another day. But incoming calls should be free on my phone, so as long as you can calculate the time difference (9 hrs ahead) I would love to talk to you!

I am at loose ends today, but I found a really nice coffee shop/cafe where I sat and had some coffee and some butternut squash soup. It was tasty! My stomach is bothering me a bit, but I think that's just because I am still nervous about a lot of things. It's interesting to feel that way, because I can't remember ever having a physical reaction to nervousness that lasted longer than a few hours. I think I will feel a lot better once I have a long-term place to live. I am seriously considering the shared-houses that one of the other SAEP volunteers recommended. It sounds like you have to start out in a backpacker-style lodge with dorm rooms and shared facilities, but that you can move to a nicer lodge (owned by the same people) after a little while. The nicer lodges have much more space, private rooms, and bathrooms (most of which have showers) in the rooms. I might try to live there for a few weeks and if I don't enjoy it I will try to find another place. It sounds nice because it will be easy to meet students and travelers, which might be harder if I were to take a room in someone's home (I had a recommendation for a nice lady who has two rooms to let). We'll see! It seems like everyone at SAEP has friends outside of work that they spend a lot of time with, so I want to make sure I can also meet other people.

There is a lot of ATM fraud here... which makes sense, but still feels strange after living in Iowa for four years :). Everyone warns you not to use an ATM that is outdoors, or one without a guard near it. Yes, they actually have security guards at their ATMs! Apparently it's the most common form of theft and it happens most to tourists who aren't careful. The thieves somehow get the machine to jam with your card in it, and most people don't realize until after you have entered your PIN. At which point you go inside to notify the bank, and the thief robs your account and takes your card. So far, none of this has happened to me... the backpacker has been very nice about suggesting ATMs to use, they must have a lot of experience with stupid tourists :).

There are also these funny taxis here called "minibus taxis" that are essentially minivans, and they run through the city with an operator who calls and whistles out the side window. They'll stop anywhere and pick you up if you wave, or let you off anywhere you ask. They are more common than actual buses or commuter trains. It's a funny system, but really cheap. There are some routes that are unsafe to take the minibus on because the drivers are a bit crazy, but the one running from Observatory (where the shared houses are) and Rondebosch (where the SAEP office is) is a safer one because you don't have to go on the freeway. Anyhow, I got to ride one yesterday and it was an interesting experience!

Anyhow, that's all the news from here! Hope to hear from all of you soon!

I've Arrived!

2007-07-27T14:58:00.001+02:00

I arrived in Cape Town yesterday afternoon and I feel like I'm just barely getting my feet under me! It is rainy here and cold-ish... nothing like Iowa but still pretty chilly. I'm staying at a hostel in the city bowl, which is basically tourist central. I'll be contacting the South African Education Project this afternoon, they're helping me get set up with my first group. Actually, I should have done that already, but I'm a bit shy when it comes to calling people. I guess that will have to change!

Anyhow, I was feeling very confident until I started talking to some of the other travelers at my hostel yesterday. Everyone seems to think that it is just SO dangerous here, which makes me nervous about doing the simplest things. But despite my personal apprehensions, I had to venture out today to get food...I'd been mostly eating airport food until now, so I had to be daring and go for a walk in broad daylight :). Seriously, though, I didn't expect to feel nearly this nervous just being here.

Another surprise--hostels don't heat their rooms! So it's a good thing that I brought a sleeping bag. At least this hostel has hot water... the one I stayed at in Joburg was seriously lacking in that department. I'm not sure what's going to happen for me in terms of housing, I guess I'll find out after I call Norton this afternoon. If nothing else, I can always stay at the hostel for a few nights longer than I'd planned.

Anyhow, over and out! I hope that all of you are enjoying summer back in the Northern hemisphere!

Four Days and Counting!

2007-07-20T18:45:00.000+02:00

Hello again!

This time I am coming to you from my home in Portland, OR... a mere 4 days before I depart on my trip! I am stocked with fancy travel gadgets and wondering how I will ever fit my gear into my bags. I'm really hoping to get by with just my large backpack to start with, since I know I'll acquire more throughout the year.

Finally, there has been a victory on the visa front! After many MANY trials and tribulations I received my year-long visa to South Africa via FedEx yesterday (5 days before departure). Now, it's not that I didn't get all the ridiculous amounts of paperwork in to the consulate in time, actually, I did. But deadlines are flexible there, it seems, and allowing four weeks for a visa that is supposed to process in five days was just barely enough. In fact, I got a call on Tuesday (7 days before departure, three weeks after the consulate received the application) notifying me that a Portland police department clearance was not sufficient, although this was never mentioned in the application packet, and I had to run out to get fingerprinted so that I could apply for an FBI clearance. Personally, I wonder how many people make this mistake, since the requirement simply asks for a "police clearance"! Surely they could save some time at the consulate by being more specific? But anyhow, I got the visa and I can go :).

I have four flights to get me to my first destination--Cape Town, South Africa. A couple full days of travel... Portland-->New York-->Dubai-->Johannesburg-->Cape Town... on three different airlines, and a strong hope that my baggage makes it there with me :). I'm starting out in Cape Town with the South African Education Project, which can connect me with a township high school that has had a marimba program for several years. It also turns out that the SAEP needs someone with knowledge of basic laboratory chemistry to help them start up a science unit, so I'll be useful on more than one front. There are also rumors of a music camp in Gabarone that I might dash over to in August, but I can't seem to find out when, what, or where this festival is, so it's still just a rumor.

So, with that I am over and out. I hope to have some pictures and another update for you in about a week!

Preparations Underway

2007-06-03T06:14:00.000+02:00

As the title suggests, I am busy preparing for my departure. While the timeline still says early July, I figured that five vaccinations in one week deserved an update, even if only to assuage my poor, over-taxed immune system. I am looking for some advice on a number of topics, so if you have any ideas please let me know!

First--I am, as usual, looking for any information regarding marimba in southern Africa, whether involved with education or not. This includes contacts of any sort that might be able to point me in the right direction.

Second--I am shopping for a portable recording device with a lot of storage. Any ideas? I will most likely be able to download this information onto a computer once or twice during the year, but I can't count on it regularly. I would prefer decent sound quality, but I'm willing to buy a microphone to augment the device.

Third--Any advice on good brands for travel equipment such as backpacks? I'm hoping to keep my cargo down to one piece of luggage but I want to make sure I get something reliable.

Thanks everyone... I'll keep updating as my preparations continue!

Welcome!

2007-04-30T06:06:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone!

This is where I will be posting updates about my travels during my Watson year! I hope that you enjoy hearing about them, and I promise to try and update reasonably often.

As of now, I have been awarded a Watson Fellowship to travel to southern Africa (specifically Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa) studying the use of the African Marimba in education. I'm working on planning my trip and acquiring contacts in the region, and I plan to leave sometime this summer, probably early in July. If you have any ideas for me, I would love to hear from you!

Sarah