Merry Christmas?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!