Pious Adventures

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


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

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

Rising Hope

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hermanus

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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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

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

That's all for now!

My Turn

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

A Moment of Introspection

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

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

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

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

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

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

Activity, at last!

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

"Normal" life

Well hello again,

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

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

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

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