I've reverted to the standard British diet (baked beans on toast, potatoes and cheddar, plates of chips) as a means to sustain myself while traveling. If it wasn't for Marita's cooking, my distractions here would be enough to keep me from eating well. I dream partially of hot summer days where I can grow a garden and sink my feet in to cool dirt, living off the earth as I would like to; and partially of the cold, solitary winter nights I left in Connecticut, uprooted by sudden friendships & greater causes. In order to pursue the activist projects that I am ready to take on, I need to radically transform my day to day living, beginning first with fulfilling those inner dreams of simple peace. Or perhaps beginning with a plan and ending on a quiet summer night in my now-imaginary (hopefully in reality) garden.
Today we visited the Mamela Music Project in Manenberg, a township outside of Cape Town with a reputation of being one of the most violent. The Mamela Project is designed to give students in the primary school and high school in Manenberg access to musical education and instruments during their school hours. I knew very little of the project when I arrived and I left prepared to raise money to help them "get guitars".
One could walk in to Manenberg primary school and not pay much attention to the children, look at the sparsely furnished rooms and dusty blackboards littered with music theory and think, at least these students have more musical education than other schools. But walking in, exchanging smiles with a six year old and looking into the eyes of the eight year old who is laughing while telling you her name, and then seeing six children take turns with three guitars, while hearing from the instructor that there are thirty-five students sharing three guitars, and you can't just walk away without doing the math. A learner guitar costs 350-400 rand, around $52. I probably have fifty-two friends that would spend that on a night out, let alone five musician friends who would spend hundreds more than that on a new guitar. It wouldn't take much to buy those guitars, but for these students and the teacher/musicians that run the program, it is very very difficult.
Of course, there are millions of children who would benefit from music programs all over the world. Why begin here?
At Manenberg high school I sat down next to a girl who asked me my name and where I was from. She asked me more questions than I asked her, smiling the whole time. I could tell she was excited to talk to me & to share her music class. Two other girls stood and sang for us with absolutely stunning voices, without accompaniment. They were so proud of what they were learning and so excited to share it. I thought: here is a project that is working. This is a project that needs more. It is just one. But one is a beginning.
In the classroom I tore my skirt on one of their broken desks when I stood up. I reached down to the metal leg to feel a sharp, bare screw. The desks were ancient wooden things with dense scratches and years of student graffiti projects. This was a skirt that was shipped by a friend from Norway just a few months before. But somehow the tear was laughable in comparison to the students who were singing their scales at the front of the room. I grinned at them and started planning how I could get them more guitars.
Check out the seven-minute video about the Mamela Music Project that Marita uploaded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8nzG4Gthj4
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